Clinics in the School of Law

One of the most significant opportunities afforded by a law school education at W&L is its legal clinics. Second- and third-year students help to meet the need for legal assistance in the region and, at the same time, develop client contact and advocacy skills. The faculty have developed programs that deliver lawyering up close: tough lessons and real-life decisions that the profession deals with every day.

Black Lung Legal Clinic

• Washington and Lee's Black Lung Clinic assists coal miners and their survivors who are pursuing federal black lung benefits for the years the miners worked breathing in coal mine dust, making a living to support their families.

Community Legal Practice Clinic

• The Community Legal Practice Center (CLPC) provides free legal services to qualified residents of the Rockbridge area community.

Criminal Justice Clinic

• The School of Law has launched a new legal clinic focusing on misdemeanor criminal defense which will represent low-income clients from Lexington, Rockbridge County and surrounding areas.

Judicial Clerkship Program

• Students will be selected to serve as clerks for either a circuit court (trial) Judge in Rockbridge or one of the surrounding counties, a bankruptcy judge whose offices are in Harrisonburg, or two justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

General Externship Program

• In the General Externship Program students may pursue placements not covered by the clinical course offerings.

Public Prosecutors Program

• Selected students are placed with the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia, headquartered in Roanoke with staffed offices in Charlottesville and Abingdon.

Tax Clinic

• Through the Clinic, selected law students provide free legal representation to low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies with the Internal Revenue Service.

Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse

• The VCCC is a trial-level legal aid clinic providing free services to defense attorneys who represent capital murder defendants in cases throughout Virginia.

Washington and Lee Community Law Clinic at the Oliver Hill House

• Our program at the Hill House exposes W&L Law students to legal representation of individuals belonging to identifiable social classes which each suffer a different kind of injustice in the 21st century.