Every student should have at least one quality hands-on law experience while in law school. Why? You will 1) gain legal experience under trained supervision, 2) explore subjects and witness settings that are helpful in making career decisions, and 3) experience real world problem-solving not easily simulated in the classroom. In addition, because most hands-on opportunities in law school involve clients (individuals or organizations) who would not otherwise be able to afford a lawyer, another benefit is that you will be introduced to communities of need and public interest areas of the law that you may not otherwise experience. These experiences can be among the most influential for both the student facing a busy private practice and the student seeking a public interest career.

For these reasons, we encourage you to examine the public interest hands-on opportunities available at the law schools in which you are interested. The opportunities may be through in-house clinics, courses with service add-ons, centers, externships, summer or academic year jobs and/or pro bono opportunities. Chances are you will find a wide array of options.

Consider what is most important to you: the subjects offered, the practice settings, the degree of supervision or the possibility of credit or pay. Also look for indicators of well-supported programs. How institutionalized is the program? How well is it staffed? The last thing you want to do is choose a school based on one clinic only to go there and find that the clinic has been dissolved.

Clinical programs provide an unparalleled opportunity for students to gain experience by actually practicing law. Most – though not all – involve public interest lawyering.

Under the supervision of an attorney, students enrolled in clinics have actual clients with real problems. Many clinics provide legal assistance to those who cannot otherwise afford an attorney, helping to solve landlord-tenant disputes, settle domestic conflicts or defend against criminal charges. In these cases, the students often represent their client’s interests in a courtroom or at an administrative hearing.

Other clinics are non-litigation in nature. In these clinics, student may work in areas such as community economic development, small business representation, appellate advocacy and legislative advocacy.

Clinical programs are generally taught on-campus by clinical faculty members. However, some schools rely on off-campus public interest law organizations to provide placements and supervision for their clinics. (See Field Placements or Externships below)

When evaluating a school's clinical offerings, you should research whether there are sufficient opportunities to participate. On many campuses, clinics have limited slots and it is hard to get into them. In contrast, certain schools require every student to enroll in clinics or a similar training experience. Additionally, you might want to find out if there is a limit on the number of required credits you can satisfy through clinical courses.

Though not covered in The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools, lawyering courses, trial advocacy courses and moot court competitions will also give you hands-on training. Although these courses tend to be geared less explicitly toward working with poor or disadvantaged clients, they will provide valuable skills and experience that will increase your comfort level with public speaking and advocacy.

There are three basic types of fellowships: (1) non-law school organizations that underwrite two-year public service projects proposed by recent graduates (e.g., Skadden, Echoing Green, Equal Justice Works, New Voices, Ashoka); (2) nonprofit organizations that offer one- or two-year positions to entry-level lawyers to work at their organizations (e.g., ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Natural Resources Defense Council); and (3) law schools that offer paid postgraduate fellowships for new lawyers to do public service work (search The E-Guide for these schools).

The fellowship application process requires hard work, particularly for those in the first category, which requires a comprehensive project description. Applicants may want to ask prospective law schools how many of the school’s graduates have gone on to postgraduate fellowships and what kind of assistance is provided to students applying for postgraduate fellowships. Some schools offer presentations on how to write a fellowship application and provide feedback on applications.

"Field placements" is a term used by the ABA to categorize courses "in which someone other than full-time faculty has primary responsibility to the client; they are frequently referred to as externships and internships." In field placements, students receive academic credit or meet a graduation requirement and do not receive a salary.

Many schools, especially those in more urban locations, offer academic credit to students working in public interest and government law offices. Field placements give students an opportunity to test out different practices and workplaces and to start building a professional network.

All law schools restrict the number of credit hours that can be received for externships and they have varying levels of faculty supervision. In some cases, a student simply files a report at the end of their externship or meets with a faculty supervisor once or twice. In more structured programs, there is a companion class in which students and the faculty supervisor discuss relevant topics and discuss the students’ experiences.

Most externship programs also restrict the type of placements that qualify. Typical approved placements include prosecutor and public defender offices, as well as positions with law-related nonprofits like legal aid and civil rights organizations. Some schools will let you do externships beyond the immediate area, while others will not, due to supervision issues.

