Skills Training

Mizzou Law Clinics & Externships

Credit for Competitive Mock Trial and Arbitration Teams

Students who compete on behalf of the School of Law on select competitive mock trial and arbitration teams receive academic credit for their work. The teams for which students can receive credit are the Missouri Attorney General’s Cup, Labor and Employment, Arbitration, Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial, and National Trial Competition. Other competitions can be approved for credit by the faculty from time to time. Students should check with the competition coach to verify whether credit is available.

A student may receive a maximum of three credits for participation in competitions for which they are selected, with a limit of one credit per each semester. While students are not prohibited from participating in numerous competitions, the number of credits counted and earned is capped. Students may not receive credit for participating in competitions during their first year.


Child and Family Justice Clinic

The Child and Family Justice Clinic is a newly reinstated clinic at the University of Missouri School of Law that provides free legal assistance in matters involving domestic relations. The Clinic assists individuals in the legal services of: obtaining orders of protection, child custody matters, divorce proceedings, adoption proceedings, and other services related to domestic relations and family violence.

Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic

The law school’s Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic (ELC) was launched in the fall of 2015 to provide clinical opportunities for students to work with small and start-up business clients. The clinic, directed by attorney Donald Seitz, assists members of the university and Mid-Missouri communities seeking to start businesses by providing supervised legal services involving entity planning and formation, governance issues, employee issues, intellectual property analysis, governmental regulations and contract drafting.


Externship Program

The Externship offers students an opportunity to develop the skills necessary to bridge the gap between law school and law practice. Through the Externship, students prepare for “effective and responsible participation in the legal profession” (ABA Std. 301) by applying the core concepts learned in law school courses to the challenges presented in the actual, in-office practice of law.


Innocence Clinic

In 2007, the University of Missouri System provided funding to launch a joint innocence project with The Midwest Innocence Project, a non-profit organization based in Kansas City, Mo. Students work with an experienced lawyer and clinical professor who serves as legal director for the Innocence Project, handling cases of possible innocence from six states with the opportunity to review case transcripts, gather documents and other evidence, search for witnesses and conduct interviews.


Mediation Clinic

The Mediation Clinic gives students the opportunity to act as mediators in a variety of dispute settings, such as the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the Missouri Commission for Human Rights, the 13th Judicial Circuit Small Claims Court for Boone County and with private attorneys. Mixing federal cases with small claims cases provides clinic students with an opportunity that few other mediation clinics offer. The clinic, which is housed in the School of Law’s nationally recognized Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, is headed by James H. Levin, an experienced practitioner and trainer in dispute resolution and a founding member of the National Association for Community Mediation.


Semester-in-Practice Externship

The Semester-in-Practice Externship offers students an opportunity to be fully immersed in the practice of law before graduating from law school. Third-year students in their final semester of law school receive full-time practical experience for an entire semester at a nonprofit organization, legal services organization or government agency. Students work directly with supervising attorneys, spending a semester applying the core concepts learned in law school courses to the challenges presented in the actual practice of law.


South Africa Externship

The South Africa Externship offers students who enroll in the South Africa Study Abroad Program an opportunity to work with a local nonprofit or governmental agency, or other entity. Participating students have the opportunity to apply the skills learned in the classroom in an international setting. Through the South Africa Externship, students apply the core concepts learned in law school courses to the challenges presented in the actual practice of law in a foreign jurisdiction.


Veterans Clinic

Students at the University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic help veterans and their families secure disability benefits.

Student work is done at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals level and before the Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims. Students are supervised by an experienced attorney at each step and will have the opportunity to work in a law firm atmosphere within the law school serving real client needs. Law students interested in personal injury, civil litigation or administrative law will benefit from the skills taught in this clinic.