Award Winning | Interdisciplinary | Inspiring
The Clinical Law Program
What's a law school clinic?
In a law school clinic, students receive law-school credit while they represent
real clients or mediate real cases. They learn relevant lawyering skills through
close supervision by an experienced lawyer/faculty member. Clinics offer students an
opportunity to serve the community and reflect on their experience as they become a
lawyer.
Clinics at the UWLS
The clinical law program is central to the law school's public service and access
to justice efforts. Each year, a variety of clinics offer diverse practice
opportunities to law students. Nearly 60% of each JD class enrolls in a clinic. As
the world and the legal profession change, law schools must prepare the next
generation to be our advocates and leaders. The UW School of Law is committed to
providing an innovative, student-focused learning environment that prepares our
students to become highly skilled lawyers in a globally competitive world. Our UW
students gain a strong foundation in legal theory, the skills necessary for success
in the changing legal profession, and an awareness of their ethical and public
service responsibilities.
Collaborative Externships
What's a Collaborative Externship?
The UW law school offers a wide range of externships, or "field placements."
In externships students receive law school credit for performing legal work in a
non-profit or government agency. Students are directly supervised by an experienced
lawyer in the work setting. In addition, a faculty supervisor guides the students in
reflecting on the externship experience.
In addition, we offer specially designed collaborative externships. The law
school and one or more community partners together design a special 15-credit
immersion externship experience. The collaborative externship is offered each year
during the same quarter. A cohort of students participates in special educational
activities.
Collaborative Externships at the UWLS
The law school currently offers two collaborative externships, the
Olympia Quarter Fellows and the
Laurel Rubin Externship Advocacy Project.
Clinical Law Program News
- Award Winning | Interdisciplinary | Inspiring
CLP 30th Anniversary Celebration.
Join us to celebrate the UW Clinical Law Program's 30th Anniversary on Friday, February 5 at William H. Gates Hall. The all-day event includes a 6-ethics credits CLE -- Professionalism in Practice: Ethics in Action featuring clinic faculty and graduates; Founders Awards and a Keynote by clinic graduate Hon. Jenny Durkan from 5:00-6:00 p.m.; and a reception from 6:00 -8:00 p.m. in the Gallagher Law Library. We look forward to seeing you there!
Click here for invitation and registration information.
- UW Environmental Law Clinic Wins National Award
The University of Washington School of Law's Environmental Law Clinic has won the Clinical Law and Education
Association's Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project Award for the Clinic's
groundbreaking work relating to on the Exxon Valdez reopener clause, culminating in the
Emmy-award winning film, The 3rd Trustee: Native Alaska and the Big Spill.
The Emmy-award winning documentary has just been re-edited and released in a law school edition.
- Students' work pays off as Juvenile Records Sealing Bill is passed
Students in the new Legislative Advocacy Clinic drafted, analyzed and lobbied through the legislature a bill sealing some juvenile offender records. (May 5, 2009)
- UW Law Professor Ron Whitener Receives Clinical Legal Education Award
The UW law school's Director of the Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic and Assistant Professor Ron Whitener '94 has been
awarded the M. Shanara Gilbert "Emerging Clinician" Award from the Executive Committee of the Association of
American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Legal Education. (4/1/2009)
- The Clinical Law Program celebrates 30th Anniversary this year - University Week
Founding Director of the Clinical Law Program Alan Kirtley and current Director Debbie Maranville reflect on teaching clinics as the reflect on 30 years of clinical education at the UW Law School. (1/29/09)
-
Innocence Project Receives Gift, Reverses Another Conviction
On the heels of receiving a generous gift from the RiverStyx Foundation, the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic learned that the clinic secured its 13th conviction reversal.
- Xmas at Walla Walla: innocent man awaits release - Seattle PI
After four Christmases behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, James Anderson was released just in time to celebrate Christmas 2008 at home after evidence produced by Innocence Project Northwest helped Anderson prove he was in California when the crime was committed in Tacoma.
- New DNA Methods Could Throw More Convictions Into Doubt - Seattle Weekly
UW's McMurtrie and her team of post-conviction sleuths are assisting several clients in their requests for post-conviction DNA testing. "All we're asking," says McMurtrie, "is that the test be allowed so we can determine . . .innocence or . . . guilt." (1/8/2008)
I use the lessons you taught me every day. 
- Chuck Williams, Civil Clinic Alum, ‘94
Your gift to the Clinical Law Program or a specific Clinic will help maintain this core educational and public-spirited program at the UW School of Law. Give online today >>