About the Clinical Program

Credit Requirements: A student must competently complete 50 hours of relevant legal work for every 1 credit (P/F) awarded in a clinic. Most clinic placements require 100 or 150 hours of work in a semester (which equates to 7-10 hours of work per week) to receive 2 or 3 (P/F) credits. A student may earn up to 14 credits toward graduation from clinical placement work. This credit limitation does not include graded credit received for participation in the accompanying academic course.

To Enroll:  Although judicial students are selected by the supervising judges, most other clinics are “open enrollment.” Occasionally a clinic (or placement in a clinic) has limited space and the supervising faculty member decides which students will best be able to benefit from the experience.  Applications are only accepted via hard copies and may be turned into the Clinical Program mail box in the front office or the Clinical Program Office located in Room 185.

Two clinics are offered every semester to develop basic skills for and insights about the practice of law:

• Judicial Clinic placements with Judicial Process class (Fall or Spring) or Legal Writing for Judicial Clerks and Interns (Summer)
• Civil Clinic placements with Lawyering Skills Survey class (every term)

Five clinics focus on particular practice areas or service projects where all the students in the class are simultaneously doing clinic work:

• Criminal Clinic placements with Criminal Process class (year-long)
• Environmental Clinic with Environmental Practice class (year-long)
• Innocence Clinic placement and Innocence Law class (year-long)
• New Ventures Clinic placements and class (year-long)
• Public Policy Practicum and Clinic (Spring)

Ten clinics provide a variety of other clinical opportunities that permit students to add a live experience to a related course when that course is taught (or subsequent term):

• Appellate Clinic with Appellate Practice class (Fall)
• Disability Clinic with Disability Law class (Fall)
• Elder Law Clinic with Elder Law class (Fall)
  
• Health Law Clinic with Health Law class (options in Fall and Spring)
• Hinckley International Clinic with POLS 6910 class (every term)
• Hinckley Washington D.C. Clinic with POLS 6911 class (every term)
• International Clinic with International Practice Class – requires prerequisites (every term; plan ahead!)
• Legislative Clinic with Legislative Process class (Fall) or Legislation class (spring)
• Mediation Clinic with Mediation/Advanced Negotiation class (Spring)
• Victim’s Rights Clinic with Rights of Crime Victims class (Spring)

Individual student-arranged clinics are accompanied by a directed study class.

Contact the Clinical Program Office for more information via email or

• Professor Linda F. Smith, Clinical Program Director, Room 225, (801) 581-4077
• Kay Shelton, Associate Director, Room 185, (801) 585-7703
• The other involved faculty member(s) listed below each clinic description