Clinics & Experiential Learning

Yale Law School has one of the most robust clinical programs in the country. Unlike most other schools, students can begin taking clinics--and appearing in court--during the spring of their first year. Clinic students represent real clients with real legal problems (not in simulations or role-playing exercises), and are supervised by senior faculty members, with whom they often develop close and lasting mentoring relationships.

About 80% of our students take advantage of this unique opportunity to combine theory with practice, and many students take more than one clinic.  With more than 20 clinics, there are always places available.

The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization (LSO) provides legal representation to individuals and organizations in need of legal help but unable to afford private attorneys. With about a dozen separate clinics, LSO clinical opportunities offer a wide range of options for students.

The Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic is a Law School course that gives students firsthand experience in human rights advocacy under the supervision of international human rights lawyers. The clinic undertakes a number of litigation, research, and advocacy projects each term on behalf of human rights organizations and individual victims of human rights abuse. 

Several other clinics and projects give students direct experience in the practice of law in particular areas:

• Capital Punishment assists members of the Capital Trial Unit of the Connecticut Public Defender Office in representing people facing the death penalty.
• Education Adequacy represents a coalition of parents, Connecticut mayors, boards of education, and nonprofits seeking to reform this state’s school financing system.
• The Environmental Protection Clinic is an interdisciplinary clinic that addresses environmental law and policy problems on behalf of client organizations such as environmental groups, government agencies, and international bodies.
• The Ethics Bureau offers students a chance to help advise lawyers on how to proceed when faced with violations of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and other ethical dilemmas.
• The Iraqui Refugee Assistance Project provides legal assistance and policy advocacy for displaced Iraquis.
• Ludwig Center for Community and Economic Development Program and Clinic provides legal services and other professional consultation services (business, environmental, public health) to community groups, particularly nonprofit organizations involved in affordable housing, banking, and economic development efforts.
• The Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum (MFIA), an initiative of the Information Society Project and the Knight Law & Media Program, is a team of student practitioners dedicated to increasing government transparency and supporting both traditional and emerging forms of newsgathering through impact litigation and policy work.
• The Nonprofit Organizations Clinic provides legal assistance to nonprofit organizations that cannot afford to retain private counsel.
• The Prosecution Externship allows students to work with state or federal prosecutors in assisting with responsibilities both before and at trial.
• The San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project (SFALP) is a partnership between Yale Law School and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office in which law students work with deputy city attorneys on some of the most innovative public interest lawsuits in the country.
• The Supreme Court Clinic combines classroom instruction about the Court with hands-on involvement writing certiorari petitions and briefs on behalf of parties and amici in 10-15 cases before the Court each year. The Clinic generally has represented a party in at least two cases decided on the merits each Supreme Court Term.