Value of clinics? Forum

[blsingindisguise]

How many pages of an article did you have to cite check in a week? Were you doing entire articles on your own or something?

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

So on top of taking the usual BAR and chill courses, should I look into taking any pre-req courses for clinics during 2L? I'm planning to do journal, maybe do part-time somewhere, and front-load my classes. I'm told that clinics at Hastings can be roughly 12 units, with the other 3-4 units fillable through that one class you take for the semester.

If so, 2L's going to be pure hell. I'll deal with it if it means I have to go to class only twice a week during 3L and improve my job prospects.

There aren't really any "pre-req" courses necessary to take for a clinic. Evidence is pretty helpful. However, I actually took Evidence in tandem with the Clinic and (1) wasn't disadvantaged at all, and (2) found it to be a great decision because it forced me to use and apply Evidence during the semester (thus forcing me to practice my Evidence the entire semester instead of a cram session at the end). Ended up working out great despite being nervous going in. I wouldn't want to do a Clinic without any formal Evidence training, though I wouldn't imagine that it absolutely couldn't be done.

[XxSpyKEx]

I'm a rising 2L and we have course registration coming up. Clinics are fairly difficult for 2L's to get into (3L's who haven't had a clinic yet get priority in the lottery.) Some 2L's have told me that, if you want a clinic as a 2L, you need to rank the first 5 or 6 lottery bids as clinics, and even then its no guarantee.

My question is 1) is it worth it to take a clinic as a 2L? and 2) Is it manageable to do a clinic and a journal? What about trying to do a clinic, journal, and an outside internship? Or would it be better to just try to get an outside internship rather than a clinic?

Depends on the grading system used in your clinic and the school you are at. If you're at a t14 and the clinic is graded on a pass/fail basis, then it's definitely manageable, and probably a better decision than taking another doctrinal class (I'm fairly certain that is literally impossible to fail a law school class at at a t14 -- some profs have even admitted to not bothering to read pass/fail exams at my school ). If it's a graded clinic, then it can be a lot of work, and I would NOT recommend doing a clinic, internship, and a journal. Even if you manage all of this, your experience in the clinic and internship will not be as good as it would be if you had just done one of the two.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I'm a rising 2L and we have course registration coming up. Clinics are fairly difficult for 2L's to get into (3L's who haven't had a clinic yet get priority in the lottery.) Some 2L's have told me that, if you want a clinic as a 2L, you need to rank the first 5 or 6 lottery bids as clinics, and even then its no guarantee.

My question is 1) is it worth it to take a clinic as a 2L? and 2) Is it manageable to do a clinic and a journal? What about trying to do a clinic, journal, and an outside internship? Or would it be better to just try to get an outside internship rather than a clinic?

Depends on the grading system used in your clinic and the school you are at. If you're at a t14 and the clinic is graded on a pass/fail basis, then it's definitely manageable, and probably a better decision than taking another doctrinal class (I'm fairly certain that is literally impossible to fail a law school class at at a t14 -- some profs have even admitted to not bothering to read pass/fail exams at my school ). If it's a graded clinic, then it can be a lot of work, and I would NOT recommend doing a clinic, internship, and a journal. Even if you manage all of this, your experience in the clinic and internship will not be as good as it would be if you had just done one of the two.

Agreed. I would do either a Clinic or an internship since they are virtually the same. Also, not all T14 Clinics are pass/fail. I actually really like the way my school does it, we get 4 credits pass/fail, 3 credits graded (for the class seminar portion). Though admittedly, this is the first year they made the change from all pass/fail.

[RW65]

Agreed. I would do either a Clinic or an internship since they are virtually the same. Also, not all T14 Clinics are pass/fail. I actually really like the way my school does it, we get 4 credits pass/fail, 3 credits graded (for the class seminar portion). Though admittedly, this is the first year they made the change from all pass/fail.

Clinics at my school are 4 graded credits, and most are only 1 semester long. Most clinics have a requirement of 15 hours/week.