Certificate in Litigation & Advocacy Skills

This page describes the requirements to obtain a certificate in Litigation & Advocacy Skills and provides links to the documents that must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office by February 1st for a May graduation date or October 31st for a January graduation date. Please note that while the certificate application is due to the Registrar’s Office by October 31st (for January graduates) or February 1st (for May graduates), students must declare their intention to obtain the certificate with sufficient time to complete the 8-month long mentorship program. Details about the mentorship requirements can be found below. 

Please also visit the Advocacy Center page for general information about advocacy opportunities at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Documents:

Application 

Mentor Certification Form - part of the Mentorship Packet

Certificate requirements

The certificate in Litigation and Advocacy Skills recognizes successful curriculum concentration in advocacy skills. To obtain the certificate, students must satisfy each of the requirements set forth below. Students who believe that they will fulfill the requirements must complete an application that is available from the Registrar in order to be awarded a certificate at graduation.

The Director of the Advocacy Center, Professor Joanna Perini-Abbott will serve as the administrator for the Certificate in Litigation and Advocacy Skills. Any questions may be directed to her at: jperini-abbott@lclark.edu.

A. Course Requirements

Students must take 4 of the following courses:

• 110 Advanced Civil Procedure: Conflict of Laws
• 212 Advanced Legal Writing
• 214 Advanced Legal Writing: Litigation
• 484 Advanced Trial Practice: Civil
• 448 Animal Legislation and Lobbying
• 517 Appellate Advocacy
• 317 Civil Rights Litigation
• 500 Complex Litigation
• 326 Consumer Protection Litigation
• 115 Criminal Procedure II
• 340 Electronic Discovery
• 594 Environmental and Animal Law Advocacy I
• 595 Environmental and Animal Law Advocacy II
• 344 Environmental Litigation
• 352 Environmental Negotiation and Mediation
• 122 Evidence
• 506 Family Mediation
• 356 Federal Courts
• 489 Federal Habeas Corpus: Law & Practice
• 121 Integrated Evidence and Trial Advocacy (IETA)^[1]
• 543 International Dispute Resolution
• 281 Litigation and the Art of War
• Moot Court - the fall semester moot court courses (Client Counseling, International, Mock Trial, Negotiation Intensive, NALSA, ABA Tax)
• 466 Negotiation
• 521 Oregon Criminal Law
• 279 Practice of Employment and Labor Law
• 230 Pretrial Advocacy
• 120 Remedies
• 419 Technology and Patent Litigation
• 590 Victims in Criminal Procedure
• 467 Wrongful Convictions

B. Practice Requirements

Students must receive 6 credits from one or more of the following:

• Clinic (any Lewis & Clark law school clinic)
• 804 Externship (with a litigation or advocacy focus)
• 796/797 Public Defense Practicum
• 786 Natural Resources Litigation/WLRC: Practicum
• Moot court or mock trial team - credits associated with the competitions

C. Mentorship requirement

Through a pairing with an Advocacy Center mentor for 1 academic year, it is expected that students will:

• Meet with their mentor a minimum of 8 times
• Observe a trial, appellate argument, legislative testimony, negotiation session, or other similar experience and submit a reflection paper to the Advocacy Center Director
• Attend 2 networking events in the legal community

The mentorship component will be monitored through a mentorship packet that must be completed.

Because this is a year-long commitment, students who plan to graduate in May must ask to be signed up with an Advocacy Center mentor no later than the August 15 of their final year of law school. Students who plan to graduate in January must ask to be signed up with a mentor no later than March 15 of their final year of law school. To declare your intent for the certificate and request a mentor please contact Professor Perini-Abbott.

D. Logistics

Grade Point Requirement: To obtain the Litigation and Advocacy Skills certificate, students must earn an average GPA of at least 3.00 in all courses uses to satisfy the certificate requirements. Students who earn a GPA of 3.67 or higher will receive their certificate “with distinction.” No exceptions will be made to this requirement.

Graded/Ungraded Credits: For courses listed in Section A (Course Requirements), no more than four units of credit (including units transferred from another law school) used to qualify for the Certificate may be taken on a credit/no credit basis. If a course that is normally graded is taken by the student credit/no credit at Lewis & Clark Law School, that course may not be applied toward the Certificate or any Concentration within it.

Students may use credits from a class toward satisfaction of the Certificate requirements even if they are using those credits toward satisfaction of the requirements for another certificate at Lewis & Clark. Students must check with the other certificate, however, to determine whether that certificate will allow double counting.

Transfer Credits: A student may be able to receive credit for one course of up to three (3) credits, taken at another law school. A student seeking such credit must contact the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for overall transfer credit approval and the Director of the Advocacy Program for approval for use within the certificate. If the course is allowed to count toward the certificate, only the credit earned for that course will be applied to the certificate. The grade earned for the course will not be counted in determining the student’s GPA for the certificate.

^[1] Starting in 2025-2026, students may not take both Evidence and IETA.