General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6242 / JDOC6242 |
| Course name: | Public Interest Clinic |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | First and Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
| Remarks: | Only offer to JD and LLM(HR) students |
1.2 Course description
The Public Interest Clinic is a clinical legal education course that combines supervised practical experience with academic learning. Working under the supervision of the course convenor and alongside legal practitioners, mental health professionals and partner organisations, students provide legal assistance to non-governmental and non-profit organisations and engage directly with clients from underserved communities. The Clinic’s work spans five areas — refugee rights and the Unified Screening Mechanism (USM); human trafficking and forced labour; disability and mental health; child protection; and sexual and domestic violence — together with other public interest matters as they arise. The precise nature of the work varies with the needs of the organisations and clients during the academic semester. More about the Clinic’s work, teaching and case studies is available at www.law.hku.hk/piclinic.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Patricia Ho | measorho@hku.hk | CCT 601B | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:
CLO 1 Apply legal principles to real client matters in underserved communities, under supervision.
CLO 2 Understand and respond to the needs of both the individual client and the partner organisation, recognising where those interests align and where they diverge.
CLO 3 Take instructions in difficult circumstances — where trauma, language, mistrust or vulnerability shape how a client gives and understands them — using trauma-informed methods.
CLO 4 Work alongside non-legal professionals, including mental health practitioners, and understand the boundaries of the lawyer’s role.
CLO 5 Draft legal documents and informative materials to a professional standard.
CLO 6 Apply confidentiality, anonymisation and safeguarding obligations when acting for vulnerable and high-needs clients.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Weekly seminar, team meetings & written weekly reports | 35% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| Ongoing clinic: work throughout the semester – fieldwork, research, writing & investigation | 35% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| Final work product | 30% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by the convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Students will be assessed on a pass/fail basis.
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Lecture: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study and/or project working time | 9-10 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by the convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/