Ready to roll up our sleeves and lift up communities
We are home to a variety of live-client clinics, each of which allows students to work with real clients on real cases, honing critical skills in hands-on situations under the supervision of expert attorneys.
A clinical experience offers second- and third-year students unique learning outcomes that supply them with ready-for-practice skills, such as how to interact with clients and how to advocate before officers of the court. These skills can be found in no other law school experience. Our five clinical professors have a combined experience exceeding 100 years.
Real Cases
- Apply your knowledge to real cases in UNH Franklin Pierce’s clinics.
- Supplement your work in the classroom with experiential learning – much of it in actual courtrooms – all supervised by our experienced and practice-polished faculty.
- Acquire a solid background in legal research and analysis, legal reasoning, litigation, and counseling.
- Receive training in specialized areas like trial advocacy, dispute resolution, and evidence presentation in today’s high-tech courtrooms.
Because the New Hampshire Supreme Court has fashioned our student practice rule to permit second- and third-year students to appear in court, clinic students are able to handle all aspects of client representation from initial interview, case preparation, discovery, as well as appearing in all New Hampshire courts, including district, superior, federal, and bankruptcy courts.
A hallmark of the clinical experience is the close mentoring of each student. Part of the mentoring includes contemporaneous feedback on any performance by the student either when interviewing a client, critiquing written work, preparing during a moot court exercise, or following an actual court appearance. Students are encouraged to consider and share insights gained from each experience. These insights are captured in weekly journals, in roundtable discussions during class, or in private sessions with clinical faculty, particularly if corrective criticism is warranted.
Real Impact
Our graduates who complete one or more clinic(s) during their legal studies often stay in touch well after graduation. The clinical faculty frequently provide references and recommendations to support job searches and career changes well after graduation. Completion of any clinical course is a valuable addition to students' resume of experience. The insight gained through the clinical experience provides compelling subject matter to discuss during job interviews. Potential employers are often impressed when students with clinical experience are able to capably produce motions, interrogatories, complaints and other legal pleadings with minimal supervision. We have even helped clinical students obtain employment with law firms serving as opposing counsel in some of our litigated cases. This result has been achieved by centering a reference upon the stellar performance of the student defending a particular case which the hiring firm prosecuted.
Explore our clinics
Students in the Criminal Practice Clinic stand up for the rights of low-income individuals charged with crimes. Typically, clients face misdemeanor or low-level felony charges in New Hampshire Circuit and Superior Courts. Students are responsible for file management, conducting client interviews, working with investigators to conduct investigation into possible defenses, motions practice, negotiations with the prosecutor, counseling the clients in their options, and trials before a judge or jury.
In addition to the work on actual cases, students also complete an intensive, practice-based class that includes active simulations of skills necessary throughout the course of representation in criminal cases.
Students help clients turn their dreams into strategic business ventures. Clients include entrepreneurs, authors, artists, inventors, musicians, publishers, and individuals operating small businesses or nonprofit organizations. These clients are confronting complex and crucial issues pertaining to business formation and organization, copyright and trademark registration and protection, licensing, and small business transactions. Without legal help, their ventures may never get off the ground.
This clinic regularly accepts referrals from the New Hampshire Chapter of Lawyers for the Arts, and assists clients with both adversarial and non-adversarial matters.
Learn about the Intellectual Property and Transaction Clinic
The International Technology Transfer Institute (ITTI) Clinic's mission is to advance science, technology, and innovation in developing countries via advocacy, education, and capacity building in intellectual property (IP) management, technology transfer, and patent information systems. ITTI Clinic students construct patent landscapes, forge international networks, formulate strategic plans, draft reports, author publications, present at professional meetings, and engage in detailed strategic discussions with key organizations such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, United States Patent and Trademark Office, the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the World Health Organization.
Contact us
University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law Clinic
2 White Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 225-3350
