FCC'S Educational Mission
FCC's educational mission is to expose students to the range of challenges facing unrepresented family law litigants, to train students in lawyering skills including legal research and analysis, drafting, negotiation, litigation, and mediation, and to engage students in critical inquiry into the role of the law and lawyers in redressing economic injustice and inequality. FCC students work under a clinical law professor's close supervision as they gain experience client interviewing, counseling, drafting legal documents, and advocating in court. Students develop a practical understanding of Wisconsin's family court process and critically evaluate the various responses of the justice system to the needs of unrepresented litigants.

What do FCC Students do?
Represent clients in selected cases that are referred to FCC from outside service providers.
Assist self-represented family law litigants by providing the information and forms litigants need to complete their case, and by helping litigants to understand court rules and procedures.
Observe and later participate in court hearings and mediations.
Develop written materials for guiding litigants through the family court process.
Work collaboratively with other FCC students and with students from other EJI clinics.
In addition to weekly hours spent assisting unrepresented litigants at the Dane County Courthouse and neighborhood sites and on casework for their individual clients, FCC students participate in a weekly seminar. The seminar includes materials on:

The substantive topics students will encounter in their work.
Skills development, including interviewing, negotiating, counseling, litigating, and writing.
Issues pertinent to substantive topics, such as ADR, use of interpreters in the courts, the role of a guardian ad litem, and abuse issues in family law disputes.
Issues related to pro se representation and innovative methods for providing legal services.
The weekly seminar also provides an opportunity for students to brief each other on their case work and to brainstorm new approaches to case related issues and projects.

Students interested in learning more about FCC should contact Jennifer Binkley at jbinkley@wisc.edu.