Our Interview With The Experts At University of Minnesota Law School

Juris Education interviewed Mitch Zamoff, Assistant Dean of Students at University of Minnesota Law School, for an exclusive look at what sets the school's Program apart.

What makes the University of Minnesota Law School's Experiential Learning program unique?

The University of Minnesota Law School is proud to be consistently recognized as one of the top law schools in the United States for experiential education (ExEd). This year, the Law School was ranked as the fourth-best law school in the nation for practical skills training by National Jurist. The Law School’s ExEd curriculum includes a robust lawyering skills course for first-year students, one of the largest and most well-regarded clinical programs in the country, a field placement program that has tripled in the past five years, and simulation courses that align with the NextGen bar exam and the skills most needed most by newly licensed lawyers.

A few highlights:

• Students in Law in Practice (LiP) work through a simulated litigation and transactional file during the spring semester of their 1L year. The litigation file simulates the schedule and progression of a lawsuit. Students begin by conducting a client interview, then take a deposition, argue a discovery motion in a chambers conference with a sitting judge, and participate in a mediation with an experienced neutral. In connection with the transactional file, students have a counseling session with their client and then negotiate  a contract with students representing the other party to the transaction. In all, students participate in six lawyering skills simulations. The simulations are overseen by practicing attorneys who provide the students with feedback and include appearances by judges and mediators from the Twin Cities and actors from our Experiential Learning Ensemble to enhance the realism of the exercises.
• With 28 law clinics, over 70% of which are full year, our clinical program is one of the largest in the nation. We are one of the first law schools to offer clinics in gun violence prevention, sports and name, image and likeness (NIL) law, and racial justice law. Our student director model enables 3L students to work in the same clinic for two years, where they handle complex projects and help supervise newer students in the clinic.
• The Law School’s supervised field placement program is organized by subject matter and nature of placement into the following seven Topical Field Placements (TFPs): Public Interest, Judicial, Law Firm, Corporate, Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, and Patent. Students register for and enroll in TFPs like other Law School courses. Each TFP is supervised by faculty members with demonstrated experience and expertise in the applicable field and/or type of organization hosting the field placement. This model enables students to receive consistent, high-quality feedback from a dedicated faculty team of subject matter experts, creates small-group and peer-to-peer learning opportunities within each TFP, and allows faculty supervisors to develop deep relationships with their TFP field organizations, which increases the quality and consistency of the feedback that students receive from field supervisors.
• The Law School offers students over 35 upper-division simulation courses designed to develop the skills tested on NextGen bar exam and the competencies junior attorneys need to succeed in legal practice. Our core simulation courses utilize an in-house troupe of non-student actors to play the roles of clients, witnesses, parties, and others in lawyering skills simulations to enhance the realism and educational value of these exercises.
• We have a nationally ranked moot court program which has won multiple national championships in various competitions over the past several years.

What specific skills can students expect to build through their participation in the program?

Clinics, field placements, and simulation courses cultivate a distinct set of professional competencies that it is difficult for traditional doctrinal coursework to reach. Students learn to interview and counsel clients, which requires reading emotional cues, managing power dynamics, and translating legal concepts into language a layperson can act on. They develop fact investigation skills such as analyzing documents, conducting witness interviews, and assembling a coherent narrative from incomplete and sometimes contradictory information. Drafting becomes a lived skill rather than an academic exercise. Students in experiential settings produce pleadings, contracts, memoranda, and correspondence under deadline pressure. Oral advocacy and negotiation skills mature through repeated practice under real or realistic stakes. Students become comfortable thinking on their feet, adjusting strategy on the fly, and embracing the discomfort of not always having a scripted answer at the ready.

Beyond these technical abilities, experiential settings build the professional judgment that separates a competent lawyer from a merely knowledgeable one. Students confront ethical dilemmas that textbooks can only describe in the abstract. They learn to recognize conflicts of interest, maintain confidentiality under pressure, and exercise discretion when the rules do not supply a clean answer. They build capacity for self reflection, often through supervision and feedback loops that ask them to critique their own performance honestly rather than simply seeking approval. Time management and case management skills emerge naturally when students juggle multiple client matters with real deadlines, and many develop a stronger sense of professional identity as they experience firsthand what it feels like to carry responsibility for someone else's legal outcome. Resilience and comfort with ambiguity round out this growth because clinical and externship work rarely resolves as neatly as a hypothetical fact pattern. This teaches students to function effectively even when the path forward is uncertain.

What's a recent University of Minnesota Law School's Experiential Learning program initiative that you are proud of and why?

Earlier this year, we launched an exciting new addition to our ExEd programming: The Experience Court at Mondale Program (ExCAMP). (“Mondale” refers to Mondale Hall — the building named after former Vice President Walter Mondale in which the Law School is located.) The goal of ExCAMP is to enhance the educational experience of our future litigators by providing them with opportunities to observe judicial proceedings without leaving the Law School building. Taking advantage of our newly constructed, state-of-the-art teaching courtrooms, federal and state judges from a variety of courts throughout the Twin Cities hold motions hearings at the Law School that are open to interested law students. The judges make themselves available for question-and-answer sessions after each hearing. ExCAMP is one of only a handful of programs that brings actual court hearings into a law school on a regular basis. Approximately one ExCAMP hearing is held each month during the academic year.

What advice do you have for prospective law school applicants interested in an experiential learning program such as the University of Minnesota Law School's?

Be purposeful about assessing the strength of schools in experiential education. Look at their portfolio of clinics, field placements, and simulation courses. Ask how early you can get real or simulated client experience. Only a handful of law schools offer meaningful experiential opportunities to first-year students.

Prioritize schools that integrate skills early. If practical training is backloaded into the 3L year, you will be missing out on two critical years of growth. Early experiential courses build confidence and clarity about what kind of lawyer you want to become.

Elect to participate in experiential programs. They challenge you in different ways, connect you to real work for clients, and help unlock skills that are directly relevant to your performance as an attorney. Growth happens when you perform, reflect, and improve in experiential settings.

All legal employers want to hire law students who can contribute quickly. Students who have drafted real documents, represented clients, and simulated the work of lawyers while in law school stand out from the pack.

Juris Education is proud to interview experts at the nation's most renowned law schools for insights on what makes their programs unique and how they shape career-ready law students.