Experiential Learning

Clinics and Field Placements

The Fredric G. Levin College of Law Clinics and Field Placements are faculty-supervised, advice, representation and mediation clinics that integrate the college’s nationally-ranked scholarship with applied lawyering, mediation and problem-solving skills developed through simulation courses, field placements, and a fully-operational law clinic.

Learn more by viewing our Clinics and Field Placements pages.

Externships

The Levin College of Law offers a vibrant Externship Program in which students earn academic credit and obtain real-world experience in a variety of legal settings. Levin externships are available throughout Florida and the United States at government agencies, with sitting federal and state judges, at non-profit institutions, and in for-profit corporations.

Learn more by viewing our Externship pages.

Introduction to Lawyering

This course acquaints students with the defining attributes of the legal profession including a code of ethics and assumption of duties to clients, the justice system and society. It focuses on the evolving nature of legal services, types of law practices and demographics of the legal profession and the skills required for law practice.

Legal Research, Writing and Appellate Advocacy

The Florida Bar and the ABA have made clear that lawyering skills must be a significant element of a law student’s preparation for practice. The Legal Research, Writing and Appellate Advocacy Department’s mission is to provide to our students the means to master these skills.

Learn more by viewing our Legal Writing and Appellate Advocacy pages.

Pro Bono Program

The mission of the UF Law Pro Bono Program is to help students develop an awareness of their future ethical and professional responsibilities to provide service to their community. Participation in the program gives students the opportunity to perform valuable community service while learning about the legal needs of the underserved and developing the legal skills necessary to help meet those needs.

Learn more by viewing our Pro Bono Program page.

Semester in Practice Program

UF Law students may also choose to take part in the Semester in Practice program – allowing them to earn course credit while working in the city of their choice.

Learn more by viewing our Semester in Practice page.

Summer Stipend and Fellowship Programs

Through our summer 1L Stipend and 2L Fellowship Programs, UF Law provides our students with opportunities to work for organizations that traditionally are unable to pay law students. UF Law will make funding available to students who are working for public interest organizations and government employers.

The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.