One day last summer, Aaron Tucek, ’19, sat before members of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, his heart pounding as he prepared to make the most of the next 10 minutes.
About the Clinics
The clinical programs operate through six distinct, autonomous units that function as separate 'law firms' with their own faculty and support staff:
- Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, which includes:
- Exoneration Project Clinic
- Innovation Clinic
- Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship
- Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic
- Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab Clinic
In addition, there are two other clinics in which students work on behalf of clients in a supervised field placement at an outside agency and take a companion seminar at the Law School:
Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab Clinic, Innovation Clinic, Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship & Housing Initiative Transactional Clinic
Abrams Environmental Law Clinic; Exoneration Project Clinic; Federal Criminal Justice Clinic; Immigrants’ Rights Clinic
Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic; Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project; Employment Law Clinic; Global Human Rights Clinic; Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic
Poverty and Housing Law Clinic and the Prosecution and Defense Clinic
Walking into the ceremonial courtroom on the 25th floor of the Everett M. Dirksen US Courthouse on December 14, 2017, Linnet Davis-Stermitz, ’18, knew that the scene before her was exceptional, although it would take several years and two federal clerkships to understand just how exceptional.
Nothing she’d experience after graduation would resemble this two-day evidentiary hearing in downtown Chicago. Nothing in her professors’ decades of combined experience has ever compared, either.
Second- and third-year students obtain practical training through the Law School’s clinical and experiential programs, in which students represent clients and engage in other lawyering roles under the supervision of full time clinical teachers, faculty, and practicing attorneys. The Law School’s clinical and experiential programs give students an opportunity to learn litigation, legislative advocacy, and transactional skills.
Soo Park, class of 2014 and participant in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project Clinic, describes the student experience in UChicago Law's clinical program.