Clinical Program
The S.J. Quinney College of Law offers a variety of clinical experiences. Each clinic relies on placing the student with a supervising attorney to work on live disputes or legislative issues. Each has a related classroom component to study the fundamental lawyering skills, to share observations from the clinical experience, and to generalize what could be learned from the particular experience.
In the Civil Clinic, students interview, counsel and solve problems for indigent clients of legal services offices. Criminal Clinic students are assigned to either prosecutor or defender offices to assist in felony cases and appear in court on misdemeanor cases. The Judicial Clinic permits students to act as clerks to judges -- researching issues, drafting opinions, and assisting in the resolution of pending cases. The Environmental Clinic allows students to be placed with environmental, natural resources or water lawyers in matters that sometimes involve intense local controversy. In the Health Law Clinic, students consider issues of access to and quality of medical care in various settings. Mediation Clinic students develop the skills of a mediator through observation of and involvement in actual mediations. The Death Penalty Clinic involves students in post-appellate habeas corpus petitions. The most recent addition, the Legislative Clinic, will allow students to draft legislation and be involved in the bill's enactment.
The benefits of participating in the Clinical Program may include learning basic lawyering skills, learning about legal institutions, learning about law in the context of practice, improving one's ability to learn from experience, gaining insight into one's strengths and preferences in a legal career, and providing valuable pro bono or public service to the community.
Most intern (part-time) clinic placements receive 2 or 3 credits (P/F) in one semester and require 7 or 10 hours of work each week. One credit requires approximately 45-50 hours of work. (In special circumstances, the Clinical Program Director may permit an intern to enroll for 4 or 5 credits in one semester.) A student may earn up to 14 credits toward graduation from clinical placement work. This credit limitation does not include graded credit received for participation in any accompanying academic course, (e.g. Skills Cornerstone, Judicial Process).
Students having completed prerequisites are accepted into all clinics (except Judicial) on an "open enrollment" basis with no selection among students, subject only to available space. Judicial students are selected by the supervising judges.
Occasionally a student will have a unique educational interest that is not addressed by the existing curriculum and for which a clinical placement would be useful. If the student has completed all relevant substantive and skills courses in the curriculum, the student may apply to engage in Directed Research (797A) with an Arranged Clinical Placement (696). Approval of such a program requires coordination between the work to be undertaken in an individually selected placement and the reading and writing to be done as directed research. Such a program is approved by both a faculty supervisor of the Directed Research and the Clinical Program Director, and should be explored early in the student's academic career.
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