Clinic Gold

The clinical program here at Southwestern Law School has one really definitive main goal, and that is to make sure that our students are ready to be lawyers from day one. We have a really great range of clinical offerings here at Southwestern Law School. It ranges from children's rights to immigrants' rights to family law.

We also have criminal defense work, appellate work... So students learn about how to assess community legal needs. Really, the great experience is going out into the community and working alongside lawyers who are really working on cutting-edge issues here, locally, statewide, or even nationally.

Southwestern's clinics are supportive and inclusive. They're small classes of maybe between six and 10 people. So you get to work really closely with the expert of the particular clinic you're in and develop relationships there too.

If you're a student that is interested in public service, public interest, the clinics are definitely something that you want to do because you get connected directly to the community. You meet with them. You work on their cases. You hear their stories. You know, you're making a difference to that one client. You're making a difference to their entire world.

Clinic work absolutely helped me figure out what I wanted to do. I didn't ever think I'd be a trial attorney coming into law school. The people that run the Public Interest program in the clinics are absolutely amazing. And the networking and kind of lifetime relationships you can build are really great. I don't know that I would be in the position I am now as an attorney straight out of law school had it not been for the clinic professors.