Clinics and Practicum

Gain Real-world Experience in Dispute Resolution

Mediation Clinic

South Texas Law students can gain real-world experience in resolving a variety of disputes through their enrollment in the Mediation Clinic. Unlike the other clinical courses, students in the clinic do not serve as an advocate or represent clients. Rather, students act as neutral third-party mediators who assist others in resolving their disputes. Through this clinical experience, students develop and refine a variety of interpersonal skills that are important to effective problem solving and practical lawyering.In addition to its education mission, the clinic also provides public service by assisting courts and local agencies.

Cases vary and include civil matters such as landlord-tenant, contract, employment, and consumer disputes. Cases are most often referred to the clinic through the local Justice of the Peace Courts in Harris and surrounding counties, along with the Dispute Resolution Center.The Mediation Clinic also partners with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to offer students a rare opportunity to gain experience mediating federal employment disputes.

Students have the opportunity to observe a number of private mediations with Mediation Clinic co-professor, Denise Peterson, through her private practice, Peterson ADR.

To enroll in the clinic, students must be in compliance with Texas Statute 154.052 requiring 40 classroom hours of instruction in the mediation process by having completed either Mediation Theory & Practice or Mediation Practice. Clinic enrollment is capped at 6.If you are interested in learning more, please contact Prof. Debra Berman at dberman@stcl.edu.

Inter-School Negotiation Practicum

Since its inception in 2019, almost 2,400 students from 45 law schools have participated in the STCL Inter-School Negotiation Practicum. The practicum is a fully centralized cross-school, month long one-on-one negotiation exercise utilizing actual court documents from a pending lawsuit. Participants are paired up with a student from another law school in another city and must negotiate via email, phone, and video over a one-month period. After the exercise, students complete a substantive post-negotiation questionnaire.

For more information about registering for the spring 2023 semester, please email Debra Berman at dberman@stcl.edu.

We are happy to announce that the practicum was honored in 2023 as a top scoring submission in the Innovation & Pedagogy category of Bloomberg Law’s Inaugural Law School Innovation Program!

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