The George Washington University Law School

The Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics vary considerably in purpose, duration, requirements, and duties. Despite their diversity, all the clinics create an exciting and supportive educational environment in which law students are provided the opportunity to develop lawyering skills and gain insights into law and the legal profession while providing vital legal services to people who need them. In essence, GW Law's newly refurbished Clinics Building is a dynamic public interest law firm, where students represent clients in ways that can become among their most meaningful experiences as young lawyers.

The Field Placement Program provides GW Law students an opportunity to earn academic credit while working as student externs with government, judicial, and nonprofit organizations. In the fall, spring, and summer semesters, student externs work directly with judges or practicing lawyers. Field Placement enhances students’ educational experience through exposure to the actual practice of law. With more than 500 students participating in the program each year and the unique opportunities available to students as a result of our location in the nation’s capital, GW Law Field Placement is one of the most extensive legal externship programs in the country. The primary educational objectives of Field Placement are to provide students with the opportunity to gain experience in diverse substantive areas of law and legal process; to develop legal research, writing, interviewing, counseling, and investigative skills; to deal with issues of professional responsibility in an actual practice setting; and, to engage in reflective lawyering.

Students may apply for membership in one of nine student-run journals, some of which are produced in collaboration with national bar associations. In addition to GW Law's main journal, The George Washington Law Review, there are journals spanning a range of legal areas, including international law, intellectual property, environmental and energy law, and business and finance law, among others.

GW Law offers five diverse programs for students to study in other parts of the world, including Oxford, Munich, Augsburg, Groningen, and Milan. Generally, participation in student abroad occurs during the summer, which leaves GW Law students fully free to take advantage of the vast experiential and academic opportunities in Washington during the fall and spring semesters.

GW Law students participate in numerous moot court, mock trial, alternative dispute resolution, and other competitions every semester. GW Law students have a sterling record of success in both internal (at GW Law) and external (held elsewhere, including internationally) events. The largest competition of the year is the Van Vleck Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition, the final round of which has, in some years, been presided over by a justice of the Supreme Court. Competitions are open to all students.