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Exactly how do law clinics work?

1. Are they structured like an ordinary course?
2. Are there lectures?
3. What is the professor's role in running a legal clinic (perhaps coordinating the pro bono work)?
4. How do you get into clinics?

Thanks a million:D

General Answer: I can only speak for where I'm a 1L, but at my school clinics are run out of a variety of "centers" that focus on different types of law (e.g., criminal appeals, inmate advocacy, econ justice, race studies, et al.). They provide you w/ a ton of hands-on experience working w/ actual clients, and work decidedly differently from a law school course.

(1) They require anywhere from 5-40 hrs/wk (depending on how many credits, and whether they're during the summer), there's no exam, and 90% of your contact is w/ clients, not profs.
(2) No lectures. You have an orientation period w/ the staff attys at the center you're working for. They supervise your work throughout the term.
(3) Profs serve an advisory role in some clinics, but in most you work w/ the staff attys that run the clinic.
(4) A decently rigorous app cycle that begins in 1L fall, and then recurs each term (i.e., clinics are available starting 1L summer through your 3L year).

Hope this helps.

How are clinics graded?

"Satisfactory." Haha or not, I guess, if you mail it in and don't do the assigned work.

Thank you, MrKappus.

I really like where we're going here; I think a lot of non-0L's could offer a lot of insight about this matter.

So when it comes to the "Centers" that are listed by schools in the ABA book on law schools: Are these actually "clinics"? Or are some of them simply academic centers whereas others are clinics?

What exactly does a clinical professor do then? Do they even deserve the title "professor"? I'm also curious about this, since I'm very interested in a law teaching career in the future.

*prime time bump*