Centers & Programs

The law school's numerous curricular and co-curricular opportunities are broadened and enriched by Institutes, Centers and formalized special programs bringing together course offerings, student journals, and faculty research. In both global and local initiatives, students are able to learn, gain practical experience, and participate in a range of activities in pursuit of the law school's mission.

Center for Law and Global Justice

The Center for Law and Global Justice was established to expand the law school's commitment to international justice. The Center develops and implements international rule of law projects. Students may participate in research projects, Center sponsored internships in numerous countries, and the student published Journal of Law and Social Challenges.

McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law

The J. Thomas McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law explores and advances the body of knowledge related to intellectual property law, with a particular emphasis on the relationship among IP law, cyberlaw, emerging technologies, and the forces of globalization.

Center for Law and Ethics

The Center for Law and Ethics seeks to teach our students to become ethical lawyers. Through its various projects, it engages practicing attorneys in discussions about ethics. In addition, it examines the structure of the legal profession and the legal system, exploring possibilities for reform and improvement. 

USF School of Law launched the USF Center for Law and Ethics in the summer of 2007 as a revitalization of the former Center for Applied Legal Ethics. The director of the Center is Professor Joshua P. Davis. The Center is funded primarily by a generous donation from the Hugh & Hazel Darling Foundation.

Picturing Justice
An award-winning online journal examining the images of law, lawyers, and justice presented in movies and on television.

Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project

The Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project involves participating students in work with attorneys trying or appealing death penalty cases and in empirical and legal research studies concerning capital punishment. The Project works in conjunction with the Center for Law and Global Justice.

Intensive Advocacy Program

The Intensive Advocacy Program is a unique two-week intensive course, focusing on litigation and trial techniques and strategies. The program brings seasoned lawyers and judges from across the nation to train law students in the art of advocacy. The exciting program features over 80 hours of lectures, demonstrations, and practice workshops.

USF Law Clinics

The USF Law Clinic is the umbrella for all of the law school's in-house live client practice programs. In the innovative components of the USF Law Clinic, under the direction of experienced faculty members, students represent real clients through judicial and administrative proceedings in a wide range of civil, criminal defense and juvenile law cases.

The law school offers upper-division students the opportunity to earn academic credit for fieldwork performed at government agencies, legal corporate departments, law firms, non-profit organizations, and judicial chambers.  Thus, the Externship Programs allow students to include practical, hands-on experience as part of their school education.  Each program has a faculty-taught course component.  Through these classes, students examine legal and professional issues that arise in their fieldwork, and receive an introduction to litigation preparation in anticipation of their postgraduate position.  Faculty monitor the externships to ensure their quality as learning experiences.  Students assume real-world responsibilities and develop professional relationships in contexts identical to those in which they may eventually practice.