Clinical Policies and FAQs

J.D. students in their 2L and 3L year as well as LL.M. students can participate in clinics.

Due to Massachusetts rules on representing clients in criminal proceedings, 2 clinics require students be in their 3L year: the Criminal Justice Institute and the ITA Prosecution Perspectives Clinic (Criminal Prosecution Clinic).

Some clinics have additional course requisites or require U.S. Citizenship for security clearance purposes.

• See Clinical Registration for J.D. students
• See Clinical Application for LL.M. students

Yes. Most clinical courses are 2-credit seminars that meet once a week for 2 hours.

The majority of clinical courses are restricted to students who are currently enrolled in the associated clinic since the clinic and course are meant to be taken during the same semester. However, there are a few clinical courses that do not follow this model. Please check the clinic’s description in the HLS Course Catalog to see what the required clinical course component is.

Few clinics have pre-requisites, but if you are looking to do a clinic that includes criminal proceedings, Evidence or Trial Advocacy Workshop are most likely pre-requisites or co-requisites.

The clinic description in the HLS Course Catalog will list any pre or co-requisites.

The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinic requires that students have taken the Negotiation Workshop before they are eligible to enroll.

Students who have taken a clinic can arrange to continue their clinical work into a subsequent semester or another year by applying for an Advanced Clinical placement.

The application requires the approval of your direct clinical supervisor and the clinic’s faculty director.

Advanced clinical students do not take an additional clinical course component.

Yes – grades earned through a clinic will count towards Latin Honors.

If a student receives permission by the Assistant Dean of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs to exceed the clinical credit maximum of 16 clinical credits, any credits earned above the 16 will not count towards Latin Honors. All independent clinical projects (and occasional Credit/Fail graded clinics) do not count towards Latin Honors.

Almost all clinics satisfy the HLS Pro Bono Requirement. There are a handful of clinics that may have a mix of pro bono and non-pro bono projects.

You can read the Pro Bono Graduation Requirement or contact us with specific questions.

J.D. students register for most clinics every year in late March or early April through a preferencing process in Helios.

Students register for the entire upcoming academic year – fall, winter, and spring semesters.

Some clinics are offered on a by-application basis. Students apply to these clinics according to the rules and deadlines stated in the clinics’ course catalog description.

LL.M. students also participate in many of the same clinics as J.D. students but have their own clinical application process.
Please see the information here.

Once clinical registration preferencing results have been released, students are able to add and drop clinics through Helios.

Students who are on the wait-list for clinics will receive automated wait-list offers if and when space becomes available.

See Clinical Registration

See By-Application Clinics

As soon as registration preferencing results are released, add/drop period opens for clinics.

Students may choose to drop from a clinic up until that clinic’s drop deadline, which is stated in the clinic’s course catalog description.

Students may also add themselves to clinics with open seats at any time up until the clinic’s drop deadline.

Clinic waitlists tend to move significantly between the initial registration preferencing and the next academic year, especially for the spring semester of the upcoming year.

If you were enrolled in the class as a direct result of your clinic enrollment (i.e. the class is either for clinical students only or you enrolled in the class under a reserved clinical seat) then you must also drop the class.

There are a few reasons that you may not be able to accept the clinic waitlist offer.

• Check to make sure that you have enough room in your schedule for the clinical credits and the clinical course component credits. J.D. students may not enroll in more than 16 credits in both the fall and spring semesters (and may not exceed 3 credits during winter term).
• You may be enrolled in another clinic during that semester. Students may only take one clinic at a time, so if you are enrolled in a different clinic in the same semester as the waitlist offer, you will need to drop your current clinic enrollment before being able to accept the waitlist offer.
• You may have already taken the clinic. Students who have enrolled in a clinic once may not enroll again through Helios. Students interested in continuing their work with a clinic they have already participated in should apply through the Advanced Clinical program.

If you continue to have problems accepting your clinical waitlist offer, please contact us!

Clinics line up clients, cases, and projects well before the semester begins, and depend on their enrollment numbers to determine how many cases to take. Thus, clinics have add/drop deadlines that are always earlier than the regular course add/drop deadlines. Dropping after the clinic’s add/drop deadline results in a “Withdrawal” (WD) notation on your transcript. Students will not receive any credit for partial or incomplete participation prior to withdrawing.

In a clinic, you earn academic credits (clinical credits) for the work you complete. The majority of clinics allow you to elect 3, 4, or 5 clinical credits, although some clinics have a set number of clinical credits. Each clinical credit equals 4 hours of clinical work per week or 48 hours per semester.

Over winter term, students receive 2 clinical credits. Students must be in residence working full-time at their placements, from the first day of winter term through the last day of winter term.

Students can change their clinical credits in Helios up until the clinic’s drop deadline. Once the add/drop deadline has passed, students may request a change to their clinical credits by emailing Maggie Bay in the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs.

Each semester has a deadline, about a month into the semester, by which students must request any changes to their credit enrollment. More information about changing your clinical credits can be found here: https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/clinical/clinical-credits

Once students have been assigned a direct clinical supervisor, they will work with that supervisor to establish a clinical work schedule that fits with the rest of their academic schedule. Some clinics may have more detailed requirements about when (and where) the clinical work must be done.

