Domestic Violence Law Clinic

Negar Katirai is a professor and the director of the Domestic Violence Law Clinic (DVLC). She joined the College of Law in 2014. She has ten years of experience providing holistic legal services to survivors of intimate partner violence, including at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and Break the Cycle.  She has taught at Colorado Law at the University of Colorado Boulder, and also practiced for four years at Steptoe & Johnson.  In addition to teaching clinical legal education, Professor Katirai also teaches family law and a seminar on legal approaches to children who have experienced intimate partner violence. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. 

Primary Goals

• Provide law students with a high-quality legal education.
• Empower survivors of intimate partner violence so they can pursue their own goals.
• Serve the community by providing free, high-quality legal services to survivors of intimate partner violence and their families who would otherwise lack access to counsel.

Legal Education Goals

• Provide students with ownership of their cases, meaning primary responsibility in making case-related decisions and implementation, under skilled supervision by a licensed and experienced attorney.
• Help students become familiar with the law, procedures, conflicts, customs, institutions, and ethical problems that makes representing IPV survivors distinctive.
• Provide students with an education in the practice of law that will provide tools and insights for being effective in any area of legal practice.
• Provide students with an opportunity to hone skills such as interviewing, case planning, legal research and writing, witness examination, and oral argument.
• Improve students' problem-solving skills by emphasizing a model of systematic decision-making based on
  • a client-centered approach to lawyering;
  • identification of all possible options and assessing relative advantages and risks of each;
  • appreciation of the effects of time pressures, interpersonal factors, and emotions on decision-making; and
  • self-reflection;
• Promote a trauma-informed approach to lawyering that can be applied to any client who has experienced trauma;
• Promote cross-cultural awareness, an appreciation of the way in which cultural differences may affect attorney/client interactions and case development, and an understanding of how to identify and help clients navigate language, cultural, racial and other barriers that come with accompany marginalization;
• Encourage responsible handling and thorough exploration of ethical issues;
• Encourage professional creativity;
• Help students improve their ability to successfully collaborate with colleagues; and
• Assist students in pursuing their personal goals for the course and future legal careers .

Legal Services Goals

• Provide individual attention to IPV survivors and their families.
• Provide legal representation to IPV survivors and their families wishing to obtain an order of protection against their abuser;
• Provide legal advice and counsel to IPV survivors and their families in other types of cases;
• Work in partnership with local attorneys and IPV survivor service organizations to identify individuals particularly in need of pro bono representation;
• Provide referrals to IPV survivors and their families in areas of the law outside the scope of the clinic’s mission and expertise;
• Require all students be supervised by at least one licensed attorney, closely supervising student work (e.g., requiring drafts of all written work and hearing preparation, including witness examinations and oral arguments);
• Limit the number of student participants in the clinic; and
• Limit the number of individual cases handled by each student (usually assigning two students to cover one case jointly).

Natalie Cafasso, J.D., Class of 2018

The experience of working with domestic violence survivors that needed support through the most difficult times of their lives was most valuable to me. I gave them a voice that they may never have had before. The best part was how relieved and happy the clients were after the hearings were over and seeing a positive result by giving the clients back some control of their lives.

• Students must have completed one year of law school and have taken or be taking concurrently Evidence and The Legal Profession/Ethics. Courses such as Family Law and Domestic Violence Law are helpful. 
• Students new to the clinic must take the clinic for 4 units of credit. Returning students can take the clinic for 2, 3, or 4 units of credit. 
• The law school requires 50 hours of work for each credit of a clinical course. 
• All students must participate in an all-day Boot Camp which usually takes place before or at the start of the semester. In addition, all students must attend the classroom component of the clinic, which meets for two hours once a week Tuesday 10-12 a.m.
• The classroom component is partly a skills seminar (covering topics such as interviewing, brief writing, and oral advocacy) and partly a substantive law seminar covering topics in domestic violence law. Issues students confront in their casework are integrated into the classroom discussions so that students may learn from each other’s experiences and explore legal and practical issues in context. 
• Students also must attend regular meetings relating to their clients.
• All students also prepare for and attend regularly scheduled individual and group case meetings with the clinic's director. The purpose is to develop and review action plans; ensure thorough preparation and evaluation of all options in casework; and examine ethical, moral, cultural, and legal issues that arise while working on behalf of our clients.
• In addition to attending class and completing the required number of hours per credit, students must complete all responsibilities they have undertaken on behalf of the clinic's clients and must complete all paperwork necessary to complete case files.

