Domestic Violence Clinic 

Domestic Violence Brochure
Click here to download the PDF.

Students in the Domestic Violence clinic represent clients escaping violent relationships and seeking protective orders, divorces and custody of their children.  Students strategize with clients about their safety and work on a variety of legal issues important to clients’ economic independence.  The Clinic provides civil legal service but offers good training for future prosecutors.

Clinic students enroll in a companion class on Domestic Violence, also open to all upper class students.  The course covers a variety of legal systems through the end of domestic violence:  criminal justice, family law, civil injunctions, torts, evidence and international human rights.  Students learn a variety of practice skills, cross-examining and deposing a batterer, presenting expert testimony, negotiating settlements and counseling clients.

The Domestic Violence Clinic works with faculty across the University who study gender-based violence, from the Medical Public Health Schools to the Psychology and Sociology Departments.

A graduate social work school student does her clinical placement in the Clinic, providing crucial case management for clients, and helping to teach law students about mandatory reporting and privilege issue.

Representing the victims of domestic violence requires reform of the dysfunctional legal systems that fail them.  The Domestic Violence Clinic provides leadership within the region for systematic change, from strategic planning, monthly training sessions, technical assistance for cops, judges and prosecutors and testimony before the state legislature.

Associate Professor Tania Tetlow directs the Domestic Violence Clinic.  A former federal prosecutor, Professor Tetlow graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and has a BA from Tulane University.  She clerked for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced commercial litigation.  Professor Tetlow was recently named one of the city’s top ten women by New Orleans Magazine for her work in domestic violence and rebuilding the public library system.  Her scholarship focuses on constitutional law, criminal procedure and the rights of victims.

Externship 

Domestic Violence externs work at New Orleans Legal Assistance, assisting survivors seeking divorces and custody.  The extership is available to 2Ls and 3Ls and is directed by Clinic Professor Jane Johnson and Adjunct Professor Bernadette D’Souza.