About Clinical Programs

At the UNC School of Law, clinical legal educational provides students the opportunity to learn legal theory and legal practice while providing much needed legal assistance to under-represented individuals and organizations. Students represent clients with a wide range of legal problems and handle litigation, transactional, and policy matters from beginning to end. The clinical offerings are sufficiently broad to allow students to work in a variety of legal areas and enhance a number of skills: civil rights, consumer, criminal defense, community development, domestic violence, housing, human rights, family, immigration, and policy work with legislators and NGOs.

In the course of assisting their clients, students learn fact-finding, analytical, and rhetorical skills as part of their practical experiences. Clinical legal work also deepens student appreciation and understanding of legal theory and doctrine. Students experience, first hand, the challenges of professional ethics They learn to problem-solve, make judgements, exercise decisions, and accept responsibility for matters that are of great importance to their client. They learn to develop systems that facilitate the competent discharge of their lawyering responsibilities.

Clinic students work collaboratively with other students and law faculty who teach in the clinic and provide rigorous supervision at each phase of their clinical experience. They have the opportunity to reflect on the practice of law, to consider how to balance the demands of the clinic with other law school and personal commitments, and to develop the foundation for a meaningful professional life. Their law school education is greatly enhanced by the bonds they develop with their clients, and the knowledge they gain about the relationship between law and social justice. For many students, clinical legal education is the most meaningful experience during law school.

Their contributions to the client and legal community increases access to justice, and is an important part of the public service mission of the UNC School of Law.