Overview

Experience will shape your education from the very beginning. Our experiential learning opportunities provide a number of options to put legal theory and doctrine into action through simulation courses, legal clinics, and field placements.

From simulation courses that teach the lawyering skills you'll use as a practicing attorney and put them into practice using hypothetical cases in the classroom and our mock courtrooms. To immersion programs where you can spend a semester working in real-world live-client jobs to hone your skills. You will have opportunities to get practical experience before you graduate.

Legal Clinics

Legal clinics provide an opportunity to hone your craft, working directly to advise or represent real clients under the supervision of a faculty member. Participation in a clinic takes place in conjunction with other traditional academic courses.

Appellate Advocacy Clinic

You can represent low-income clients in both civil and criminal appeals, and in a variety of appellate courts, including the Fourth Circuit and the Seventh Circuit. You will handle an actual appeal from start to finish.

Environmental Law and Policy Clinic

You will work on non-litigation matters for local, state, national, and international clients who are unable to afford or access legal representation on matters relating to the environment or sustainability.

Innocence and Justice Clinic

You will have the opportunity to learn about the causes of wrongful convictions while being given the opportunity to apply this knowledge to the investigation of cases where evidence can prove a client's innocence.

Intellectual Property Law Clinic

You will bridge the gap between your doctrinal courses and real-world intellectual property law practice while assisting individual entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits with the clearance, protection, and management of copyright, trademark, and related intellectual property rights.

Introduction to Community Lawyering

Students will learn the method of 'community lawyering,' also known as 'movement lawyering,' which is a means of using advocacy and legal skills to support a community's specific campaign or social movement. This clinic also provides students with the opportunity to work with real community clients who are advocating around issues that include, but are not limited to, fair housing, affordable housing, food equity, historic preservation, and equitable development. Students will learn how to impute a 'justice' lens to the practical aspect of learning how to be a lawyer, and how social change occurs at the grassroots level. Students will also learn how to view legal problems from a community’s perspective.

Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic

You will attain fundamental lawyering skills through direct client representation and advocacy, collaborating with healthcare providers to identify legal issues that negatively contribute to the health of low-income patient-clients and develop a comprehensive, interprofessional strategy to overcome barriers to health justice.

Trade and Development Clinic

You will work with social enterprises and development organizations in the United States and Latin America related to business, corporate, transactional, and securities issues. You’ll also engage in a cross-cultural practice that explores the role of law and trade in fostering human development which requires lawyers to think globally wherever they may practice.

Veterans Legal Clinic

You'll provide critical assistance to low income former service members to correct injustices in their records. You'll collaborate with your peers and medical experts, develop interviewing and counseling skills, conduct extensive fact investigation, and draft legal arguments.