National Jurist -September 2008 - (Page 29) University of Maryland University of Kansas Drake University cies including those in prosecution, public defender offices, elder law and immigration law. Charles Rose, assistant professor and director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy, said they offer many unique programs — including one with the FBI and a future program with the Transportation Security Administration. “We’re very diverse in what we do, but we don’t meet that standard model in a lot of law schools,” he said. “We consciously chose to abandon the model because we could not provide the same number of opportunities.” Money is the reason behind their six unique programs — with each costing approximately $500,000 a year to run, which is an issue for many law schools across the country. Stetson does have a wait-list, but guarantees that if students begin to apply during their first year, they will have at least one clinical opportunity before graduating. Some students have gotten two or three clinical opportunities. “A lot come back saying that they had the single most challenging experience,” Rose said. “When you help a student find a passion for their practice for law, you are helping a generation. When students are getting more experiential opportunities, it benefits them, the institution and the profession.” Clinical education is the future of the law school profession, he added. The challenge is getting everyone involved. Stetson Law professors go out and find internship opportunities for students. Rose said the staff has a vested interest in the programs being successful. The end result is that students see both sides of what it means to be a lawyer. “We’ve placed students in some great jobs,” he said. “We believe that over a third of our intern and clinical participants get job offers based on their experience and performances.” Across the board, Gotlieb said law schools are doing better. “I am extremely impressed with what people are doing across the country,” he said. “As sort of one of the old guys, I marvel at what some of the kids are doing.” What’s in the future? Drake is just one law school with plans to expand its clinical programs to allow students the opportunity to participate in more than one. Depending on the opportunities available, most law schools offer at least one clinical opportunity before graduation. Many students find that their clinical experience allows them to fit all of the pieces together to understand how the substantive and procedural law they learn in the academic classes really work together to provide meaningful representation to clients, Foxhoven said. “Most students who have a clinical experience indicate that they would appreciate a second opportunity to hone their legal skills in an f additional area of the law,” he said. “Expanding the clinical programs to allow more students to ‘double up’ in the clinical experience will allow our students to be even more capable of moving directly into the practice of law from the day of graduation.” Before school resumes this fall, the five Maryland law students currently in Mississippi will have put some of their learned legal skills to the test. Their work along the Mississippi Gulf Coast is important, not only to the people they are helping but for themselves. What kind of a lawyer will they be? “For me the most important experience was the summer of 1967 during the civil rights movement,” Milleman said. “I got a sense of what I wanted to do, and I hope they will also.” ■ Michelle Weyenberg is associate managing editor for The National Jurist. September 2008 THE NATIONAL JURIST 29 http://www.tjsl.edu/llmprograms http://www.tjsl.edu/llmprograms
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