Clinic Lottery

2010 - 2011 Selection Process

Who is eligible? All second-year full-time day division students who will be third-year day students during the semesters of Summer 2010, Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 are eligible to participate in the clinic selection process. Also eligible are third-year part-time evening division students who will be fourth-year evening students in Summer 2010, Fall 2010 and Winter 2011. Foreign attorneys who wish to enroll in a clinic must also complete the clinic’s prerequisites and remedial courses to be eligible.

What are the benefits of signing up NOW? We encourage you to take this opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience and contacts. You will be working in a true legal setting in an area of the law in which you may ultimately choose to specialize. Your best bet is to sign up now. Why now? Because there will be ample time later to reconsider should you decide against participating in the clinical program. However, the response received from this Lottery will determine which of the individual clinics will be offered in the semesters mentioned above. Insufficient Lottery enrollment now could cause certain clinics to be canceled; then, if you later decide to take a clinical semester, the particular clinic you may want might not be offered. In addition, by signing up now, you have a better chance of being placed in your clinic of choice. So don’t defer your decision.

Remember: Participation in the Lottery process now does not require you actually take the clinical semester should your plans later change, but Lottery participation now will increase your chance of being placed in the clinic that is your first choice. Insufficient subscription in a clinic may cause that clinic to be canceled after the Lottery selection process is completed. Remember, by signing up for the Lottery now, you are not making a final commitment to participate in the clinical semester.

How do I choose a clinic? There are seven clinics to choose from, each with its own prerequisites. For the Lottery, we ask that you indicate your top three choices, ranking them first, second and third. We do our best to accommodate your first choice; however, if demand is great and you do not receive it, you will automatically be placed on its Waiting List. Please make your Lottery selections only for a clinic and a semester in which you truly think you might be able to participate. If you are interested in one clinic only and no other, you needn't indicate more than one choice, but this will not improve your chances of being assigned that choice.

What are the requirements to participate in a clinic? You must be in your last academic year of law school and have met the prerequisites of the particular clinic in which you are placed.   No student shall be permitted to take a full-time clinic in the student’s last semester of law school unless that student has earned at least a 2.60 cumulative grade point average by the beginning of the semester prior to the last semester in law school.  In addition, later on just prior to your clinical semester, when you are asked to make a firm commitment to enroll in your clinic, you must have satisfied its set of prerequisites. If you have not taken the prerequisites, you will not be eligible to enroll in the clinic. At that time, when we know the exact number of students making a firm commitment to enroll and we see there are additional seats left, we will begin to notify students from the Waiting List in the order they are listed. Remember, if you are notified, you will still have to have satisfied that clinic’s prerequisites despite the fact that you’ve cleared its Waiting List.

What if I make a mistake when entering my Lottery choices? Should you make a mistake or decide you want to change your selection prior to the Lottery deadline, you may do so on the Web by simply repeating the selection process from beginning to end. You may do this as many times as you would like until the deadline. You will receive an electronic confirmation each time you make your selection. Your last entry at the time of the deadline will be the one later tabulated during the true random selection.

How do I sign up for the Lottery? The selection process is done on the Web. Enroll in a clinical semester by submitting your choices between October 7, 2009, after 6:00 p.m., and October 14, 2009, until midnight. If you attempt to register your selections before or after this time frame, your selections will not be tabulated. After the Lottery deadline, a true random selection will take place; therefore, your time of submission within the time frame will not affect your chance of being admitted to a particular clinic. If the random sampling does not give you your first choice, we will automatically place you on the Waiting List of that clinic and also place you in your alternate choice. The results of this year’s selection process will be posted under Lottery Results by October 21, 2009.

What is the Lottery time frame? Your selections will only register between 6:00 p.m. on October 7 and midnight on October 14, 2009.

What if I have questions about academic planning and course credits? Please contact the Office of Student Affairs.