<div style="float: right; padding: 5px;"><img src="{staticroot}files/resources/2016clinicoath500px.jpg" alt="clinicswearingin" /></div>
<p>A dozen Delaware Law School students recently took the unique step of being sworn into the Delaware bar &ndash; as students &ndash; for the limited practice of law.</p>
<p>Delaware Rule 56 allows the students, working under the supervision of licensed attorneys in good standing, to work on court cases and appear in court on behalf of clients. Justice Randy J. Holland presided over the swearing-in ceremony on campus.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Today is a very important day in your professional careers,&rdquo; he told the students. &ldquo;This is what I&rsquo;ve characterized as a paradigm shift, because you need to start looking at yourselves in a different way.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The students took the oath as part of their spring semester work in the <a href="ipl://124//W10=">Delaware Civil Law Clinic</a>, the <a href="ipl://127//W10=">Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic</a>, and in <a href="ipl://129//W10=">externships</a> with the Delaware Department of Justice. The civil clinic represents domestic violence survivors living below the poverty level who are seeking civil protection orders, and the environmental clinic handles cases for environmental nonprofit groups with cases before the courts and government agencies. The students working in the Justice Department will handle criminal cases, largely in the Court of Common Pleas.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You are now part of the process, part of the administration of justice,&rdquo; Holland told them.</p>
<p>Dean <a href="ipl://20//WyIyMDQiXQ==">Rod Smolla</a> attended the ceremony and addressed the court, explaining he had the pleasure of getting to know several of the students from his teaching during the previous semester. He thanked Holland &ndash; a member of the school adjunct faculty and a distinguished jurist with a national reputation &ndash; for his support of the law school and public service programs like the clinics. Such programs provide valuable, hands-on skills training.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Although you&rsquo;re still law students, you are taking an enormous step into the profession,&rdquo; Smolla told them.</p>
<p>View the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/widenerlaw/albums/72157661637324354">full photo set from the ceremony on FLICKR</a>.</p>