You are responsible for consistently working the required number of hours each week throughout the semester, with exceptions for certain holidays and spring break week. During these excused absences, which you should coordinate in advance with your placement supervisor, you are required to ensure that all casework is covered and that clients are aware of your absence. Any unplanned hours missed from your weekly schedule of clinical work must be made up within a reasonable period of time on a schedule developed in conjunction with your clinical supervisor.

Travel time does not count towards your clinical hours requirement.

In-House clinics are located on-campus in Cambridge or Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston, and are staffed by HLS employees: Clinical Professors of Law, Lecturers on Law, Clinical Instructors, Clinical Fellows, and program administrators who teach students in the clinic and in the classroom.

Externship clinics have a slightly different format. Students enrolled in an externship clinic are placed at a variety of outside organizations that fall under the clinic’s subject area. Your direct clinical supervisor is most likely a licensed attorney at the organization you are working for. The director of the externship clinic serves as the instructor for the clinical course component. Students engage in clinical work on-site at the organization they have been placed with.

The Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs coordinates placements for most externship clinics.

All your clinical placements will be listed in Helios in the “Public Service” section under “Your Public Service” menu option.

Pro bono hours for your clinical placement are automatically calculated based on the number of clinical credits that you completed.

If you notice an error in the information listed in your Public Service Summary in Helios, please contact us so that we may correct the information.

Please do not complete the evaluation until the information listed is accurate!

Student evaluation of clinics are available in Helios in the “Public Service” section under the “Jobs Search” menu option. Once on the Jobs Search screen, you can choose to filter by “Clinic” and select the clinics you’d like to view.

Yes. Our office collects these evaluations as a way to monitor and improve students’ clinical experiences.

As the office that oversees the entire clinical program, we are always looking for student feedback about what works and what doesn’t work, and where there may be opportunities for new ideas or programs.

We also collect these evaluations to provide future students candid information about the realities of clinical work, which can help them as they navigate the registration process and offer insights particular to the student experience.

You will receive an email when you have an evaluation to submit. There will also be a notification on your HELIOS homepage. These confidential evaluations help OPIA and the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs learn which organizations offer good experiences. Supervisors do not have access to view them. Under Public Service, choose Your Public Service. Under Your Positions click the Evaluate link.

In order for students to practice law, they must be practicing under the auspices of an existing clinic. You must not identify yourself as an attorney or give the impression to clients that you are an attorney, even though you have all the responsibilities and obligations of an attorney. Always advise clients and others that you are a law student. If someone mistakenly refers to you as an attorney or otherwise indicates that they think you are an attorney, you must clarify that you are a student.

The Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct or the rules or codes of the particular jurisdiction of your placement apply to you. Please make sure that you are familiar with these rules and can access them during the semester.

When questions or problems arise, there are many resources available to you, including your supervising attorney and the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. Learn more at the Dean of Students page.

The majority of students enrolled in a clinical are working in a law office environment, practicing under a special court rule. Because of this, you are bound by the same “attorney/client” confidentiality rules as staff at each placement site. While most clinical placements will address confidentiality issues with you, please feel free to raise any questions or concerns you may have with your supervisor.

We recommend the following as a starting point for dealing with client confidentiality:

• At all times, assure the client that all matters discussed relating to his or her legal problem and all written materials relative to the client or case are confidential. This also applies to potential clients you interview who are seeking legal advice.
• At the beginning of your clinical work, discuss any potential conflicts of interest with your supervisor, including any prior knowledge or legal work you may have accomplished on behalf of an opposing party.
• Do not refer to a client by name, provide identifying information or talk about details of the case in common areas of the office (reception area, hallway, elevators) where other clients or visitors may overhear you. This same rule applies when you are outside of the office (e.g., at a local restaurant), or when you’re in a law school setting such as a class. Although we encourage the integration of clinical work into the classroom, you must never write a law school paper or exam, or provide your professor with case file documentation containing the client’s name or other identifying information about the case or client.
• Handle case files carefully to avoid breaching client confidentiality. Whenever possible, case files and case-related documents should be kept in a filing cabinet, not on a desktop, where confidential information could be viewed by anyone walking by. Case files belong to the clinc and as such, all case/client related papers, files, emails, and electronic documents must be returned to the clinic by the end of the semester.

In addition, to the topics address in the on-line ethics tutorial we want to highlight some particular issues related to protecting confidentiality in the remote environment. First, we recommend that you seek out and actively engage in any ethics training/professional responsibility training available to you from your clinic/SPO or external placement.  Second, we recommend you check in with your supervisor about your ethical obligations with a particular focus on the unique aspects of confidentiality in a remote environment.

Visit our page on Professional Responsibility and Remote work for more information.

If you are doing clinic work or working in a Student Practice Organization, you must use the clinical e-mail account exclusively.

Students working at an externship and pro bono placement must adhere to the policies set forth by their organizations. Many organizations provide students with an email address to use for their work during the placement. If the placement does not provide this, students should discuss the existence of their clinical email account with their supervisor and should use this account.

Students should not use their personal email account or their regular HLS student account for externship or pro bono work.

The clinical email account has extra security measures in place to protect the confidentiality of the student, the supervisor, and the clients from inadvertent disclosure of confidential information. This email account should never be used for personal or other matters unrelated to clinical/pro bono work.