Experience is an invaluable form of instruction, which is why Duke Law maintains one of the highest quality clinical programs in the country. Students can choose to pursue experiential learning opportunities in a number of different legal clinics by providing direct services to underserved client populations under the supervision of Duke Law faculty members. These clinics include:

• The AIDS Legal Assistance Project, which provides legal services to indigent HIV-infected persons in the areas of guardianships, estate planning, government benefits and discrimination.
• The Children's Education Law Clinic, which provides advocacy for children in school, in the areas of special education and discipline.
• The Community Economic Development Clinic, which addresses issues of affordable housing, banking, entrepreneurship and business development (including financing) for businesses emerging out of low-income communities in North Carolina that have the potential for improving the economic base of those communities.
• The Death Penalty Clinic, which provides legal representation to prisoners claiming wrongful conviction of crimes for which they have been sentenced to capital punishment.
• The International Legal Clinic: The Duke Law Clinic for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, through which students will research and advise on policies to address human rights atrocities in Sierra Leone.

Additional opportunities for students to obtain clinical experience are available through our Criminal Litigation Clinic, the Poverty Law Seminar/Clinic and a number of simulation-based courses in trial practice, litigation negotiation and mediation, appellate practice and estate planning.

The experiential learning available through these clinics is an important part of professionalism and leadership training at the Law School, designed to develop leadership values and skills such as collaboration, responsibility, management and service. These skills can also be developed in one of the many opportunities provided by the Pro Bono Project.

A large percentage of Duke Law students participate in our public interest and pro bono programs. Some take on significant commitments with organizations such as the Guardian Ad Litem Program, or the Public Defender's Office. Others may choose to swing a hammer or wield a paintbrush as part of our Dedicated to Durham initiative, highlighted by two annual School-wide community outreach days. Our Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono also offers a book club and speaker series, an annual overnight retreat in the North Carolina woods, and fundraising activities through the Public Interest Law Foundation in support of public interest summer fellowships.

There are also more than two dozen student-led organizations and special-interest groups that provide community outreach, including Street Law, a program through which law students teach civics in area high schools, and the Innocence Project, which enlists law students to investigate claims of actual innocence by death row inmates in North Carolina.