Clinics & Experiential Learning

At Vanderbilt Law School, we firmly believe that a comprehensive legal education extends beyond textbooks and lecture halls. Our dynamic legal clinics, enriching experiential learning programs, and scholarly student-run publications create an immersive learning environment where theory meets practice. Choose from eight legal clinics – all allow you to dive into various law fields, representing real clients and arguing actual cases under expert guidance. Combined with our experiential learning curriculum which empowers you to apply classroom knowledge in practical settings, shaping you into a critical thinker, decision-maker, and confident legal leader.

Our student-run publications offer the chance to contribute to important legal discourse, honing your research and writing skills while connecting you with a global legal community. Vanderbilt Law School is committed to equipping you with tangible skills and experiences that will propel you into a dynamic and successful legal career. 

Clinics at Vanderbilt Law

Criminal Practice Clinic

Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic

Housing Law Clinic

Immigration Practice Clinic

Intellectual Property & the Arts Clinic

International Law Practice Lab

Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic

Youth Opportunity Clinic

Externships: Course Credit for Work Experience

Students Studying on Main Street

Vanderbilt Law recognizes the irreplaceable value of hands-on, real-world experience in shaping future legal professionals. Our diverse and enriching externship programs offer you the unique opportunity to step beyond the bounds of traditional classroom learning and directly immerse yourself in the professional legal world. Our students work alongside accomplished legal professionals, gaining an on-the-ground understanding of law in action across a variety of sectors to prepare you for a vibrant and successful legal career. 

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On Campus Opportunities

The Vanderbilt Moot Court promotes the practice of effective appellate advocacy by leading all appellate advocacy activities at Vanderbilt Law School. Each year, the Board produces a unique Constitutional Law moot court problem and runs the Bass Berry & Sims Intramural Moot Court Competition, which serves as the selection process for new board members. The Moot Court Board also holds tryouts for students to compete in traveling teams that participate in various moot court competitions around the country. Finally, the Board assists the law school's Legal Writing Department in organizing and implementing the first-year oral arguments program, a required component of the Legal Writing curriculum.   

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Publications

  • Vanderbilt Law Review

    The Vanderbilt Law Review is published six times a year (in January, March, April, May, October, and November).  

    The Law Review selects new members in the spring of their first year. Students interested in Law Review membership are required to compete in a write-on competition following their spring final exams. 

    Learn more: Vanderbilt Law Review

  • Journal of Transnational Law

    Established in 1967, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law is one of the world’s most prominent and widely cited legal journals devoted to current and emerging issues of comparative and international law.  

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  • JETLaw

    The Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (JETLaw) is an official, highly-ranked, student-run publication of Vanderbilt  Law School and publishes four issues annually. A special issue includes papers presented at its annual symposium, hosted on the law school campus in Nashville, TN. JETLaw serves as a unique yet inclusive forum for cutting-edge legal scholarship dedicated to the expanding nexus of entertainment, technology, and law in an increasingly connected world. Recognizing that this fusion of entertainment and technology poses novel legal issues in many fields of law, JETLaw welcomes scholarly submissions from the perspectives of copyright, administrative, sports, art, science, technology, and entertainment law, among others. 

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  • ELPAR

    The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is published annually in the August issue of the Environmental Law Report (ELR) in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in Washington, DC. Each year, Vanderbilt Law students work with an expert advisory committee, senior staff from ELI, and Vanderbilt Law professors to identify the year's best academic articles that present legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. 

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  • Social Justice Reporter

    SJR is the only Vanderbilt Law journal with an explicit social justice mission. This publication is envisioned as a national go-to resource for social justice-oriented scholars, practitioners, students and community members, with content spanning intersectional issues of law and social equity. SJR will offer a unique mix of high-quality scholarship presented through long-form articles, short essays and opinion pieces, as well as contributions on current events and legal debates with direct and immediate policy relevance. The first round of publications are expected during the 2023-2024 academic year.

    Learn more about the Social Justice Reporter.

  • Journal of Risk & Uncertainty

    The Journal of Risk and Uncertainty features both theoretical and empirical papers that analyze risk-bearing behavior and decision-making under uncertainty. The journal serves as an outlet for important, relevant research in decision analysis, economics, and psychology. Among the topics covered in the journal are decision theory and the economics of uncertainty, psychological models of choice under uncertainty, risk and public policy, experimental investigations of behavior under uncertainty, and empirical studies of real-world, risk-taking behavior. Articles begin with an introductory discussion explaining the nature of the research and the interpretation and implications of the findings at a level that is accessible to researchers in other disciplines.

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