Advancing your career
Experiential education provides opportunities for students to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to practice well as a social justice lawyer. There are several opportunities available to Pierce Law students that provide hands-on legal experiences.
Externships
Pierce Law has a highly regarded Externship Program that places students in quality social justice positions around the country, where students are given the unique hands on opportunity to apply substantive law from class to real cases and real clients. Some recent Pierce Law externships have placed students in state and federal courts; New Hamphsire Attorney General's Office, U.S. Attorney's Office; New Hampshire's Disability Rights Center; Public Interest Research Group; New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union; New Hampshire Human Rights Commission; National Network to End Domestic Violence; and ABA Juvenile Justice Center.
Clinics
Pierce Law's Clinics bring the law to life by allowing students to apply their knowledge to real cases, and expose students to the expectations, culture, and ethics of a law practice. Current clinical offerings include: Administrative Law and Advocacy, Consumer and Commercial Law, Criminal Practice, Intellectual Property and Transaction, Appellate Defender Program, Mediation, International Technology Transfer Institute Clinic (ITTI Clinic), IP Amicus Clinic, Streetlaw, Innocence Project.
Fellowships
Public Interest Coalition Fellowships (PIC)
Pierce Law is committed to providing students with concrete social justice experiences. Recognizing that many deserving organizations in need of legal assistance are often unable to pay a salary for summer legal interns, Pierce Law provides Public Interest Coalition (PIC) fellowships to law students to enable them to accept unpaid or low-paying summer employment.
U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs
The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs® provide community service fellowships for graduate students, including law students who seek to help those currently underserved by our health care system. The service project is one of the core elements of the Fellows Program. Each fellow designs a service project that provides at least 200 hours of service through an existing community agency and under the supervision of an academic and community based mentor. The program also provides great professional networking opportunities through Fellows for Life conferences and connections. Since 2004, at least one Pierce Law student received a fellowship each year.
It is a one-year interdisciplinary program focused on community service, leadership development and reflection. The project should aim to provide direct service to an under-served population in New Hampshire, eliminate health disparities, and improve quality of life. For ideas, you may use the nation's public health agenda, Healthy People 2010, www.healthypeople.gov.
Application guidelines and instructions are available. They accept both individual and two-person team projects.
