Rule 50 (Practical Training of Law Students) of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules allows law students to practice law in Wisconsin on a limited basis.
Eligibility
Law students must:
- Be regularly enrolled in an ABA approved law school in Wisconsin or be enrolled in an ABA approved law school in another state.
- Have completed legal studies amounting at least one-half of the requirements for a law degree.
- Have been certified by the law school Dean as having completed the legal study requirement above, as being qualified in ability, training, and character to participate in the activities permitted by the student practice rules, and approve the student’s participation under a named supervising attorney.
Practice
Law students may engage in certain activities under the direct and immediate supervision of a supervising attorney. The client must consent in writing to the student’s activities, and the supervising attorney must provide approval. The student’s activities must be part of a law school clinical program.
“Direct and immediate supervision” means (except as to matters tried under chapter 799 of the statutes) that the lawyer is present with the student at each time during the trial, hearing, or proceeding where the student engages in activities that would be normally be unauthorized but for the student practice rules. This practice does not include times when very routine actions take place. Routine actions include when the law student represents a defendant charged with a misdemeanor and the student’s practice is a request for continuance or a plea of not guilty on first appearance. Routine actions also do not include representing a defendant charged with a felony and the student’s practice involves an arraignment or a bail argument. In addition, the client and the judge or presiding officer must agree with the supervising attorney before the proceeding that the supervising attorney’s presence is unnecessary.
Law students may:
- Appear on behalf of the client in the name of the supervising attorney in any public trial or hearing or proceeding pertaining thereto in a court, tribunal, or before any public agency, referee, commissioner or hearing officer.
- Counsel with, and giving legal advice to, a client in the presence of the supervising attorney, except as otherwise provided in the student practice rules.
Law students may also engage in additional practice under the general supervision of a supervising attorney. This practice includes acts on behalf of the supervising attorney that are customarily performed in law offices before January 1, 1979. “General supervision” includes assuming professional responsibility for the law student’s work, assisting the law student to the extent required for proper practical training and protection of the client, and reading, approving, and personally signing any pleadings or other papers prepared by the student prior to submission. Any active member of the Wisconsin Bar may provide general supervision for these activities and he or she does not need to be approved by the law school Dean.
Law students cannot ask for nor receive any compensation or remuneration of any kind from the client. Lawyers, organizations with established legal departments, non-profit organizations rendering legal aid to indigents, and public agencies may pay the law student on a salaried or hourly basis.
Supervising Attorneys
Supervising attorneys must:
- Wisconsin Attorneys and Out-of-state Attorneys. Be active members of the state bar and approved by the law school Dean. A regular member of the faculty of a law school in Wisconsin may supervise students under the student practice rules if he or she is admitted to practice in another state and his or her application for admission to practice in Wisconsin is pending.
- Supervise no more than five students concurrently. A lawyer devoting more than 20 hours per week to the supervision and education of clinical students (as distinct from time devoted to providing service to his or her client or clients) may supervise up to 10 students who are devoting no more than 20 hours per week to the clinical program.
- Assume personal professional responsibility for any work undertaken by the student while under his or her supervision.
- Assist and counsel with the student and review the activities with the student to the extent required for the proper practical training of the student and the protection of the client.
- Read, approve, and personally sign any pleadings or other papers prepared by the student prior to their filing, and read and approve any documents that are prepared by the student for execution by any person or persons not a member or members of the state bar prior to their submission for execution.
- Notify the state bar in writing promptly if his or her supervision of the student ceases.
Before supervising any student, the supervising attorney must file with the state bar a signed notice that states the name of the student, the period during which he or she expects to supervise the student, and that the supervising attorney will adequately supervise the student in accordance with the student practice rules. Supervising attorneys must also file with the law school Dean, on at least a semiannual basis, a statement of the types of activities engaged in by the law student.
Application and Certification
The law school Dean certificate must be filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Wisconsin State Bar.
Termination
The law school Dean certificate remains in effect for 16 months or until the student has been admitted to practice in Wisconsin. The certificate must be withdrawn if the student ceases to be regularly enrolled as a student prior to his or her graduation.
The law school Dean may withdraw the certificate at any time without hearing and without any showing of cause. The Wisconsin Supreme Court may cancel the certificate at any time without notice of cause.