Twenty-one Paul M. Hebert Law Center students will get the opportunity to serve the less-fortunate members of their community while gaining crucial legal experience after participating in the Law Center’s Clinical Program Induction ceremony Tuesday night.”I would never want you to take a case for the money, but instead because you feel you can meet the client’s needs,” Scott Gaspard, adjunct professor of Family Mediation Clinic, told students. “I hope you can gain that understanding from this experience.”The Clinical Program provides free legal aid to members of the community who cannot afford it.”The Clinical Program is beneficial in two respects,” said Robert Lancaster, director of the Clinical Program. “All clients that the clinic serves are people living in poverty. We do not accept clients with the economic means to hire a lawyer.”The Clinical Program follows the federal poverty line. For instance, the program can’t accept a family of four that makes over $815 per week.”Another aspect of the program that is favorable to students is that it gives students real experience,” Lancaster said. “This is the opportunity for them to transition from law student to student lawyer.” Students have the option of participating in Family Mediation, Juvenile Representation or Immigration Legal Services clinics.”After students learn the basic principles in their first two years of law school, they have the desire to want to practice and put what they have learned into action,” said Stephen Dixon, adjunct professor of law for Juvenile Justice Clinic.Twenty-six percent of children in Louisiana are living in poverty, according to Lancaster.”Realize that the work you will do has real consequence,” he told students at the ceremony.Georgetown Law school transfer student Stephanie Inks said she likes how she is allowed to take more than one clinical program opposed to, Georgetown where students are only allowed to take one.”Practical hands-on-experience is rare in law school,” Inks said.—-Contact Kristen Higdon at [email protected]