UI provides law students with clinical experience
The University of Idaho’s practical law program provides opportunities for students to participate in real cases to prepare for the working world.
The program was recognized by National Jurist magazine with an “A” rating for practical training, placing UI in the top 37 law schools nationwide. Maureen Laflin, director of clinical programs, said the purpose of the practical law program is to prepare students for law practice after graduation.
Genie Tran | Argonaut
Maureen Laflin, director of Clinical Programs at UI College of Law, said the practical training program benefits students
because of its real-life application. UI was recognized for the program by National Jurist magazine.
“It really allows them to make a bridge between being a student and being a practitioner,” Laflin said.
Jeffrey Dodge, associate dean of the College of Law, said the practical law program is marketable for UI, bringing students in from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
“A lot of students, when they’re looking for law schools nowadays, are looking for places that will train them to be the attorney they want to be,” Dodge said.
Some of the program’s offerings include clinics, mock trials, simulations and externship opportunities. Laflin said a high proportion of students participate in at least one of the programs.
“In 2013, 80 percent of our students at the law school either participated in a clinic or an externship program or potentially both of those,” Laflin said. “So we have a lot of our students who participate in our really direct client representation component of that.”
UI offers three clinics in Moscow and three in Boise. In Moscow, UI boasts an immigration clinic, a mediation clinic and a general clinic. In Boise, there’s a legal aid clinic, an immigration clinic and a tax clinic to assist people in disputes with the IRS.
Laflin said UI offers an externship program where students participate in public service law.
“We will place students out in the community with judges and practitioners and predominantly public service entities, and students can learn by doing there as well, and they can get academic credit for that,” Laflin said.
The College of Law also holds mock trials and moot court competitions for students as part of the program, Laflin said.
“We also have moot court competitions, and students can do that in appellate practice, bankruptcy, negotiation, mediation, advocacy, a variety of those,” she said.
Laflin said one of the benefits of the practical skills program is it brings students with knowledge from the clinics into the classroom, and those students share what they know with the rest of the class.
Genie Tran | Argonaut
Jeffrey Dodge, Associate Dean of Students and Administration and Associate Clinical at UI College of Law, discusses the practical training program’s hands-on experiences for students.
“There’s a complement between the doctrinal lecture classes as well as the clinic,” Laflin said. “And so for instance Professor Brandt, who teaches family law, loves having people in the general clinic in her class because they’ll talk about move-away cases or they’ll talk about domestic violence cases and those students will bring to the classroom their experience in the clinic.”
Dodge said he thinks one of the great things about the program is it provides opportunities for students attending UI’s College of Law in both Moscow and Boise.
“You can be here in Moscow and work with a small town prosecutor or local public defender,” Dodge said. “Or work with the attorney general’s office down in Boise or for the governor’s office, and these kinds of opportunities differ in terms of what people’s goals may be.”
Corey Bowes can be reached at [email protected]