Annual Updates: Pepperdine Caruso Law’s Program of Clinical Education

A couple of natural disasters delayed this update, but I am happy and proud to share our annual update from the Program of Clinical Education at Pepperdine Caruso Law. I welcome you to read updates from our nine clinics (soon to be ten again with the Disaster Relief Clinic resuming imminently), our expanding pro bono programs, and our robust externship programs (reaching from LA around the world).

We are grateful to be in this work with you all, and we are especially grateful for our colleagues at UC-Irvine, UCLA, and Loyola Los Angeles for their remarkable collaborations and energy to support our neighbors harmed in the fires.

Here is the link to our report.

Here is my opening message:

Through 2024, our clinical program continues to thrive and grow as we advance our vital missions of excellent legal education, deep professional formation, and effective access to justice. The legal clinics at the heart of our enterprise aim to prepare law students to become lawyers who bring light and dignity to the world. In a moment of political polarization, global crises, and national upheaval, we commit to the development of smart, ready, ethical lawyers with hearts and minds for justice and to the promotion of just laws and legal systems.

At the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, our communities and neighbors have suffered extraordinary losses from natural disasters. We are rising to meet those needs. Our standing clinics have been flexible and creative to teach students with major disruptions and to continue excellent services to our clients. Our Disaster Relief Clinic and Pro Bono programs have activated immediate programs for community education, lawyer training, and limited-scope clinics in neighborhoods wounded in the fires. Already we have served hundreds of clients and trained hundreds more lawyers. We are taking steps now to expand and deepen this work for Los Angeles for the duration of recovery and rebuilding.

Our standing nine clinics provided tens of thousands of hours of pro bono, public interest legal services to worthy clients. Across diverse practice areas and practice styles, our students learn through supervised practice in litigation, trial and appellate practice; civil and tax practice; mediation and family law; corporate and transactional practice; local, national, and international practice. We teach for transfer, so students may translate all these experiences into any area of practice.

In our robust Externship Program, hundreds of students work in diverse field placements each year. They work throughout Southern California in the Fall and Spring semesters. In the summer, students work in field placements throughout the nation and the world. Our students work in externships globally through our London Program, the Washington DC Externship Semester, and the Sudreau Global Justice Initiative in Uganda, Rwanda, and Ghana.

Prof. Fendel continues to expand our pro bono programs. This year, we have initiatives with pro bono partners in housing justice, immigration advocacy, veterans services, and natural disaster responses. We received significant donations to further expand and establish our pro bono programs next year.

We continue to expand our stipend-funded programs for students working in public interest placements. Each summer, our law school funds summer stipends for students working in unpaid public interest programs. For years, we have been able to fund every student who applies with eligible work to assist with their provision during the summer, to reduce debt load incrementally, and to empower them to take on work for the common good.

In our programs, everything is pedagogy; every client, matter, task, and conversation present opportunities to teach and learn. Our students and faculty serve clients from Skid Row to the Ninth Circuit, from state courts to the IRS, from the US to four other continents, through litigation, mediation, transactions and every step of client-centered advice, counsel, and advocacy.

I invite you to read the following stories from the Legal Aid Clinic, Mediation Clinic, Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic, Community Justice Clinic, Restoration and Justice Clinic, Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Faith and Family Mediation Clinic, Startup Law Clinic, and the Religious Liberty Clinic. Here you can also learn more about our expansive Externship Program and growing pro bono initiatives.