A 23,000 square foot building at 1634 N Main Street, High Point, North Carolina that was formerly a carpet showroom, then the Convention and Visitor’s Center for the High Point Chamber of Commerce, and then the inaugural building of High Point University’s flagship dental practice and dental school, will soon be the home of the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law’s Clinical Programs.
The clinical programs will be active in the new building in September 2025, the fall semester for the first 2L class of the university’s new School of Law. The space reflects the mission and purpose of an immersive experiential learning environment. The law students will have space to interview their clients, maintain client files, conduct legal research, represent veteran’s across the nation in remote hearings, engage in collaborative discourse on appellate brief preparation, and host conferences with the most modern digital technology available. Building amenities include solid cherry raised panel walls, cherry millwork, crown chair rail, hardwood flooring and indirect lighting. The Clinical Programs will immerse the students in the practice of law with real clients while engaging in experiential learning.
The Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law provides substantial opportunities for students to engage in pro bono legal services and law-related public service activities. The law school’s curriculum includes three faculty-supervised clinics: the Bergmann & Moore Veterans Law Clinic, the Community Law Clinic, and the Appellate Advocacy Clinic, that will all be housed in the remodeled 23,000 square foot space. Through these clinics, students provide pro bono legal representation to individuals who cannot afford legal services, gaining practical experience while serving the public interest. Clinical Professor Ashley Castillo, Director of the Veterans Law Clinic, is a member of the National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium and an Accredited VA Representative with over a decade of experience at the VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals, where she served as both an attorney and an Acting Veterans Law Judge in Washington, DC. She brings extensive expertise to the clinic, where students will advocate for veterans and their survivors before the Department of Veterans Affairs, at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Throughout the fall, she will provide students with hands-on training in the classroom and practical experience representing veterans in their VA appeals, leveraging the newly outfitted building on Main Street to enhance their learning experience.
Beyond the clinical programs, the law school actively promotes pro bono engagement. In January 2025, many students engaged in community-based pro bono opportunities through their participation in law student led organizations. The law school remains committed to fostering a culture of public service by continually updating students of local pro-bono opportunities and supporting student-led initiatives that advance access to justice.
Also in January 2025, our 1L students participated in the Access to Justice Practicum—taught by Professor Jennifer Martin, a distinguished former state prosecutor. This one-week intensive course introduced students to one of the many solemn duties inherent to the practice of law, that is the ethical responsibility to engage in pro bono service. This is an effort to develop an early sense of the obligations the students will have as legal professionals. It will be a recurring focus on the need to be lawyer leaders throughout their professional formation classes taught by former Chief Justice Mark Martin and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Natt Gantt. The students will put their lessons into practice by assisting people of modest means through their representation of community members with the Community Law Clinic.
High Point Law’s Appellate Advocacy Clinic filed its first brief to the United States Supreme Court during the law school’s inaugural year! The Appellate Advocacy Clinic, one of the three clinics at HPU Law, exists to weigh in on some of the most pressing legal topics of the day. The Clinic does this by writing amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs, which offer the courts additional information and different perspectives on a particular case. It is not uncommon for a court to adopt arguments found in amicus briefs and sometimes even to cite to an amicus brief in an opinion.
The author of the Clinic’s first brief—and many more to come—is Professor Scott Gaylord, who is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Clinic. Professor Gaylord is an outstanding Constitutional Law scholar, who has written scores of amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court and federal circuit courts on prominent national cases involving religious liberty, free speech, due process, and equal protection. We expect continued excellence as the Clinics grow and develop as opportunities for the students to hone the skills as student lawyers that will serve them in the practice of law as future members of the Bar.