The JD program’s experiential learning offerings give you an edge as you prepare for your future career. The chance to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world settings deepens your understanding of how the law functions and enhances your readiness for practice. Before you graduate, you’ll have many opportunities to serve clients directly, develop practical legal skills and build professional networks. You leave Osgoode not only with a highly respected degree but with the confidence that comes through hands-on learning.
Osgoode is a recognized leader in this area, having launched the first-ever Office of Experiential Education at a Canadian law school. We offer the most diverse and innovative array of internships, skills-based courses and clinical programs in the country. Critically, these programs all incorporate time for reflection, ensuring that you have opportunities to contemplate your experiences and consider their implications. As you explore the personal and social dimensions of legal practice, you build the capacity for ethical deliberation that’s vital to your own professional development and will help sustain the ongoing reform of legal institutions and the profession generally.
You also gain valuable experience through student advocacy competitions. Osgoode has a history of outstanding success in local, national and international mooting events – attesting to the effectiveness of our Mooting and Lawyering Skills Program in helping students develop and refine legal research, drafting and advocacy skills.
Many opportunities to choose from
For credit
Clinical Programs Earn academic credit through a placement in a clinic setting, focusing on an area that interests you – from poverty law to intellectual property to mediation.
Mooting and Lawyering Skills Build your oral advocacy skills through one of the most comprehensive mooting and lawyering skills competition programs in Canada.
Praxicum Osgoode students must successfully complete a praxicum course in their second or third year. Integrating legal theory and practice, praxicum courses promote reflection and build insight.
Osgoode Public Interest Requirement As you fulfill this 40-hour volunteer commitment, you’ll engage with community members and help promote better access to justice.
Extend your experience
Anishinaabe Law Camp An introduction to Anishinaabe legal concepts, principles, pedagogies and modes of reasoning, led by knowledge-holders at Neyaashiinigmiing (Cape Croker) and at Rama First Nation.
Summer Internships Between academic years, you can build your resume and expand your understanding of the law by pursuing one of Osgoode’s funded internships.
Pro Bono Students Canada Osgoode’s culture of public service makes ours one of the largest chapters of this national organization promoting pro bono work.
Projects to build a more inclusive legal profession
Osgoode students are active in outreach initiatives that connect prospective legal talent with our School and the law more generally, including Law In Action Within Schools (LAWS) and Raising the Black Bar.