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Participation Rules

The text below is excerpted from the Student Handbook. Please refer to the Handbook for the most up-to-date information.

Second- and third-year J.D. students are eligible to participate in clinical and experiential programs. Clinical and experiential programs are not available to first-year students. In the past, the various clinics managed enrollment via individual lotteries, waitlists, and similar processes. Beginning with the Autumn 2011 quarter, all available seats in all clinics will be included in the quarterly bidding process managed by the Office of the Registrar. Students placed on a waitlist during prior quarter clinical lotteries will be grandfathered in.

The following clinical offerings are currently scheduled for the 2011-12 academic year, and may be amended from time to time to reflect changes or additions of new clinics:

  • Civil Rights Clinic: Police Accountability
  • Complex Mental Health Litigation Clinic
  • Corporate Lab: Litigation Clinic
  • Corporate Lab: Transactional Clinic
  • Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project Clinic
  • Employment Discrimination Clinic
  • Exoneration Project Clinic
  • Federal Criminal Justice Clinic
  • Housing Initiative Clinic
  • Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project Clinic
  • Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship
  • Mental Health Advocacy Clinic
  • Poverty and Housing Law Clinic
  • Prosecution and Defense Clinic

The following rules apply to the clinical courses listed above:

  • No more than sixteen credits shall be awarded for clinical work.
  • The maximum number of credits students may earn for a given clinic shall be seven, except for the Corporate Lab: Transactional Clinic, in which students may earn up to nine credits. An Independent Research project (499) may not be used to evade applicable maximums or other rules regarding clinic participation.
  • Students may enroll in a clinic for no more than three credits in any one quarter, with the following exception: a clinic that mandates two quarters of enrollment, and does not permit more than two quarters of enrollment, may offer one three-credit quarter and one four-credit quarter.
  • Students are awarded one credit for work averaging five hours per week per quarter, subject to the applicable maximums set forth above. Students are expected to keep a record of the time they spend in practical work done in conjunction with the clinic.
  • No student may be enrolled in two or more clinics simultaneously. This rule may be waived in exceptional circumstances with written permission of the relevant clinical supervisor(s). Students may enroll in more than one clinic during their time in law school. If there is more demand for a clinic than supply in any given year, a student who has not yet had a clinical opportunity shall receive preference over a student who has already participated in one clinic and seeks to enroll in a different one.
  • The authority to confirm enrollment in a clinic is vested in the respective clinical supervisor(s) who ensure that students have completed all the necessary pre-requisites, met all relevant enrollment criteria (such as language skills), and are otherwise qualified to participate in the program. Expectations regarding the duration of the student’s involvement with the clinic and total credits per quarter must be arranged with the clinical supervisor prior to enrollment.
  • Students must register for each quarter in which they are participating in a clinic; the registration system will allocate to each enrollment the default minimum credits for the quarter; adjustments based on actual work performed will be reported by the supervisors at the conclusion of each quarter to the Office of the Registrar.
  • With the exception of the Corporate Lab: Transactional Clinic, grades for clinical work are posted once, for all quarters of involvement, at the conclusion of the student’s involvement with the clinic, and students receive the same grade for all quarters. For the Corporate Lab: Transactional Clinic, grades are posted each quarter, and students may receive different grades for each quarter.
  •  Most clinics have a seminar component that students may be required to take during their participation in the clinic. Please check the schedule for meeting days/times, as you may not register for other offerings that meet contemporaneously.

Students should keep in mind that they need at least nine credit hours per quarter. If the student is counting on a clinic to make it to nine credits, the student must be sure to earn enough hours in the clinic, or the student will fall below nine credit hours for that quarter, which can have serious consequences.

Additionally, students should not rely on potential extra clinical credits that they have not yet earned in order to achieve the 105 credits needed to graduate; a few students who have done so have had to postpone graduation to a subsequent quarter because they did not earn enough hours to merit the extra credit(s) in the clinic.