First there was doctrinal teaching – professors teaching to large audiences of students. Then came the addition of clinical teaching – professors teaching skills through actual client representation. In recent years, hybrids of these two forms of teaching have emerged, something we loosely refer to as classroom courses with hands-on opportunities.

These courses take many forms and are shaped by the vision of the professor. For example, the classroom to practical experience ratio varies widely, as does the subject matter and the level of field supervision. In addition, some courses will require field placement, while others will offer it as an option.

Be sure to check these courses out. You may find the experience or the professor that you have been looking for.

Some law schools have founded centers or institutes, often national in scope, that focus on social justice or public interest issues. These centers are usually run by faculty who engage in scholarly work or think-tank activities (such as conferences) on topics central to the center's mission. Faculty at these centers may also have clients or engage in policy activities. When they do so, the faculty often involve students in the work of the center. The students may be paid, earn credit or work pro bono. In any case, these are excellent opportunities for students to develop a close working relationship with a faculty member and, perhaps, to get involved in cutting-edge work.

In the law school context, pro bono service refers to unpaid, non-credit law-related assistance (lawyer-supervised for students providing direct legal assistance) to underrepresented individuals or causes through organized institutionally-sponsored pro bono activities or in partnership with affiliated agencies. The definition excludes community service that is not law-related (e.g. building houses for Habitat for Humanity).

Through pro bono service, students may provide valuable services to those in need, develop a heightened awareness of the world beyond their classroom and cultivate a lifelong commitment to the legal profession's declared dedication to serving the poor. Along the way, students learn practical lawyering skills and often establish mentor relationships with the private practitioners or public interest attorneys who are serving as their supervisor. These programs supply desperately needed help to the community, while providing invaluable experience to those donating their time and efforts.

As of 2005, the ABA, acting in its accreditation role, requires law schools to offer “substantial opportunities” for student to engage in pro bono service. Even prior to this new accreditation standard, many law schools featured formal pro bono programs. These programs may be voluntary or mandatory.

Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Programs fall into two categories. The most common are programs that have a pro bono coordinator who serves as a clearinghouse, maintaining a comprehensive listing of opportunities in the local public service community and coordinating the pool of volunteers.

The second type is a program that operates primarily through student pro bono groups but provides administrative support for these groups to insure adequate resources, quality control and institutional memory.

Mandatory Pro Bono Programs require that a student provide between 20 and 70 hours of pro bono service during law school. These programs treat pro bono service as a graduation requirement, along with other essentials of a quality legal education. Some graduation service requirements are broader than requiring pro bono service. These programs allow other types of hands-on experiences or courses to meet the requirement, such as clinics, paid summer jobs or non-legal community service.

Either voluntary or mandatory pro bono programs can be successful in instilling the value of pro bono service in a high percentage of the student body. The more successful pro bono programs have good staff support and oversight, institutional recognition of service, a high rate of student engagement and a variety of pro bono opportunities. These programs should definitely be considered along with the other hands-on opportunities available.

At schools with no formal program, look for student pro bono groups. These groups often are the first step to a formal program and often continue to exist as part of a formal program. These groups can provide a great source of community for students around shared public service interests.

Finally, look for professors – in addition to clinical faculty – who are engaged in pro bono and who are involving students in their pro bono. Some of these will be listed in The E-Guide. You can also find this information by reading the biographies of faculty on individual school websites.

Many lawyers report that the most valuable experience they had during their legal education was spending a summer or part of a semester working in a nonprofit organization or government office.

In addition to helping you develop advocacy skills, these jobs can strengthen your résumé and increase networking opportunities. These positions also help students with career choices such as deciding the area of law and setting in which they would like to practice.

Many students spend at least one summer in a public interest job, regardless of their future career goals. Many of these jobs cannot afford to pay summer interns or associates. If getting paid is important to you, explore whether prospective schools provide stipends or federal work-study money to students taking summer public interest jobs. The money will rarely be as much as you could earn at a private law firm, but it should be sufficient enough to make taking your dream job possible.

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