Report: RWU Law ranks among top 25 public interest law schools

THE NATIONAL JURIST magazine has ranked the Roger Williams University School of Law 21st among the nation's top public interest law schools. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
THE NATIONAL JURIST magazine has ranked the Roger Williams University School of Law 21st among the nation's top public interest law schools. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY

BRISTOL – The National Jurist, a Web and print magazine that focuses on the field of legal education, has listed the Roger Williams University School of Law among the top 25 public interest law schools in the country.
This is the first time the publication has evaluated experiential training in ranking some 208 law schools across the country, said Jack Crittenden, the magazine’s editor in chief, in a phone interview.
“This is the biggest trend right now in legal education, schools shifting and adding practical training, so there’s a tremendous amount of change going on across the nation at all the law schools,” he said.
In the March issue article titled “The Best Schools for Public Interest Law” by Michelle Weyenberg – which includes a chart ranking RWU Law 21st in the country – the author states that law schools generally are offering more clinical and experiential learning opportunities, more faculty involvement and loan repayment options, among other improvements.
According to Michael M. Bowden, RWU Law’s communications manager, the law school has expanded its commitment to offer students a “rigorous, marketable” legal education that includes an Affordable Excellence program that has reduced tuition by almost 18 percent for the 2014-15 academic year.
The law school has also issued a guarantee that qualified students will get “substantial” clinical experience, as well as access to a new Community Economic Development Clinic and the expanded Feinstein Center for Pro Bono and Experiential Education, Bowden said.
Crittenden said the magazine examined three factors in the context of total enrollment: the number of students in clinics, students in externships and students in simulation, which is an educational program in which practical training is brought into the classroom. The magazine then contacted the schools for detailed information about any additional practical training, he said, and assigned each school a score and ranking them.
To read the National Jurist’s story ranking the top public interest law schools, visit www.nxtbook.com.

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