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Clinics, Centers & Institutes in the Law School

We are home to clinics, centers and institutes which provide practical experience and academic training for our law students, as well as educational opportunities and research for the legal community.

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Photo of Prof Cliff Johnson, teaching a class

Expand Your Skills Beyond the Classroom

Clinics, centers, and institutes give law students the chance to apply their knowledge in real-world settings, work with experienced faculty and practitioners, and explore specialized areas of law. These opportunities build practical skills, deepen expertise, and create valuable professional connections that prepare students for successful legal careers.

Explore our Law Centers and Institutes

Mississippi Law Research Institute

The MLRI is an official advisory law revision, research, and reform agency of the state. We provide unbiased, nonpolitical law research for the Legislature, municipalities, universities, and state agencies.

National Sea Grant Law Center

We provide legal research, education, and outreach.

Center for Air and Space Law

As the trusted source of advice for national and global decision-makers on air and space law matters, the Center for Air and Space Law enjoys a long tradition of excellence in global legal scholarship and practice in the fields of air law, drone law and space law. The Center is committed to nurturing the sustainable development and implementation of pioneering and practical legal solutions to present and future issues facing humanity on Earth, in the air and in space.

Mississippi Judicial College

We provide continuing legal judicial education and training for supreme court justices; court of appeal judges; chancery, circuit, county, justice and municipal court judges; youth court judges and referees; and court administrators, court clerks and court reporters.

Additional Centers and Institutes

Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program

The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program at The University of Mississippi School of Law has conducted legal research, education, and outreach since 1972 as the legal research arm of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

  • Sea Grant
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Business Law Institute

The Business Law Institute’s mission is to train great business lawyers. The Institute has leveraged the Law School’s most valuable asset – an expert faculty committed to teaching – by placing the faculty’s top business law experts in a shared office space with students. The close proximity of faculty and students facilitates continuous access and close student-faculty collaboration and engagement. This novel educational model maximizes the fluid transfer of knowledge and experience between teachers and students that animates deep, active learning.

  • Business Law
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Learn Law by Practicing It

Our clinics help students gain hands-on experience through in-house Clinical Programs that combine skills training with service. These clinics provide high-quality legal representation to underserved clients while preparing future lawyers with real-world practice, ethical understanding, and a commitment to expanding access to justice.

Students in the Child Advocacy Clinic are appointed by courts to serve as the Guardian ad Litem (GAL) to represent children in cases involving allegations of neglect and abuse. The GAL acts as a court-appointed expert witness charged with investigating the allegations made by the parties. We interview fact witnesses, conduct home visits, review pleadings, and gather medical, school, and law enforcement records. We then prepare a report to the court about our investigation, and make recommendations as to the custody arrangement that would be in the best interest of the child.

We also assist individuals in uncontested matters, to establish guardianships or finalize custody arrangements or adoptions, in order to achieve permanency for the involved children. Students may also work on special projects to promote child advocacy in Mississippi.

The mission of our clinical program is to educate students in the practical art of lawyering while providing quality legal representation to Mississippi state prisoners serving significant periods of incarceration who have cognizable claims of wrongful conviction.

The clinic itself offers students a unique opportunity to serve the public, to explore career possibilities, to gain first-hand insight into the strategic and ethical dimensions of the profession, and to acquire valuable legal skills.

Students participating in the housing clinic assist individuals and families facing eviction or foreclosure and victims of illegal lockouts and predatory lending practices. They take responsibility for the management of their own cases, meet with clients, interview witnesses, draft motions and pleadings and appear in court.

The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center opened in the fall semester of 2014. The Center advocates for human rights and social justice through litigation, focusing on issues such as police misconduct, unlawful bail and fine collection practices that result in incarceration of poor Mississippians, conditions of confinement, and juvenile justice. Students participate in all aspects of the Center’s litigation, including case selection, witness interviews, research, discovery, and assistance at trials.

Students assist low-income entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations to foster economic development, increase access to capital, and promote job growth in the Mississippi Delta.

UM Law’s Pro Bono Initiative (PBI) is a unique in-house pro bono program. Student volunteers attend legal clinics, where they team with attorney volunteers to interview and assist pro se litigants. Student volunteers can also work on policy initiatives and provide public education on legal issues. PBI is a clinical program that connects law students with pro bono events and organizations.

Ole Miss Law offers second and third-year students diverse and exciting externship opportunities during the school year and in the summer, with placements ranging from three credit hours to twelve. Externs integrate the theoretical knowledge gained from traditional law school classes with the practical experience of working in a public service, governmental or judicial setting.

Externships include placements in prosecution, public defense, government, judicial, legal aid, social justice, medical, education, sports, and not-for-profit public service agencies. Placements are not available in for-profit offices or agencies.