Students will interview clients about their estates, help educate them about estate planning and alternatives to probate, and use a template to draft wills that reflect their clients’ preferences about what should happen to their estates upon death. Students also may draft deeds designed to transfer property outside of the costly probate process. If probate is necessary, a will allows the client to elect to have a more cost-effective independent administration, dictate who should receive their personal possessions or other assets, and plan for any adult incapacitated or minor children.
Organization
Mithoff Pro Bono Program
The Wills Clinic is an internal project of the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program. The Wills Clinic enables students to provide free legal services to persons who historically have had inequitable access to the probate process, and to help clients mitigate economic injustices created by the infrastructure of our civil justice system. The Mithoff Program is hosting the March 2 Wills Clinic in partnership with the Texas Aggie Law Society.
Project Details
- Project Date
Saturday, March 2
- Project Time
- 12:00pm-4pm
- Approximate hours of work requested
- 9 hours, including asynchronous self-study and training
- Training
- Asynchronous review of self-study materials on Canvas (3 hours, completed by Sunday, February 25) AND in-person training on Monday, February 26, 5:15pm-7:15pm (TNH 3.126; Zoom access available); the training session is mandatory for all volunteers who have not participated in a Wills Clinic during the 2023-24 academic year
- Skills used
- Client interviewing/counseling; document preparation; community education; attention to detail; cultural competence
- Project location
- Willie Mae Kirk Branch, Austin Public Library, 3101 Oak Springs Drive (carpools can be arranged if needed)
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 20
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- Required skills
- Students with Spanish fluency or fluency in another language are encouraged to apply but foreign language skills are not required; students with an interest in estate planning, probate, fiduciary litigation, guardianship law, and property law are strongly encouraged to apply
- To Apply
- Register at https://wills3-2-24.eventbrite.com