About Student Legal Services Office

The Student Legal Services Office is committed to protecting the rights and interests of students by providing high-quality counseling, advice, research, education, representation, and referral services for all fee-paying students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, individually and collectively, concerning most legal matters.

SLSO assists students in responding to legal problems that may be adversely affecting their well-being or otherwise interfering with their academic studies or goals. We particularly strive to assist students in resolving problems for which it would be otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain legal services at affordable prices. In this way, we help the University to accomplish its goal of retention of students and enhancing the quality of students’ university experience.

We are dedicated to improving the university environment for all students by promoting fairness, equality, and the protection of students' individual rights and interests. We play an active role in addressing issues of diversity and multiculturalism on the campus by advising individual students and groups regarding civil rights law, and participating in training programs for students and staff.

In addition, the Student Legal Services Office Advisory Committee (SLSOAC) has established the following goals for SLSO:

• To act as legal counsel to the Student Government Association, the Graduate Student Senate, their agencies, and Registered Student Organizations.
• To provide day-to-day legal assistance to individual students, including advice, counseling, representation, and referral to qualified outside legal counsel when required.
• To engage in affirmative legal action and education on problems which are common to large numbers of students, to the end that “law reform” or other relief may be obtained on their behalf.
• To further develop the commitment of the Student Legal Services Office to educating the University community about the law through the Community Legal Education program. This includes a preventive-measure approach to alleviate some of the more egregious violations of students’ rights.