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Immigration Clinic

Represent clients while building expertise in immigration law and sharpening your advocacy skills.

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Our Immigration Law Program

Willamette School of Law is the only law school in Oregon with an immigration clinic. Because of our hands-on learning opportunities, we’ve earned a reputation for being one of the best schools for immigration law in the Pacific Northwest.

Our Immigration Clinic empowers students to represent clients who are confronting serious immigration challenges. Our students gain hands-on experience with customary international law or treaty law and immigration (in particular, immigration matters associated with asylum claims).

Most Clinic students represent clients seeking asylum for persecution suffered abroad, individuals who have survived domestic violence, or people who have been victims of trafficking. The work includes conducting several interviews with the client, assisting the client with filing an application, preparing an in-depth brief, completing research and analysis, and representing the client at their administrative hearing or before the Immigration Court.

The Immigration Clinic strives to ensure each student will have opportunities to interview and represent clients, engage in factual and legal research in international law, engage in in-depth legal analysis and writing, and learn to work collaboratively in a team setting. Students are also coached to be "reflective" in their choices and in their practice, a habit all successful lawyers engage in throughout their careers.

Immigrant Justice Scholars Program

The Immigrant Justice Scholars program offers partial tuition scholarships to students committed to immigration law and public interest work. Completing the immigration law program creates a path to a paid post-graduate attorney fellowship in Portland, with the option to obtain Oregon licensure through the Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination without taking the bar exam.

If you have an interest in this program, when you apply to Willamette, please include a brief explanation of your interest in immigration law in your personal statement. Proficiency in written and oral Spanish is required, or the ability to achieve proficiency by law school graduation. Finalists may be interviewed remotely by the program director.

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Additional Information

Other Clinics at Willamette

We offer other clinics that prepare students for a variety of legal careers. Get involved in opportunities like our criminal defense clinic and our trusts and estates clinic to gain experience and boost your resume.

Criminal Defense Clinic  
Trusts and Estates Clinic  

Willamette University

School of Law