Experience hands-on learning. At Marquette Law School, we believe in practical learning as an integral part of law school education. For-credit internships engage and solidify your learning:
- Develop legal skills. Work on communication, legal analysis, and problem-solving skills.
- Reflect on law practice: How do you think as a lawyer? How do you make decisions as a lawyer? How will you develop your professional identity as a lawyer?
Click here for an informational video
Solve real problems and Help the Community. Apply what you learn in the classroom to real life situations. Utilize business law, criminal law, environmental law, employment law, health law, and more, to address real client issues as part of a judicial internship, in a supervised fieldwork, or a clinical placement. Contribute value to community organizations and members through your hands-on work.
Students may participate after 1L year—under the direction of talented field supervisors, with the support of a faculty supervisor and the Director of Clinical Education—in for-credit internship opportunities. Students indicate preferences via application for established internship positions in trial and appellate courts; governmental offices; and non-profit organizations in Milwaukee, Madison and nearby counties, and students are placed based on student interest, demand, and ability to meet any prerequisites.
Classroom sessions to discuss practice, process, and professionalism questions supplement student fieldwork.
Hear from a student about his experience:
The internships I was fortunate to have at Marquette Law School were essential to my legal education. They gave me insights and skills I otherwise would not have had and were decisive in choosing my current career path.
Experiential learning, having the opportunity to do real law with real clients having real impacts, allowed me to learn what I liked to do and what I didn't. Having that ability to try some things out and find your own path is just one more unique advantage to having a Marquette Law School education and becoming a Marquette Lawyer.
Matthew A.
Clinics, Judicial Internships, and Supervised Fieldwork Placements.
Clinics. The Law School sponsors five live-client Clinics:
- Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic (academic and clinical components). Assist real clients to start businesses and to resolve business disputes, under the supervision of Director Nathan Hammons.
- Mediation Clinic (academic and clinical components). Provide an opportunity to mediate actual civil cases in the Milwaukee County and Waukesha County Circuit Courts Small Claims Divisions where parties are not represented by counsel, under the supervision of Adjunct Professor Paul Stenzel.
- Restorative Justice Clinic (academic and clinical components). Bring restorative justice practices to community organizations, under the direction of Director, Hon. Mary Triggiano;
- Prosecutor Clinic (academic and clinical components). Broaden students' understanding of criminal law and procedure and develop trial lawyering skills, under the direction of veteran Milwaukee County assistant district attorneys.
- Public Defender Clinic (academic and clinical components) Provide a full range of defense trial representation, under the direction of veteran assistant state public defenders.
Judicial Internships. The Law School offers supervised Judicial Internships at appellate and trial courts in the federal and Wisconsin state systems (e.g., the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the federal District Court for the E.D. Wis., the Milwaukee County civil and felony courts, and more). These judicial internships focus on refining research and writing skills under the guidance of experienced judges and law clerks as well as courtroom observation, particularly for trial courts.
The Supervised Fieldwork Program. The Law School sponsors the Supervised Fieldwork program allowing students to intern in the offices of federal, state, and local government agencies or in public interest organizations offering transactional or litigation services. (e.g., Vivent Blood Health, Inc., the University of Wisconsin Systems General Counsel, the Marquette University Office of General Counsel, the Legal Aid Society, Legal Action of Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin Office of Risk Management, Milwaukee County Office of Corporation Counsel, Parks Department and Economic Development, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, various District Attorney and Public Defender offices, City Attorney’s offices, the United States Attorney’s Office, the Wisconsin Department of Instruction (Special Education) and more). These experiences offer opportunities to develop skills in areas such as drafting and reviewing contracts, legal research and analysis, writing legal documents, communicating client advice, and engaging in litigation proceedings.
MORE EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITES
Workshop courses use applied learning to engage students and to develop their lawyering skills. 2L and 3L students develop practice-ready skills in a learning environment featuring an experienced instructor in a supportive student community.
Pro bono programs allow students to develop lawyering skills while serving the community in structured practical learning opportunities at any stage of their law school career, from the first semester to the last.