As the school of law advances into the future, novel approaches are being developed to create additional opportunities to inspire students and meet their interests across a range of law and judicial services.

“It starts with the mission of the law school, which is to educate the whole lawyer to serve the whole client,” said School of Law Dean Brian Gallini.  

The focus on educating the whole lawyer expands not only the skills and knowledge of law students, but also the possibilities they can envision in a legal career. Gallini said the proof point of the success of school of law alumni lies in the thoughtful approach adopted by earlier institutional leaders including former School of Law Dean Jennifer Brown and exceptional programs developed by current faculty innovators such as Carolyn Kaas, associate professor of law. 

Over the coming year, Kaas will be working closely with Alice Rosenthal, assistant dean of experiential education, co-director of externships and clinical professor of law.

“It’s about building upon the amazing work that Carrie Kaas has already done, and her predecessors as well, and to think about the range of experiential opportunities we think we can offer to our students to really give them a wide variety of experiences,” Rosenthal said. “It’s about working closely with each individual student to meet their needs and interests and help them to determine the kind of law they want to practice.”

Experiential education programs work closely with students, professors, deans and the career development office in a holistic approach to provide opportunities for students to grow who they are as a lawyer, Rosenthal said.

“I think of it as experiential education working in collaboration with the whole law school to create the whole lawyer,” said Rosenthal.

Offerings in experiential learning include simulation courses, clinics and externships. In addition to providing traditional externship opportunities to engage with practicing attorneys in various practice areas, Quinnipiac’s exceptional Bridge to Practice program, delivered in partnership with more than 60 local attorneys, judges and legal professionals, introduces incoming law students to the profession and seeks to augment coursework through experiential learning in true-to-life scenarios during each year of legal study.

The Bridge to Practice program’s creative approach builds opportunities into curricular study which allows students to engage in professional identity formation and explore what they want to do with their J.D., said Gallini.

“We’re really trying to proactively expose students to these various areas so that while they’re going through their traditional path of academic study, they’re also thinking about what their contribution is going to be,” said Gallini. “And the whole idea of that iterative programming is that, by their upper-level years, they’re primed to think about how they’re going to use their experiential learning credits. The Bridge to Practice program is unique in both its mission and its effort to help students to best leverage those experiential credits.”

Quinnipiac School of Law will also continue to build on interdisciplinary opportunities as part of its unique approach to help students shape their future as lawyers, said Gallini.

“I think the next level is really leaning on the pre-existing strengths of a being at a university that has nine schools, to try to bring some of that into a student’s professional identity formation,” said Gallini.

“Something Quinnipiac offers that’s really special are dual degree programs and we’re trying to think about how we can further our interdisciplinary work so that law students can interact with medical students and social work, education and business students and vice versa,” said Rosenthal.

In addition to current interdisciplinary classroom offerings such as health law available to law students and medical students, Rosenthal is looking into developing interdisciplinary work opportunities with university partners such as Hartford Healthcare.

“In the experiential space, I’m really thinking about pipeline partnerships and how we can connect, so that students who are learning in that space so can then get jobs in that field. What are the classes they should be taking and the experiences they need to be having?” Rosenthal said.

Gallini said he and Rosenthal are also currently looking at building more experiential pathways to provide law students with a stronger sense of how they will use their degree and sharpen their career search to find a position aligned with their professional contribution.

“One of the things that Alice and I have talked about is creating a ‘sixth semester anywhere’ program," said Gallini. "This idea that a student could be embedded full-time for academic credit with a particular organization, whether in the state or eventually around the country." 

The program would work with university partner organizations and large corporate organizations in the state to develop an immersive experience for students. It also creates an optimal opportunity to tap into the school of law’s strong alumni network, said Gallini.

“The vision, direction and discussion is that oftentimes the employer or field supervisor who would actually supervise the student is an alumnus," said Gallini. "It creates an opportunity to unify our alumni’s passion for the school and their willingness to give back through a mentorship approach and their willingness to help an upper-level student navigate into a particular career path." 

“Dean Gallini has a lot of exciting ideas about how we can build upon the amazing work that’s already been done and take it to the next generation. And so, I’m excited, in my position, to build upon that in the experiential space,” said Rosenthal.

The school of law also offers exceptional experiential learning through its robust and impactful clinical education offerings.

“It’s about inspiring students to find what brings them joy and where they really want to be as a practicing lawyer,” said Rosenthal. “One of the lawyers who runs our Defense Appellate Clinic told me she was going to go into healthcare law until she did the Defense Appellate Clinic as a law student and she completely changed course and became committed to criminal defense. And now she’s come back full circle to run our Defense Appellate Clinic with a colleague.”

Eight on-campus law clinics and companion seminars are supervised by full-time faculty and dedicated practitioners. Clinic subject matter includes constitutional law, criminal defense appellate practice, criminal prosecution appellate practice, criminal justice reform, employment law, family law, human trafficking prevention, immigrants’ rights policy, immigration and refugee law, juvenile justice, mediation, negotiation, prisoner reentry, rrisoners’ rights, tax, transgender rights, veterans advocacy, veterans benefits and status law and women's rights.

“All of those offerings are also strengths that we are proud of at Quinnipiac School of Law,” said Gallini.