Experiential learning

Experiential learning that serves the community

TU Law will provide you with hands-on experience in a variety of legal settings. Taking part in experiential learning will deepen your substantive legal knowledge, strengthen your lawyering skills and build your professional identity.

LEGAL CLINICS

TU Law’s legal clinics function as an independent law firm. Participating in one or more clinics will prepare you for the practice of law through a combination of real-world experience, intensive supervision and dynamic seminars. You will experience the formation and development of the attorney-client relationship and accompanying professional obligations through direct representation of clients in a collaborative environment. You will also hone your lawyering, advocacy and legal strategy skills by taking the lead in client representations.

Potential opportunities

• Appearing in court • Negotiating with opposing counsel • Representing immigrants seeking legal status • Learning how to run a solo law firm • Representing vulnerable and traditionally underserved populations • Advocating for systemic change

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS PROJECT

Immigrant Rights Project students engage in learning and service by representing vulnerable noncitizens in immigration matters. Clinic clients include noncitizen victims of domestic violence and other crimes, unaccompanied noncitizen minors, individuals seeking asylum in the U.S. as a result of persecution or fear of persecution in their home countries and other noncitizens subject to removal and immigration detention. Students gain vital practice skills in interviewing, legal research, drafting and advocacy while performing critical and even lifesaving work for their clients.

SOLO PRACTICE CLINIC

In the Solo Practice Clinic (SPC), students learn the business aspect of running a financially sustainable solo law firm committed to providing legal services to traditionally underserved clients. Participants develop viable marketing plans and budgets, explore client management systems and create a viable business plan for their own solo practices. In the client portion of the SPC, students represent clients in a variety of legal cases. The types of matters you can work on in the SPC vary depending on the needs of our underserved populations. The types of cases can include immigration, expungements, unemployment claims and some transactional work such as assisting startups with their incorporation process. The client component of the SPC helps students develop and hone their lawyering skills, such as client interviewing, legal strategizing, systemic advocacy and preparing reports on systemic abuses and due process violations inherent in our justice systems.

COMMUNITY ADVOCACY CLINIC

The Community Advocacy Clinic trains future lawyers and promotes access to justice in two ways: by representing community groups in systemic advocacy and policy reform projects and by representing individual clients in cases before state courts and administrative agencies. Participation in this clinic offers opportunities to advocate for clients inside and outside the courtroom using a range of strategies, including litigation, legislative reform, policy advocacy and strategic planning. Students gain vital lawyering skills while learning to reflect critically on their role in the justice system. (Not offered every semester.)

TERRY WEST CIVIL LEGAL CLINIC

The Terry West Civil Legal Clinic focuses on access to justice for marginalized communities in Tulsa. Clinic work includes individual client representation across various civil legal needs, as well as engagement around structural access to justice barriers. Students learn about the role of the justice system in the lives of marginalized communities, interrogate their role as lawyers within this system, engage critically with the law and explore avenues of advocacy both inside and outside of the courtroom. Students develop critical lawyering and advocacy skills, and clinic projects may include court observations, fact-finding and reporting, impact litigation, legislation advocacy and know-yourrights presentations.

TULSA IMMIGRANT RESOURCE NETWORK

TU Law’s legal training does not stop with graduation. The Tulsa Immigrant Resource Network (TIRN), for example, is a post-graduate fellowship in which recent law school graduates provide direct service to Tulsa’s noncitizen population. TIRN fellowships complement the work of the Immigrant Rights Project by enabling newly licensed attorneys to gain experience in providing legal services to marginalized communities while receiving hands-on supervision. TIRN fellows also participate in providing education on immigration law and process, as well as immigrants’ rights, to the community at large and to legal and nonlegal providers of services to the noncitizen population.

PUBLIC DEFENDER CLINIC

The Public Defender Clinic (PDC) is a public service, criminal defense-adjacent program for law students launched in fall 2020. The PDC has two goals: (1) allow law students to get one-on-one advocacy experience while helping presently incarcerated individuals apply for sentence commutation, ultimately advocating for them at the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board; and (2) to reduce Oklahoma’s incarceration rate directly and by supporting legislation, with an emphasis on Oklahoma’s female incarceration crisis.

Experiential learning that propels legal careers

MY TU STORY Vic Wiener (JD ’20)

VIC WIENER WORKED IN THE SOCIAL SERVICES FIELD FOR SIX YEARS PRIOR TO ENROLLING AT TU

LAW. They returned to school in order to equip themselves with the legal knowledge and skills essential to excelling as an advocate for youth. Today, Wiener is a Skadden Fellow at Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

Wiener took full advantage of the experiential opportunities available to TU Law students. During the summers following both first and second year, Wiener secured two of the best juvenile law internships and externships in the United States with nationally recognized youth law organizations: the National Center for Youth Law in Washington, D.C., and Juvenile Law Center. “In these placements, I worked under the supervision of top experts in juvenile law, allowing me to rapidly improve my legal writing and advocacy skills.”

TU Law’s student organizations and activities were also a big part of Wiener’s time at the college. These include serving as president of OutLaws, the LGBTQ+ student society, and as community liaison for immLaw, the immigration law society. For two years, Wiener traveled to the Karnes Detention Center in Texas with a group of immLaw students to work with asylum seekers. During their final year at TU Law, Wiener was the editor-in-chief of the Tulsa Law Review (TLR) and served on the board of immLaw.

Reflecting on their experience as a TU Law student, Wiener underscored involvement with immLaw, work as a research assistant for Professor Matt Lamkin, writing and editing experience for TLR and the support they received from many professors as crucial for empowering them to excel.

“One of the reasons I chose TU Law was its small size and the accessibility of the professors. I had numerous professors and administrators who took a genuine interest in my success, providing academic, professional and emotional support as I pursued my dreams.”