National Jurist magazine, in its September 2008 issue, listed the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law as one of the top-50 law schools in clinical legal education. This accolade added to a season when Bowen was listed in the Top 20 for legal writing programs, topped out the Arkansas bar exam passage rate, and saw our trial team included in the NITA Tournament of Champions.
According to the article, as the demand for hands-on legal education continues to grow, many law schools are taking notice. An industry report in the early 1990s outlined the need for more clinical opportunities, and that finding was repeated in a report last year. Many law schools are adding clinical programs and others are adding unique programs and taking a more personal approach.
The Bowen School, which ranked 48th, was chosen using data from the 2008 Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools. Specifically, the magazine divided the total number of full-time clinical course positions offered into the number of full time students at each law school. Yale University won the top spot, and Bowen was included on a Top 50 list that named law schools spanning the United States: the University of Wisconsin, Stanford, Northwestern, SMU, Cornell, Harvard, University of Chicago, Florida A&M, and the University of Tennessee all appeared on the list. There are 200 ABA-accredited law schools in America.
Associate Professor Kelly Browe Olson is Director of Clinical Programs at Bowen. Offered are clinics in mediation, litigation, and tax. Also offered are numerous public service externships with members of the judiciary, committees of the legislature, and members of Congress. In the National Jurist article, one law professor called clinical education “the future of the law school professions,” adding that legal clinic experience allows students to “see both sides of what it means to be a lawyer. We believe that over a third of our intern and clinical participants get job offers based on their experience and performances.”
Link to National Jurist article : http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cypress/nationaljurist0908/index.php?startpage=26