Clinical Courses
Clinical courses are demanding, rigorous, and exhilarating because they provide students with real-world substantive, procedural and ethical challenges. In their role as lawyers, clinic students learn problem solving, judgment, advocacy, communication, collaboration, ethics, and the relationship between law, facts, and evidence -- under the tutelage of experienced faculty mentors -- with teacher-student ratios usually as low as 1:8.
- Professor Jane Aiken discusses cases with
a student in the Civil Justice Clinic.
(photo by Mary Butkus)
Washington University School of Law is committed to educating tomorrow's leaders by providing our students with the best legal education. Our award-winning Clinical Education Program, ranked fourth in the Nation in 2006 by U.S. News and World Report, provides students opportunities to learn professional skills and values by working in the real world with clients, attorneys, judges, and legislators. Through our program, law students assist indigent and low-income clients with domestic violence, homelessness, civil rights, environmental, community health, criminal defense, and intellectual property cases, working with the state and federal courts, congressional committees, and federal agencies. With nine distinct clinics, including one based in Washington, D.C., our students have an unparalleled opportunity to hone their skills as future practitioners. View this interview with our Director of Clinical Education, Professor Karen Tokarz, to learn more about the program. Detailed information is also available in our clinical website.
Trial and Advocacy Program
Washington University has one of the most comprehensive and successful trial and oral advocacy programs in the country, and has won national recognition for its quality and depth of experience. With over 400 participants each year, virtually every School of Law graduate participates in one or more of the trial and advocacy courses or student lawyering skills competitions.
Trial Advocacy Competitions
Washington University School of Law participates in at least three trial advocacy competitions each year. These competitions are designed to promote trial advocacy training and to provide a forum for students to exercise their knowledge of the laws of evidence and trial strategy. Trial advocacy team members participate in a full trial in which team members make opening statements, conduct direct examination and cross-examination of witnesses, and present final arguments.
Washington University’s Trial Advocacy Team has won its regional competition and advanced to the nationals in the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers National Trial Competition in 20 of the past 22 years and captured first place twice—amassing the “winningest” record in the country.
Appellate Moot Court Competitions
Washington University has one of the oldest and largest moot court programs in the country. Students annually participate in the WileyRutledge Moot Court competition which focuses on domestic case law, the Jessup InternationalMoot Court competition, the Environmental MootCourt Competition, the Saul Lefkowitz Moot CourtCompetition which focuses on a current issue in trademark and unfair competition law, and the Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition which focuses primarily on patent law issues. Our overall interschool record in these competitions is one of the most successful among law schools.
Simulation and Planning and Drafting Courses
Courses such as Pretrial Practice & Procedure and Mediation Theory & Practice provide students with learning opportunities that combine theory and practice. Many of these courses are co-taught by judges and attorneys practicing in specialized fields and all are offered in small sections to ensure individualized attention. In the numerous planning and drafting courses offered, students assist fictitious clients, addressing or avoiding legal problems, negotiating possible solutions, and drafting related documents
Public Service Scholarships and Stipends
Webster Society Scholars, named after our distinguished alumnus, William H. Webster, JD '49, receive full tuition scholarships and $5,000 stipends annually for three years. Webster Scholars are students with outstanding credentials and a demonstrated commitment to public service.
Summer Public Interest Stipends
The School of Law also provides summer stipends to enable students to work in summer internships in public interest law. In recent years, students' placements have included Habitat for Humanity International, Southern Appalachian Labor School, ABA Center for Children and the Law, as well as Legal Services, Public Defender, and Department of Justice offices across the country.
Students can work for the Legal Aid Board and other N.A.O.'s in South Africa through the African Public Interest Project. Students can work through the American Indian Law and Economic Development Externship. Read more about it in the Fall 2004 School of Law Magazine article.
Ethics Curriculum
In addition to clinics, which include a significant focus on professional values in practice, students at Washington University learn professional ethics from a menu of courses in the Ethics Curriculum. Each of these courses is designed to provide students with the basic knowledge and skills they will need to understand lawyer's professional obligations and to critically examine their roles as lawyers. This curriculum includes The Lawyer as Fiduciary; The Ethics of Lawyering in Government; Secrecy, Leaking and Whistleblowing; Legal Profession; Lawyers as Heroes and Villains; and the Legal Ethics Seminar.