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Academics - Clinical Legal Education

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The School of Law has a history of clinical legal education dating back nearly 50 years. The School of Law's longstanding commitment to a client-centered clinical program taught by experienced, full-time faculty is a distinguishing feature of legal education at the University of South Carolina. The upper-level curriculum includes a wide variety of clinical courses and professional skills courses.

Just as medical students have long benefited from treating patients in a clinic setting under supervision of experienced medical professionals, law students have the opportunity to expand on their classroom learning by working with actual clients in a supervised clinical setting. Special student practice rules adopted by South Carolina state and federal courts permit third-year students enrolled in clinical courses to represent clients and appear in court under the supervision of a faculty member.

The law school offers the following clinics that are supervised by full-time faculty: the Criminal Practice Clinic, the Federal Litigation Clinic, the Environmental Law Clinic, the Veterans’ Rights Clinic, and the Juvenile Justice Clinic. In these clinics students have tried various types of cases in the family court, presented cases in jury trials at the summary court level, tried civil rights cases in federal court, appeared in the domestic violence courts, handled both federal and state court appeals, drafted ordinances for counties and legislation for the General Assembly, and appeared before various administrative agencies. The client-centered clinical courses are structured to provide each student not only with an opportunity to gain skills, but also with an opportunity for reflection upon his or her performance and the lawyer’s role in the legal system. To accomplish these goals, much of the teaching in clinical courses is done on a one-to-one basis. Faculty members observe or review all student work and provide detailed critiques.

For additional information about the clinical programs, visit www.law.sc.edu/clinic/.