General Course Requirements

GENERAL COURSE REQUIREMENTS

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Hour Requirements

The Clinical Education Program offers eleven clinical courses and summer externships. The Judicial Clerkship, the Congressional Administrative Law Clinic, the externship clinics, and supervised practica are graded pass/fail. The other clinics are graded on a modified pass/fail basis (high pass/pass/low pass/fail). Each student is required to spend a certain number of hours per credit hour at the clinical placement each week during the semester. Except for the first week of the semester which is considered a half-week for clinical courses, students in the clinical courses who are receiving four credit hours are required to spend a minimum of 16 hours per week on clinical activities. As there are 13.5 weeks in the semester, this comes out to 216 hours for the semester. For students receiving six credit hours, the figures are 24 hours/week x 13.5 weeks or 324 hours during the semester. Students in the Judicial Clerkship may receive three or four credit hours. The figures for three credit hours are 12 hour/week x 13.5 weeks, for a total of 162 hours. Because hours are the only available objective measure of effort, the hours stated are minimum requirements for the semester and must be attained before credit will be given for the course.

In some weeks you will work more than your required number of hours, and in some weeks you may have conflicts that cause you to work less than the required number. If you work more, you may credit the additional hours against future shortages based on unforeseen or unusual circumstances. However, you may not skip scheduled hours at the clinic without advance permission from your professor and your supervising attorney/faculty member. Illness is an acceptable reason to work fewer hours; school activities like Moot Court are not. Thus, do not ask your supervising attorney/faculty member to excuse you from work because your Moot Court brief is due. Competent, ethical lawyering involves balancing obligations and serving as a reliable member of the team. It is vitally important that your supervising attorneys/faculty members, legislators, and judges know they can count on you to be at the office at certain times. You are therefore required to keep on your schedule and to work at least the minimum hours per week on clinical activities unless you have express advance permission. This means you must anticipate potential problems and conflicts in your schedule, and plan ahead. 

If you work fewer than the required hours one week, you must make up the time the following week. Otherwise, you may get so far behind that you cannot catch up and will not receive credit for the course. If your office will be closed for an official holiday, you must make up the hours. Alternatively, you can do research in the law school library on one of your cases -- but you have to plan in advance so that you have the issue in mind. The fact that your office is closed does not lessen your requirement to work the required hours per week.

Ways of Fulfilling Hours

You may fulfill your hour requirements in many different ways, including but not limited to:  (1) working on your clinic cases and projects; (2) observing proceedings in court or observing other lawyers working on their cases as they interview clients or witnesses, take depositions, and so forth, as required or provided for by your clinic; (3) engaging in educational activities related to your clinical work, such as, participating in weekly clinic seminars, attending continuing legal education programs, participating in bar association activities, and meeting with speakers arranged by your faculty instructor; and (4) meeting with your faculty instructor. 

Working on your clinic cases and projects will involve a variety of activities, such as research, drafting, interviewing witnesses, discussing issues with your professor or your supervisor, taking statements or depositions, telephoning lawyers, legislators, and other interested parties, and writing letters. Some research and drafting is necessary in virtually every case or project, but hopefully your assignments will involve "live" activities as much as possible. For students in the Judicial Clerkship, working on cases will primarily involve research and writing legal memoranda.

Observing and reflecting on other lawyers’ work in courts and legislative settings can be an important educational experience. Some of the clinical courses have specific observation requirements, both in terms of hours and in terms of categories of experiences. Check with your faculty instructor.   

Most of the clinical courses have weekly seminar meetings for approximately two hours. During these meetings, students may be responsible for presenting case reviews. There are almost always assigned seminar readings.

Reporting Hours and Activities

All clinical students are required to report hours and activities in reasonable detail on a regular basis. This includes students in the Judicial Clerkship course. This accords with the preferred practice in most law firms and agencies. "Reasonable detail" means that you should be specific about names, issues, and activities. The description "research," for example, is not acceptable; nor is a vague description like "telephone call" or "discussed case." Instead, entries on the forms should say things like: "Researched elements of criminal fraud for Smedley case," or "Talked on phone to Amos Grim, opposing attorney in Bones case, concerning dates for deposing his client," or "Discussed possible evidentiary problems with Brad Kessler (Arness matter)."  Always include the name of the case you are working on for each entry, unless there is a reason to be discreet about the name.

Please record your clinical hours in your worksheets on the [shared F drive] to Anita Love who will monitor them on a weekly basis. Please ask your faculty instructor how you should report your hours, e.g., in 1/10 hour or 1/4 hour segments. Keep your forms current as you go through each working day. By doing so, you will not have to rely on your memory and you will not be faced with accumulated past-due forms.

Your clinic folder will be reviewed weekly by the clinical office. Each week you will receive a memo indicating your weekly progress as well as announcements regarding weekly meetings or seminars. If you work fewer than the required hours for two consecutive weeks, without permission, you risk being dropped from the course.

Please be sure to double-check your cumulative semester hours in your worksheet on the shared F drive. In order for you to receive credit, your record must reflect the appropriate number of hours by the end of the semester.

Learning Contracts - Clinical Evaluation Forms  

Most of the clinics utilize learning contracts or clinical evaluation forms that set out the course syllabus, i.e., the objectives and/or requirements for the course. Check with your faculty instructor for specific details for your clinic.

Regular Appointments with Your Faculty Member/ Supervising Attorney/Judge/Legislator in Clinics, Externship Placements and Supervised Practica

Whether you are in a clinic, an externship placement, or supervised practicum, your professor will want to meet with you regularly to discuss your assignments and your reflections on your learning experiences in the clinic. You may arrange to meet at the office in which you are working. If not, you should establish a regular appointment at the professor's office at the Law School.

Your professor's role is threefold:  (1) to see that you get interesting and challenging assignments; (2) to assist you in handling your cases and projects by talking about various strategies, tactics, and options; and (3) to maximize the educational aspect of your clinical experience by helping you to by reflect on what you are doing, putting it in perspective, and placing it in context. Your instructor can help you with these things only if s/he meets with you often enough to understand fully what you are doing and observing.

Your faculty instructor may want to accompany you in your various lawyering experiences, and to discuss with you before and/or after. Please advise him/her in advance of upcoming events. Also, please call him/her on the day before the event or early on the morning of the event to confirm that it will be going forward.

Students in externship placements and supervised practica likely will receive a number of written assignments from your supervising attorney, legislator, or judge during the course of the semester. Please make every effort to show your faculty instructor a written draft before you submit it to your supervisor. If you cannot give your professor a written draft before you turn in the assignment, please photocopy your draft and give it to him/her at the same time that you turn it in or as soon afterwards as possible.

You must give your professor copies of all final drafts of your written assignments. You may wish to keep copies for yourself as they may come in handy in the future. However, you may not use any of your writing from the clinic as a writing sample unless you secure the express permission of the attorney for whom you did the writing.  Students in Judicial Clerkship have special instructions.

Questions? Contact

Katie Herr at clinicalaffairsprogram@wulaw.wustl.edu.

 

Clinical Education Program

Clinics