Dr. King's words are the inspiration and the unifying thread for all of WVU Law's clinics in their mission to support and empower low-income and disadvantaged people.
Supervised by law professors, the clinics serve the public while exposing students to all phases of lawyering, including drafting briefs, trial advocacy, negotiating, and interviewing.
The clinics embody WVU Law's land-grant mission of public service and they are a cornerstone of our legal education experience.
Our clinics provide, on average, more than 40,000 hours of pro bono legal aid per year. The national legal rating service Super Lawyers presented the Clinical Law Program with the 2012 Excellence in Pro Bono Award.
Since its founding in the 1976-77 academic year, the Clinical Law Program has provided more than 600,000 hours of pro bono legal service to more than 2,000 clients. In the process, the Program has helped train more than 1,000 students to be client ready.
WVU Law offers clinical law opportunities in areas such as:
- Child and Family Advocacy with Medical-Legal Partnership
- Immigration
- Innocence Project
- Land Use and Sustainable Development
- United States Supreme Court
- Veterans Advocacy
The clinical law program is structured like a major law firm so that students can gain work experience across multiple practice areas.
Working in the clinical law program helps students develop practice/client-ready skills. Heavy emphasis is placed on the development of the professional lawyer role with particular attention to the Rules of Professional Responsibility.
