Legal Clinic Registration

Drake Legal Clinic Application Process

The Legal Clinic is committed to providing an in-house clinic opportunity to all eligible students prior to graduation. A basic goal is to give students who have not taken a clinic priority in admission so that as many students as possible can have supervised legal experience. A secondary goal is to implement consistent selection criteria across all clinical programs in order to ensure that students are given access to clinical opportunities on an equitable and fair basis. 

The lottery process is the process for selecting students for clinics. It is designed to give students who meet the prerequisites a fair chance of getting into a clinic. Students closest to graduation who have not taken a clinic get first priority in the lottery. Students select the clinic of their first choice, but are encouraged to select their second, third, fourth, etc. choices as well if they are open to enrollment in other clinics in order to broaden their chances of getting in one. 

A student who is on academic probation will be considered for a clinic only after all clinic slots are filled with eligible students. Students found to be on academic probation will be placed on the wait list below eligible students. Rule 31.15 (“Student Practice Rule”) of the Iowa Court Rules governing law student practice requires that students must be in good academic standing (must have satisfactorily completed 45 credits). Therefore, students admitted to the Clinic during the lottery will be required to drop the clinic if that student remains on academic probation when grades are posted from the semester preceding clinic enrollment. Students who are not on academic probation at the time of application but are subsequently put on academic probation during the semester of their clinic enrollment will be removed from clinic enrollment prior to the start of the semester and their clinic space will be given to eligible students, if any, on the waitlist. 

Please check the date of clinic orientation before applying. Attending orientation is mandatory with no exceptions except under extreme circumstances. In addition to Orientation, there will be a guest speaker on September 18^th that will be required for all students. Additional information about the time and speaker will be circulated at the start of the semester.

Fall 2024 Legal Clinic Application

Students must apply by 5:00 p.m. on March 25th.

Professor Pritchett will host a Clinics and Internships Informational Session in March for those students interested.

For questions about individual clinical programs, please reach out directly to Clinic Faculty:

Children's Rights Clinic: Professor Nickole Miller
Refugee Clinic: Professor Allison McCarthy
Entrepreneurial and Transactional Clinic: Professor Nick Roby
Wrongful Convictions Clinic: Professor Erica Nichols-Cook
General Civil Clinic: Professor Sally Frank

Selection Procedure for Advanced Clinic Courses 

For students interested in applying for Advanced Clinic opportunities, permission to enroll is granted by the individual faculty supervisor and is based on a variety of factors such as the student’s performance in clinic, faculty’s need for Advanced Clinic students, and faculty’s capacity to supervise Advanced Clinic students. If you are interested in registering for an advanced clinic please contact the clinic's faculty member.

Course Offerings

For a complete list of clinic prerequisites and courses, visit the Drake Legal Clinic webpage. The pre and co requisites are also listed on the application.

Acceptance and Registration

From March 29 - April 4 students will be contacted by clinical faculty directors to discuss the time commitment and expectations associated with enrollment in each clinical program.  Following that meeting, students will have 48 hours to withdraw their enrollment from the Legal Clinic. After that window, Clinic enrollment will be finalized, and students will not be able to withdraw from Legal Clinic enrollment. To withdraw, students need to email their clinic faculty director and Amy Cutler (amy.cutler@drake.edu).

Student services will register students based on clinic accepted into and number of credits indicated on the application. Please double check your schedule and total number of credits after registration.

Orientation

Legal Clinic orientation is mandatory. All students registered in clinic must attend orientation. Legal Clinic Orientation for fall 2024 will be August 23.

Questions? Contact Suzan Pritchett, director of clinical programs; at 515-271-3851 or suzan.pritchett@drake.edu.