  A normal metallic film sandwiched between two insulators may have strong
spin-orbit coupling near the metal-insulator interfaces, even if spin-orbit
coupling is negligible in the bulk of the film. In this paper we study two
technologically important and deeply interconnected effects that arise from
interfacial spin-orbit coupling in metallic films. The first is the spin Hall
effect, whereby a charge current in the plane of the film is partially
converted into an orthogonal spin current in the same plane. The second is the
Edelstein effect, in which a charge current produces an in-plane, transverse
spin polarization. At variance with strictly two-dimensional Rashba systems, we
find that the spin Hall conductivity has a finite value even if spin-orbit
interaction with impurities is neglected and "vertex corrections" are properly
taken into account. Even more remarkably, such finite value becomes "universal"
in a certain configuration. This is a direct consequence of the spatial
dependence of spin-orbit coupling on the third dimension, perpendicular to the
film plane. The non-vanishing spin Hall conductivity has a profound influence
on the Edelstein effect, which we show to consist of two terms, the first with
the standard form valid in a strictly two-dimensional Rashba system, and a
second arising from the presence of the third dimension. Whereas the standard
term is proportional to the momentum relaxation time, the new one scales with
the spin relaxation time. Our results, although derived in a specific model,
should be valid rather generally, whenever a spatially dependent Rashba
spin-orbit coupling is present and the electron motion is not strictly
two-dimensional.
