Elon Law is on The National Jurist's 2015 honor roll of best law schools for practical training.
In The National Jurist’s Feb. 6 announcement of its best practical training honor roll, Editor In Chief Jack Crittenden highlighted Elon among those deserving of special commendation.
“Practical training is a buzzword for most schools and many are turning it into practice,” Crittenden writes. “Schools like New York Law School, Elon University and Penn State Dickinson should be commended for their efforts.”
In determining which law schools were included for the best practical training list, The National Jurist rated schools by the number of full-time students who take simulation courses, externships, clinics, or who participate in interschool skills competitions.
Elon Law offers current students an array of practical experiences, including semester-in-practice externships, in-house corporate counsel externships, general externships, nationally competitive moot court and mock trial teams, a preceptor program providing an attorney mentor for each student, a leadership program enabling teams of law students to work with nonprofits in the resolution of legal issues, and five clinics serving small businesses and entrepreneurs, abused and neglected children, families, the elderly and international refugees and asylum seekers.
Beginning with the fall 2015 entering class, Elon Law will become the first law school to provide all students with full-time, course-connected residencies in practice. In addition, as part of a redesigned curriculum, law students will benefit from lab courses and attorney shadowing in the first year, team-based legal projects and residencies in the second year, and culminating bridge-to-practice courses in a final trimester, providing one of the nation’s most experiential law school curriculums.
More information about Elon Law’s new curriculum and experiential focus is available here.