Clinics Forum

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cigrainger

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Clinics

Post by cigrainger » Sat Nov 21, 2009 9:39 am

Could you tell me about some of the clinical programs you've taken part in and what the benefits were (apart from the obvious, but the obvious is interesting too)? I'm interested in public interest law (possibly ADA or PD in a big city), and am curious to hear about the clinical programs at: NYU, Columbia, Harvard, Chicago, Berkeley, Michigan, Penn. I'm not trying to troll (insert 'subtle x trolling' here post), those are just the schools to which I'll probably apply.

Also, how did clinics compare to the rest of your workload and how did you sort it out regarding credits? Were you able to get involved with LR or a journal or moot court as well as a particular clinic? Anyone do a year-long clinic?

I can read about the clinics all I want on their websites, but hearing about them first hand is far more interesting.

yabbadabbado

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Re: Clinics

Post by yabbadabbado » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:24 pm

I'm in a clinic at a t14. If you are interested in becoming an ADA or DA, you should really think about doing a clinic where you represent people in court, not a policy or amicus brief type clinic. The reason is the work will be closer to what you'd actually do at those jobs post grad.

At my school, any clinic applicant was already on journal or moot court when they applied, so nothing was stopping them from doing the journal/moot court stuff before the clinic started. I don't know if any clinic students are in leadership roles on their journals, but I assume some are. Clinics are a lot of work (often as much as a full-time job) so they have to figure out a way to juggle things.

Credits in a clinics are pre-set. I'm not sure what you're asking here. Semester long clinics usually count for most of your credits that semester. Year long clinics are split in half over the year usually.

The main benefit to a clinic is that you get to get out of the classroom for awhile and into real legal practice. Sitting in class gets boring after awhile, so it's a welcome change. Another benefit is that certain types of employers (especially certain types of public interest employers) really like students who've done clinics, or practically require that you've done a clinic in order to take your application seriously.

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EarlCat

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Re: Clinics

Post by EarlCat » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:29 pm

I'm doing a federal appellate clinic at a T14. We're drafting a habeas corpus appeal, and my 3L classmates will argue it next semester. The clinic is the biggest chunk of my workload, and to this point I've pretty much ignored my journal work. :/

nycparalegal

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Re: Clinics

Post by nycparalegal » Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:52 pm

Here's a question that I have, and maybe someone can answer it: Can doing trial advocacy or clinics and externships, provide a law student the practical experience in law to practice as an attorney?

Or are the clinics and trial advocacy classes really just teaching you the broad basics?

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