Practical Experience
Develop critical lawyering skills and create networking opportunities through hands-on learning. Pair your classroom and practical experiences with our personalized approach to career and professional planning to become a leader in your area of choice.
Clinics allow you to earn law school credit as you work in an a real legal service environment. Faculty members teach the seminar and supervise the practical component, which provides you the opportunity to solve real-world client problems while clinical professors provide oversight and advice.
Develop your practical lawyering skills in these clinics:
The Field Placement Program offers qualified students the opportunity to expand their legal education beyond the bounds of the law school building.
Opportunities available in:
- Bankruptcy
- Business, including intellectual property
- Criminal Justice
- Environmental Law
- Government
- In-house Counsel
- Judicial Field Placements
- Portland Opportunities
- Public Interest, including Nonprofit Organizations
Or, create your own.
JD Fellowships
Law students have a chance to learn more about law and leadership with a faculty mentor.
Each year, the Oregon Supreme Court, hosted by Oregon Law’s nationally ranked LRW Program, visits Oregon Law to hear oral arguments and engage directly with our students and the broader legal community. The court’s annual visit, which began in 1977, has become a highlight of the law school calendar.
This more than forty-year tradition continues to afford unrivaled experiential learning and professional development opportunities to our students, our faculty, and the greater community.
Pro Bono Opportunities
Cultivate meaningful relationships in the legal community through pro bono work.
“Pro bono is important because I don't believe someone's ability to access zealous advocacy to protect their rights should be determined by the amount of money they have.”
—Camille Krier, JD ’20
Serve communities in need and receive great practice-ready experience at the same time.
See how these Oregon Law students discovered estate planning, an area of law that personalized their law school experience, and gained valuable skills at the same time.
Law Journals
Apply the research and writing skills learned in your first year and hone your editing and citation skills as a member of one of three national journals.
Sharpen your presentation and writing skills. Compete in mock trial, appellate advocacy, and dispute resolution competitions against other law students across the region and nationally.
Our simulation course offerings integrate theory and skills with hands-on learning to:
- Explore different practice areas, with an emphasis on developing skills in a real-world setting.
- Help develop competencies associated with being a successful, productive team member and leader.
- Provide foundation for choosing career paths and specializations.
- Foster greater proficiency in navigating the complex dynamics between principals and agents, as well as among team members, outside partners, and external constituencies.
- Create opportunities to talk through the nuances of practical and professional challenges in context.
- Promote interactions with professionals who can share insights and guidance.
- Cultivate strong communication skills, especially around careful and effective listening.
- Become familiar with current norms and standards of practice.
Akinbosade Adedayo, LLM ’19, called the consortium the perfect opportunity to improve his human rights knowledge. Before Oregon Law, Akinbosade practiced law for three years in Nigeria alongside nongovernmental organizations helping those displaced by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
“I feel a renewed strength to keep fighting not just for the victims of Boko Haram but for every displaced person all over the world in any capacity I find myself.”