Curriculum

Clinics & Externships

Clinics and externships offer second and third year students the opportunity to earn credit for experiential learning. Students work with lawyers in various legal settings, allowing the students to apply what they have learned in the classroom and to experience the satisfaction of functioning as a professional. Students are exposed to the practice of law and reflect on the interaction between practice and theory and on the role of the lawyer in our society.

In all clinics, students represent real clients with real legal issues. In externships, the students role varies with the placement. In some, students counsel real clients. In others, students assist attorneys for the government or for not-for-profit organizations as they carry out their particular responsibilities. In the judicial externship program, the student works in the chambers of a judge, observing proceedings and drafting documents for the judge. The experiences available are so varied that some students will decide to take more than one clinic or externship.

What is the difference between a clinic and an externship? At VLS, the term "clinic" is used only to refer to a class in which students actually represent clients under the direct supervision of a full time member of the VLS faculty. Each clinic includes classroom sessions, tutorial meetings with the faculty member, and work on assigned cases. The term "externship," on the other hand, refers to a practice placement outside the law school where the primary responsibility for supervision lies with an attorney in the host agency. Each externship must be sponsored by a full time member of the VLS faculty, and the student meets at least every other week with that faculty member.

For more information, please visit the Clinics & Externships section under Current Students.

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