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lt0826 wrote:I tried posting this over on the discuss your law school forum, but did not get much in the way of response except for others saying they have the same questions.

I know law review can be very competitive to get on with most schools doing some combination of grade on and write on. But little is said about clinics, at least where I've looked.

What is the process for getting into clinics at your school and how competitive is it to get into the clinic you want? Some clinics that stand out to me are the Guantanamo clinic at Duke, National Security Clinic at UT, and the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at Georgetown. Also appellate law and environmental law are of interest to me, so information about clinics in these areas would be of interest as well.

In general is it hard to get into your first choice clinics, can you participate in more than one clinic before you graduate and what is the process for deciding who gets into what clinics? What do you do in the clinic(s) you've taken part in?

If you can tell me what school you are attending and your experience with clinics it would be helpful. Anything specific about the clinics above would be super nice.

NYU2011 wrote:As a preface, I haven't taken a clinic yet but most people I know have and I'm planning to take 2 next year.

At NYU, some clinics (like Stevenson's Capitol Defender Clinic, where students travel to AL to defend inmates on death row) are competitive and difficult to get into. Others, not so much. I'd imagine the ones you listed are competitive but that's a complete guess.

Here when you apply, you can list in order of preference 3 year long clinics and 3 semester clinics. Preference goes to 3Ls who have never done a clinic, and a lot of clinics list in their descriptions that they prefer 3Ls so those spaces might go to 3Ls even if they have done clinics before. Most require a resume, transcript, and many require an interview. You can count 12 credits from clinics in your grad requirements.

chadwick218 wrote:NU actually has some great clinics that you can take for credit and are very easy to get involved during your 1L summer or 2L / 3L years.

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/

lt0826 wrote:

chadwick218 wrote:NU actually has some great clinics that you can take for credit and are very easy to get involved during your 1L summer or 2L / 3L years.

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/

Thanks. I have to say NU keeps looking better and better to me. I've applied to the JD/LLM Int'l Human Rights and am still waiting to see of I get in but NU and Vandy are two schools I didn't give that much thought to initially and the more I learn about them the better they seem to be.