SAAF Anti-Violence Project                                           

Crisis: 800-553-9387

375 South Euclid Avenue                                                 

Phone: 624-0348

Tucson, Arizona 85719

saaf.org

Living Out Loud LGBTQI Health & Wellness Center      

Phone: 202-1832

(CODAC)

3130 E Broadway Blvd

Tucson, Arizona 85716

www.livingoutloudaz.org

The ANCHOR Project                                                      

Phone: 909-0754

The ANCHOR Project is a UA-SIROW project, in

partnership with SAAF and

Living Out Loud LGBTQI Health & Wellness Center

Eon Youth                                                                        

Phone: 547-6106  or 624-1779             

375 S Euclid                                                                                        

Tucson, AZ 85719                                                                                      

eonyouth@wingspan.org

jwray@saaf.org

www.facebook.com/eonyouth/

Tucson Police Department (TPD)

270 S. Stone Avenue        

Non-emergency: 520-791-6813 (8 a.m. to 10 p.m.)

Information Line: 520-791-4444

Special Victims Unit/Domestic Violence Unit               

Phone: 791-5159

Records                                                                               

Phone: 791-4461  

Photographs                                                                               

Phone: 791-4698

Pre-trial services                                                             

Phone:  351-8282

Pre-trial interview requests

Email:  TPDinterview@TucsonAZ.gov(link sends e-mail)

Public Record Review Unit                                                         

Phone: 837-7615

911 audio, interviews, body-cameras, dash-cams, recordings of transport to jail

Independent Police Auditor (TPD)

https://www.tucsonaz.gov/manager/independent-police-auditor-civilian-investigator

Pima County Sheriff’s Office (SO)                      

Phone: 351-4600

1750 E. Benson Highway

Fax: 351-4622

Tucson, AZ   85714

Pima County Sheriff’s Department                    

Phone:  351-6000

Civil Unit - Civil Service of Process                                 

Fax:  351-4333

32 N. Stone Ave., 16th Floor

Tucson, AZ   85701

Southern Arizona Legal Aid                                     

Phone: 623-9465

2343 E. Broadway Blvd., Ste. 102                                                             

Tucson, AZ   85719

(All civil matters)

sazlegalaid.org

Step Up To Justice

320 N. Commerce Park Loop, Suite 100

http://www.stepuptojustice.org/contact-us/

Pima County Bar Association                                               

Phone: 623-4625

Lawyer Referral Service

(including QUILT modest means program)

Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence                     

Phone: 800-782-6400

Legal Advocacy Hotline                                                          

Phoenix: 602-279-2900

Never Again Foundation (civil tort claims)                          

Phone: 602-761-2535

Pima Council on Aging                                                         

Phone: 790-7262

8467 E. Broadway                                                                  

Fax:  790-7577

Tucson, Arizona   85710-4009

(Civil)

Office of the Mexican Consulate                                          

Phone: 882-5596

3915 E Broadway Blvd.

Tucson, AZ   85711

Office of the Pima County Public Fiduciary                          

Phone: 724-5417

Peter Santini

32 N Stone Ave. 4^th Floor

Tucson, AZ 85701

(Probate and adult guardianship)

Tohono O’Odham Nation                                                     

Phone: 383-3905

Advocate Office

(Civil and criminal matters for members only)

Arizona State Bar Association        

Phone: 602-340-7280

(attorney complaints)   

Catholic Community Services (Immigration)           

Phone: 623-0344 ext. 7012

140 W. Speedway Ste. 130                                                                

Tucson, AZ 85705                                                       

(Family Based Petitions & Citizenship)

Arizona Center for Disability Law                                          

Phone: 327-9547

177 North Church Ave., Suite 800

Tucson, AZ 85701                                                       

(mental and physical health)