Clinics & Externships

Director's Message

Welcome to the Clinical Program website! Over the last several years, Villanova has greatly expanded its programs designed for students to put their legal skills into practice and serve the community. We now offer students numerous opportunities to move beyond the classroom to the real-life practice of law. Our Clinical Program and other pro bono service opportunities are all designed to teach our students key lawyering skills and expose them to the real-life application of the law in a wide range of legal controversies.

The Clinical Program prepares our students for the practice of law by providing hands-on lawyering experiences under the supervision of full-time professors. In Villanova's six for-credit clinical courses, students represent clients in a host of legal settings, from immigration courts to IRS negotiations. In our clinics, the students are the front-line legal representatives. They interview their clients, they sit at counsel table and they conduct the hearings. Many of our students report that their experience in the clinics is one of the most rewarding and educational experiences in law school.

Our clinics are designed with an emphasis on issues that powerfully affect the most vulnerable people in our society: refugees, children, and the poor. Every semester our students use the law to save lives and preserve families. Indeed, dedicated action for social justice is central to our mission as a Catholic and Augustinian academic community.

I hope that you take advantage of the opportunity to put your legal skills to work on behalf of poor clients through Villanova's Clinical Program and invite you to visit our "law firm within a law school" in room 7.

Professor Michele Pistone
Director, Clinical Program

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