Clinic students learn the practical art of lawyering while providing quality legal representation to under-represented individuals and organizations. We offer 17 different clinics and over 300 students participate in this program every year.
The Experience
In a clinical course, students represent real clients facing real legal challenges. They are responsible for all facets of their case and project work, collaborating closely with clinical faculty to ensure proper and complete representation.
The students’ experiences then become the subject of critical review and reflection. Through this process, students learn how to better evaluate their own legal work as well as the legal work performed by others. Every clinic student acquires valuable legal skills not accessible in the traditional classroom setting, and gains firsthand insight into the strategic and ethical dimensions of the legal profession.
Georgetown’s clinics are very intensive; the typical student-to-teacher ratio is just five-to-one, and most students work between 25-35 hours each week on their clinical tasks. As a result, students receive focused, individualized attention from full-time faculty and graduate teaching fellows who can tailor their supervision to the students’ specific needs and learning targets.
Students are regularly pushed to accomplish more than they may think possible, but in a space where extensive support and a built-in safety net allows them to reach for those new goals.
Featured News
November 30, 2023
Civil Justice Clinic
In Spring 2024, Georgetown Law’s new Civil Justice Clinic will commence its inaugural semester. The Clinic will advocate for clients’ economic justice interests and seek to provide representation to those who otherwise would remain voiceless in the legal system. Students will primarily provide legal services to low-income clients who have suffered exploitation such as wage theft, but the Clinic will also take unemployment benefit appeals and other cases involving employment, public benefits, consumer, and housing matters.
November 30, 2023
Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic
Georgetown Law’s Intellectual Property and Information Policy ("iPIP," pronounced eye-pip) Clinic advises justice-minded artists, nonprofits, and coalitions on how iPIP law can serve their missions. Clinic students tackle cutting-edge issues at the intersection of technological advancements and social justice.
March 13, 2023
Georgetown Law Clinics
Some ninety professors, activists, students, lawyers and other stakeholders from across the country gathered at Georgetown Law March 3 for a day-long symposium titled “Promoting Justice: Advancing Racial Equity through Student Practice in Legal Clinics.” Together, they considered the vital role law school clinics play in the legal system and the opportunities and challenges clinical educators and their students face in promoting racial justice.