Gain Practical Skills Through Law School Clinics

---

Summary

• For faculty in clinical programs, greater emphasis is placed on applied knowledge—how to wield the law actively to achieve a client’s objectives.
• Law clinics exposed me to more legal research and writing tasks, sharpening my research skills and building my writing portfolio.
• It was through my law clinic experiences that I gained the confidence to present my thoughts accurately and concisely in legal contexts.
• My nascent legal skills found purpose in the drafting of public records requests, background memoranda, and court pleadings for active cases.
• Legal clinics helped me understand the downstream impacts of my actions—how a delayed research task or memo draft could set back a supervisor’s timeline or impact the ability to fully consult with clients ahead of deadline.

DragonImages via iStock

Jump to:

---

---

Picture this: you’re a law student, but you're also a member of a legal team supporting a community organization as they move a bill through your state legislature. It’s the day of the big committee hearing, and you’ve worked hard to prepare materials to support your clients as they plan to offer live testimony.

Suddenly, a last-minute hiccup: your clients experience an emergency and are no longer available to testify live. Your client asks the legal team to step in, and your supervisor requests that you join the hearing virtually to offer remarks in support of the measure.

Are you ready to represent your client?

For law students participating in clinics and experiential programs, this scenario offers a realistic glimpse into the challenging and fulfilling work you can take on while still in law school! Clinics and experiential programs provide you with the opportunity to work directly with attorneys and advocates on a wide array of issues as part of a specialized program of study during the school year.

---

---

---

---

Distinct from the summer job placements that all law students seek, these clinical and experiential opportunities serve as in-school internships that blend practical skill development with theoretical legal foundations to create a holistic learning experience.

How Clinics Stretched Me in Law School

Clinical education has been the cornerstone of my legal career. While studying in law school, I was fortunate to participate in two clinical opportunities. Each allowed me to test new forms of legal advocacy in supportive academic and professional environments. In both education law and legal services clinics, I participated in externships in which I worked with the US Department of Education and a state prisoners’ rights organization.

After a few days of classes on campus, I’d spend the rest of the week simulating the life of a real attorney—suiting up, commuting to a law office, and working alongside seasoned counsel as they managed the day-to-day aspects of law practice. I’d return to class the next week to meet with fellow clinical students—each assigned to different organizations—to share experiences and build a collective understanding of how to improve our legal advocacy skills.

Now, as a supervising attorney in the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, I’m proud to support the next generation of legal practitioners as I represent clients from across the country on state legislative campaigns addressing issues at the intersection of criminal justice, youth justice, and economic justice.

In the clinic, law students work together with graduate public policy students to support community and institutional partners as they pursue campaigns to eliminate financial penalties impacting those in the criminal legal system. With a wide array of projects and different stages of the legislative process, students can join campaigns at the idea stage and conduct statutory research in preparation for bill drafting, coordinate stakeholder and legislator engagement as bills move through session, and monitor and enforce legislative provisions as the measure is implemented.

No matter when students join the project, they’re guaranteed to be exposed to a series of critical legal advocacy skills, including verbal advocacy, legal research, bill and memo drafting, and community and client engagement. Above all, students are exposed in real time to the challenges of legal practice—they may even be called to step in to represent clients at a crucial moment.

Why You Should Hunt for These Hands-On Law School Experiences

Here are some key reasons to consider participating in a clinic or experiential program at your law school.

1. You’ll Work with Trained Faculty with Years of Experience as Practicing Attorneys

For doctrinal classes—courses in criminal law, torts, and other subject matters—law faculty are known for their deep understanding of the history and theory of law. For faculty in clinical programs, greater emphasis is placed on applied knowledge—how to wield the law actively to achieve a client’s objectives.

Faculty in clinical programs often bring years of experience practicing law, and many continue to practice law actively through the work of their clinic. They can prove invaluable if you’re hoping to learn more about the realities of practicing a particular area of law, as well as strategies to achieve work-life balance while managing your clients’ needs.

2. You’ll Further Hone Your Legal Research and Writing Skills

I, like many law students, completed my first-year legal writing and research courses with serious anxieties about my strengths as an advocate-in-training. Years of debate and mock trial didn’t fully prepare me to apply complex legal concepts in the style and format that my supervising attorneys would expect.

As I began my second year of law school, law clinics exposed me to additional legal research and writing tasks, sharpening my research skills and expanding my writing portfolio. Unlike my summer internships, which carried significant time pressures and limited opportunities for feedback and revision, the law clinic and accompanying seminar offered me space to ask all my questions and receive thorough comments on how to improve my skills.

It was through my law clinic experiences that I gained the confidence to present my thoughts accurately and concisely in legal contexts.

3. You’ll Have a Real-World Impact

For many law students pursuing social justice careers, the process of learning the law can feel far removed from the lived realities of marginalized communities we seek to serve. Beyond the intellectual exercise, I craved the chance to apply my legal knowledge in ways that would have a tangible impact.

I got that chance through clinics and experiential programs. My nascent legal skills found purpose in the drafting of public records requests, background memoranda, and court pleadings for active cases. This training helped me operationalize my work within the context of the case and its deadlines.

Instead of questioning, rhetorically, how long I should spend researching a legal question before drafting, I learned to work backward from the final filing deadline. I could build in time for feedback from peers and supervisors, redrafting, citation checks, further research, and any other contingencies that may arise, all while ensuring submission of the filing ahead of schedule.

This process also helped me understand the downstream impacts of my actions—how a delayed research task or memo draft could set back a supervisor’s timeline or impact the ability to fully consult with clients ahead of deadline. All in all, these experiences made me a better team member and a more dynamic legal professional, helping me see how small, collective actions can bring about dramatic change.

Gain a Supportive Community and Test Your Skills Without Fear of Deficiency

As a first-generation law student, I had no exemplar of the legal profession to whom I could compare my experiences. I couldn’t yet see myself as an attorney, and I often relied on my supervisors to share not only their skills but also their perspectives on the legal profession and its trajectory. By participating in clinics and experiential programs, I could observe attorneys across a series of practice areas, each working in their own ways to advance the law in service of their clients.

I saw lawyers sturdy themselves to deliver unfortunate news to hopeful clients. I saw attorneys celebrate after a hard-fought day in court, only to return to the office that evening to continue keeping pace. I also saw the administrators, paralegals, social workers, and other staff who shoulder the burden of managing a law office alongside legal counsel.

These slice-of-life experiences helped me envision myself as a member of this growing community of advocates—bound not by skill set or subject-matter expertise, but by an unflinching pursuit of truth and justice on behalf of the clients we represent.

I encourage you to avail yourself of the opportunity to engage in clinical and experiential legal work. You’ll join a community of legal practitioners who are eager to support your growth as an advocate and provide you with a safety net to test your skills without fear of deficiency.

As a former clinical student and current clinical supervisor, I continue to learn new insights about the theory and practice of law every day. You, your clients, and the legal community will benefit from your choice to participate in law clinics.

---

Endnotes

---

Authors

Cameron Clark

Cameron Daré Clark (he/they) is a Lecturer and Supervising Attorney in the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. In this role, Cameron serves as Co-Coordinator of Debt Free Justice, the national campaign to end...

View Bio →

---

Authors

Cameron Clark

Related Content