Experiential Learning

At LMU Law, our focus on producing practice-ready graduates means that we prioritize opportunities for students to get hands-on lawyering experiences both in and outside of the classroom. The hallmark of Experiential Learning at LMU Law is our robust Externship program, which allows students to obtain course credit for doing field work in their second and/or third year. Field placements include judicial chambers in a variety of courts, prosecutor and public defender’s offices around the region, legal services organizations, and private law firms of all sizes and practice areas, with the aim of matching students to sites according to their interests and career ambitions.

In addition, our full-time and adjunct faculty members come to the classroom with extensive practice experience, which they use to teach numerous courses that simulate lawyering experiences, such as Trial Advocacy, Mediation, Interviewing and Counseling, Tennessee Courts Practice, and Domestic Relations Drafting. Each year, many students also compete in intramural and intermural mock trial and moot court competitions. 

What is a Simulation Course?

These courses “simulate” the experiences of lawyers through the use of hypothetical fact patterns and fictional clients, with the focus of practicing specific lawyering skills. Course enrollment is low to facilitate opportunities for performance, meaningful feedback, and self-evaluation.

What types of Simulation Courses are available?

At LMU Law, our simulation courses are designed to immerse students in realistic legal scenarios, enhancing their skills and preparing them for successful careers in the legal profession. Below is a list of some of the simulation courses currently available. For a comprehensive list of all our courses, please consult the student handbook.

• Trial Advocacy
• Pleadings & Practice
• Estate Planning and Drafting
• Police Law, Policy & Practice
• Contract Drafting
• Mediation Skills

What is an Externship?

Externships are also called Field Placements, and they are a lot like an internship. The main differences between an internship and a law school externship are:

1. You can get academic credit for an externship that will go toward your 90 total required law school credits and 6 required credits of experiential learning.
2. To get your externship credits, you will be enrolled in a course at the law school that will have some class meetings and assignments outside of your field placement work.
3. Your externship professor works with you and your externship supervisor to make sure you are getting a good learning experience out of the externship.

How do I get an Externship?

Each semester, the LMU Law Director of Experiential Learning works with students interested in doing an externship to either find a site placement that matches a student’s interests, skills, and abilities, or to approve a new site placement that a student has secured and requested. 

What types of Externships are available? 

Our Externship Program allows students to do field placements at a variety of sites, both private and public, including: prosecutor offices; public defender offices; judicial chambers; local, state, and federal agencies; legal services and advocacy organizations; private law firms of all sizes, including solo practitioners.

Curricular Clinical Experiences

• Domestic Violence: Students represent litigants in court who are either seeking or defending against an Order of Protection.
• Mediation: Students receive TN Rule 31-approved mediation training and assist unrepresented parties with day-of-court mediation in general sessions court. 
• Immigration Humanitarian Relief: Students work on cases involving the provision of humanitarian and/or family-based immigration services to under-served non-citizens.

Non-Curricular Clinical Experiences

• Expungement Clinic: Students work directly with clients seeking to clean up their criminal records and re-enter society with the rights fully provided by law. 
• Pro Bono Projects:
  • Partnerships with Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Knoxville Bar Association
  • Wills Clinics
  • Veterans Advice Clinics
  • Bankruptcy Court Debtors’ Clinics
  • TN Alliance for Legal Services Free Legal Answers Clinics
  • Many More!

Co-Curricular Experiential Programs

• Moot Court: Students compete in both intramural and inter-mural competitions, writing appellate briefs and making oral arguments before a panel of judges. 
• Mock Trial: Students compete in both intramural and inter-mural competitions preparing and delivering cases for trial.