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- 13.1 Overview
- 13.2 Clinics
- 13.3 Externships
- 13.4 Pro Bono Program
- 13.5 Lawyering Skills Program
- Table of Contents
13.1 Overview
In the Law School’s experiential learning programs, students earn course credit for doing actual lawyering work, either for real clients or in simulated settings. The Law School offers several types of experiential learning for students, including a variety of clinical programs, numerous externship programs, and simulation courses like Lawyering Skills.
13.2 Clinics
The Law School’s clinical opportunities—where students interview, counsel, and represent actual clients—are among the most extensive in the country.
The Frank J. Remington Center (Remington Center) is the home of the University of Wisconsin Law School’s prison-based clinics and criminal justice externships. Clinical students in the Remington Center conduct investigations into decades-old wrongful convictions, represent juvenile lifers seeking a second look at their sentences, tackle systemic policy issues to address mass incarceration, facilitate victim-offender dialogues, help clients suffering from severe mental illness access the courts, and argue before the Seventh Circuit, among other opportunities. Remington Center clinics offer an unparalleled opportunity to gain critical lawyering skills and work closely with professors in an intensive semester or yearlong clinic experience.
The Economic Justice Institute (EJI) focuses on providing students with hands-on experiences in economic justice issues through individual client representation and community collaboration. EJI has an array of clinical programs where students represent clients in legal proceedings before local, state, and federal agencies and courts, on legal claims including civil rights, consumer, employment, family, housing, immigration, restraining orders, and more.
The Center for Patient Partnerships offers law students the opportunity to work with graduate students across multiple disciplines including (but not limited to) Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work, and Public Health. As part of the clinic experience, students help clients navigate the healthcare system. For example, students help clients with insurance appeals, evaluating treatment options, care coordination, addressing benefit options, and more.
The Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic provides legal services to entrepreneurs of all kinds, including high-growth startups, nonprofits and social benefit organizations, small businesses, and more. Under the supervision of experienced business attorneys, students provide legal services on a variety of issues including business formation, employment matters, intellectual property, contracts, and other legal issues confronting businesses.
In our clinics, students work with clients while closely supervised by clinical faculty members. Students learn practical skills, such as how to bill their time, and get guidance and feedback on their matters through regular meetings with their supervising attorney. The clinical work is accompanied by a classroom component focusing on attorney-client relations, as well as substantive and procedural law.
13.3 Externships
In externship programs, students receive course credit for working in off-campus legal settings such as a judge’s chambers, non-profit organization, a state agency, or a corporation's in-house legal department. To ensure the educational value of the externship, a classroom or a written guided reflection component accompanies the experience.
A student's eligibility to participate in any Law School externship program is contingent on the student's being in good standing, both academically and with respect to disciplinary matters. A student's placement in an externship program may be denied or revoked if the Law School determines that a student's conduct or academic performance makes that placement inappropriate for any reason.
13.4 The Pro Bono Program
The Pro Bono Program provides students with opportunities to deliver law-related services to underrepresented community members. Pro Bono Program staff assist students with placements in private and nonprofit law firms, legal aid groups, in-house programs and other organizations, where their pro bono work is performed under appropriate supervision. In keeping with the law school's law-in-action tradition, students develop legal and professional skills, gain practical, hands-on experience in real work environments and explore their ethical responsibility to provide pro bono service.
Students enrolled in the J.D. or S.J.D programs who complete a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono services, and students enrolled in the L.L.M. program who complete a minimum of 20 hours of pro bono services, will be inducted into the Pro Bono Society and graduate with pro bono distinction.
13.5 The Lawyering Skills Course
The Lawyering Skills Course differs from the other clinical programs at the Law School in that it employs the use of simulation exercises, many of which are taught by practicing lawyers, to provide students with the opportunity to integrate what they've learned throughout law school with the core skills needed for effective law practice. The course is open to both second- and third-year students, and emphasizes the skills that they will need in the early years of practice.
All clinical and skills programs at the Law School are governed by Rule 3.14 of the Law School Rules.
13.6 Frequently Asked Questions
Who can enroll in clinical programs, and when?
Clinical programs are available to students after their first year of law school. The clinics vary in their timing and duration. Some require only a one-semester commitment. Others require a fall-spring commitment. Still others are available as stand-alone summer programs. Finally, clinics may require a prerequisite course before students can enroll and students may enroll only after the clinical instructor has provided written permission to the registrar.
How do students enroll in clinical programs?
Students must apply and be accepted into the clinic. Students should review the Canvas page that contains important information on the application process and timeline. In addition, the clinics hold information sessions each fall semester, so students have a chance to meet the clinical faculty and learn more about each program.
Where do students work if they are enrolled in clinical programs?
That depends on the program. All of the Law School’s clinics are located in or near the Law School, and the students typically work from the clinic offices. Students may meet with clients virtually or travel to meet clients wherever they are located across Wisconsin.
Are students enrolled in clinics able to appear in court?
Student activities in law school clinical programs are governed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Under SCR 50, students who have earned at least 45 credits and are certified under the rule can appear in court on behalf of clients, as long as they are accompanied by a supervising attorney.
How many credits do students receive for their clinical work? Is it graded?
Law School Rule 3.14 requires a student to perform a minimum of 45 hours of work per semester per credit. The number of credits a student may take will vary by program. Clinical work is graded as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.
Do clinical course credits apply toward Law School graduation requirements?
Yes. All credits earned in clinics apply toward the 90 credits required for graduation. To graduate, students must have completed at least six experiential learning credits, such as a clinic, externship, or simulation course. Of those six experiential learning credits, a maximum of five clinical credits may be applied toward the 60-credit diploma privilege requirement.
Can students create their own Clinical Program?
Clinical courses are governed by Law School Rule 3.14. Students may not “construct their own” clinical program. However, students may request that the Law School approve a potential externship opportunity for academic credit.
