Since 1965, BU Law has served as a model for clinical programs at law schools throughout the country.Today, our students are offered countless opportunities for personal and professional growth through our diverse experiential learning programs. This handout lists our clinic and externship offerings. In a clinic, you are supervised by full-time clinical professors and represent real clients (individuals or institutional). In an externship, you are supervised by an attorney at a legal organization away from the school.
Clinics
Through the Civil Litigation Program,BU Law has partnered with Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), New England’s leading legal services organization. Students represent low-income clients in all phases of litigation. Students participate in either the Housing, Employment, Family & Disability Clinic (full-year clinic);or the Employment Rights Clinic(semester-long clinic).
In the Criminal Law Clinical Program(full-year clinic), students conduct investigations,participate in plea bargaining, try cases and make sentencing arguments, all under faculty supervision. Students spend the first semester supporting senior members of the clinic, and during the second semester students lead their own cases asa prosecutor, an adult defender, or a juvenile defender.
In theEnvironmental Law Practicum (one-semester clinic) students work on a legal project for an environmental law organization in areas related to clean energy, clean water, and environmental justice.
Students in the Entrepreneurship & IP Law Clinic (full-year clinic) assist student entrepreneurs from MIT and Boston University in starting new business, or growing existing ones, focused on innovative technologies, products, or services.
We are excited to introduce for 2017-18 theImmigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program (full-year clinic). Students work on immigration cases -representing children facing deportation, refugees fleeing human rights abuses, and other immigrants –and/or students work on Human Trafficking cases - providing legal services including representation of non-citizens trafficked into the U.S.and advocacy for trafficking survivors.
In the International Human Rights Clinic(full-year clinic), clinic students work on human rights projects, including: representing international NGO’s in advocacy in the UN Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, the regional human rights organs (in the American, African, and European human rights systems); and filing briefs and amicus briefs on international human rights law issues.
In the Legislative Policy and Drafting Clinic (fall and spring semesters), students learn about the legislative process through hands-on experience with clients seeking to advance a bill or project through the state legislature.
This year we proudly introduced theTechnology and Cyberlaw Clinic (full-year clinic). Students assist MIT student innovators in complying with laws and regulations related to telecommunications, privacy, data security, and intellectual property.
Students in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic(full-year clinic) screen applications from prisoners claiming innocence. Students scrutinize transcripts, forensic evidence, motions and appeals, and report to the New England Innocence Project.
Boston-based legalexternships
Students can take advantage of Boston’s vibrant legal community by working part-time, paid or unpaid, for school creditunder the supervision of an attorney mentor. We have several externship options to choose from, each with a different subject matter focus.
Our general externship is the Legal Externship (fall and spring), where students work at a public interest organization, at a government agency, in-house counsel at a corporation, or a law firm (pro bono projects only). Our Health Law Externship (spring) focuses on health law placements such as area hospitals. In the Legislative Externship(spring and alternating falls), students work for a state senator or representative on Beacon Hill. The Judicial Externship (fall and spring) places students with judges at the state and federal level. Students interested in learning the role and work of in-house corporate counsel may enjoy our Corporate Counsel Externship (fall and spring). Finally, through our Affordable Housing Externship (fall), students work at a non-profit or government community development organization.
Beyond Boston: Semester-In-Practice Program
We are proud to include among our offerings this fabulous opportunity to spend a semester in Boston or away working full-time for credit (paid or unpaid). Participating students so far have worked in various government agencies in Washington, D.C., farther afield in Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin and Seattle, and even abroadin Geneva, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany.
New York Pro Bono Scholars Program
Participating students spend their spring 3L semester working full-time, for credit on behalf of pro bono clients, through an externship with a host organization or through a BU Law clinic. Students take the February New York bar exam, begin their fieldwork immediately after, and work for 12 weeks into late-May. Students passing the bar and satisfying BU Law’s academic requirements are admitted to the New York bar in June.
More details about the programs can be found at:
www.bu.edu/law/current-students/jd-student-resources/experiential-learning