Clinical & Intensive ProgramsAccept/Decline DeadlineTuesday, February 21, 20123:00 pm |
The clinical education offerings at Osgoode Hall Law School are the most extensive in Canada and among the most innovative in the world. The Criminal Law Intensive and the Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services began almost thirty years ago. They were the first programs in North America to provide intensive full term, fifteen credit clinical experiences in real workplaces. Building on the success of these two programs, full term Intensive programs have been added in Business Law, Immigration and Refugee Law and Aboriginal Law. Osgoode Hall Law School continues to lead the field in the number and variety of its Intensive programs.
The full term Intensive programs have been supplemented with programs that offer fewer credits and which are spread over more than one term. These include the Innocence Project, the Clinical Program at CLASP and the Osgoode Business Clinic.
Each program has its own character and own criteria for admission. Explore your options using the menu of programs to the left. Applications are made in the winter of the preceding academic year. For example a student applying for a clinical or intensive program in September or January will do so in February of the year before.
How does a student decide which is the right program? Here are some things to think about.
| Subject area | |
| It is important that you be interested in the area of law, but students do not necessarily have to be planning a career in that area of law. All of the programs provide generic skills that are applicable in many other contexts. | |
| How many credits and for how long? | |
| Clinical programs providing fewer credits allow a student more flexibility in taking other non-clinical courses. However, some students favour full term Intensives because they can focus completely on their clinical work. | |
| Exposure to the "real world" | |
| Students should determine where the programs are based. Some programs work out of the law school, while others involve time in law offices, government departments, courts or Aboriginal organizations. | |
| Community service and social justice | |
| Whether it is a wrongfully convicted prisoner, a poor person threatened with eviction or an Aboriginal organization needing legal research, a motivated student under the supervision of experienced counsel and faculty, can make a difference. Community service is an important facet in the Parkdale program, the Innocence Project, CLASP, the Aboriginal Intensive and the Osgoode Business Clinic. | |
For more information contact Natia Tucci - 416 736-5973 or ntucci@osgoode.yorku.ca