University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law

The Center was launched in September 2021 to advance racial equity, access to justice, and fairness in Arkansas and the region through academic legal research.  The mission of the Center aligns with Bowen’s core values of access to justice, public service, and professionalism. the Center’s work and research will help professionally develop Bowen’s students and broaden Bowen’s racial justice curriculum. The Center capitalizes on student interest while creating career development opportunities for Bowen students. Each semester, a group of students will work with the Center on criminal justice and racial justice legal research.

Bowen has a variety of legal clinics that help students bridge the gap between theory learned in the classroom and practice. Through their clinic work, students practice law under the supervision of a faculty member, while at the same time helping to fill unmet legal needs in the community.

• Family Law Clinic: Students represent clients involved in many types of cases within the broad areas of juvenile delinquency and family law. Qualified students receive special licenses to practice law under supervision in Arkansas.
• Mediation Clinic: Students gain valuable experience in the rapidly expanding area of alternative dispute resolution. After extensive training, clinic students act as mediators in disputes relating to child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, custody and visitation, special education, and small claims.
• Tax Clinic: Students represent taxpayers involved in disputes with the IRS. Clinic students gain litigation and negotiation experience while acquiring significant knowledge of tax law.
• Consumer Protection Clinic: Students work with clients who are facing foreclosure, eviction, housing instability, fraud, unfair or deceptive trade practices, and problems with credit reports and credit access. This course provides extensive experience for students in litigation, negotiating with opposing counsel, and long-term case strategies.
• Delta Divorce Clinic: Students work with clients based in Arkansas’s Delta region on family law matters. Qualified students receive special licenses to practice law under supervision in Arkansas.
• Business Innovations Clinic: Students work closely to serve the legal needs of small businesses, innovators, and nonprofit organizations. The assistance includes working with entrepreneurs in launching and growing their businesses, negotiating their contracts with business partners, and protecting their ideas and innovations. In addition, the clinic offers educational programs for small business owners and those contemplating launching new businesses. Programming targets navigating the many issues that challenge new enterprises.
• Veterans Legal Services Clinic:  Students will handle at least one case involving a service-connected disability compensation appeal or request for reconsideration of discharge status. In representing their veteran clients, students will develop an array of critical lawyering skills, such as client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, legal research and writing, case planning, development of legal theory, as well as written and oral advocacy.

Bowen allows students to pursue a JD while concurrently pursuing master’s degrees in business administration (JD/MBA), public administration (JD/MPA), public health (JD/MPH), public service (JD/MPS), or social work (JD/MSW). A concurrent degree in law and pharmacy (JD/PharmD) is also offered. In order to be eligible for one of the concurrent-degree programs, students must be offered admission into both the law school and the school offering the other desired degree.

Bowen provides a comprehensive academic support program. This support begins prior to the first class during the comprehensive First Week program. Once classes begin, the principles taught in First Week are reinforced through a series of relevant workshops and seminars. Advising services are provided to all students, helping them develop study plans, choose courses, and prepare for exams. Finally, Bowen helps ease the transition from law student to lawyer by offering various bar-preparation workshops and skills courses.

Bowen offers both full-time and part-time divisions. Full-time study generally takes three years to complete. Part-time study is generally completed in four years. In both divisions, enrolling in summer and intersession courses can accelerate completion.

The faculty is made up of an outstanding group of scholars, practitioners, and teachers. Full-time professors teach virtually all required courses in both the full-time and part-time divisions. Experienced adjunct professors teach upper-level courses in their areas of specialty. Bowen students often cite the quality and accessibility of professors as one of their favorite things about the school.

Through the externship course, students receive exposure to a wide range of public service practice settings, gain practical work experience, and get the opportunity to see first-hand the workings of a judge’s chambers, a government agency, or a non-profit organization. Examples of recent placement opportunities include externships with judges on the Arkansas Supreme Court, the United States District Court, and the United States Bankruptcy Court, as well as externships with agencies such as the Federal Public Defender, the ACLU of Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment – Division of Environmental Quality, and Disability Rights Arkansas.

Students can dedicate 10 weeks during the summer semester to working full-time in the public sector.  A fellowship is also available for students who wish to work in an Arkansas rural community. Students secure public service experience with a reputable public interest employer.

Bowen is housed in a historic building originally constructed in the 1930s to house the state’s medical school. The spacious facility contains over 150,000 square feet and is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The six-story structure has modern classrooms and courtrooms. A renovation was completed recently to update technology in the classrooms and courtrooms. The lecture-capture system allows professors to record lectures (video and audio) and make them available to students via the web.

Wrapped around a four-story atrium, the library seats over 300 and houses two computer labs. The law school library also serves as the Pulaski County Law Library and is open seven days a week.

This program educates law students about the profession of court administration and the career opportunities available in the state and federal court systems.  Students work to support state chief justices from around the country.

The projects undertaken by this one-of-a-kind partnership benefit the NCSC, the law school, and the local, national, and international legal community. The work directly affects the administration of justice, and the NCSC and the State Courts Partnership impact Bowen’s core values of public service, access to justice, and professionalism.

20 plus course focuses group courses together by fields of law. Students may use these focuses to help choose the electives that will best prepare them to practice law in specific fields.