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Summer Programs for Wake Forest Law Students

Explore areas of law that matter to you. Wake Forest University School of Law offers a variety of summer learning opportunities for rising second-year and third-year JD students.

Summer Intensives

One week intensives are designed to give Wake Forest Law students the opportunity to learn and develop the skills employers need for their firms and organizations.

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Summer Courses

Each summer, Wake Forest School of Law offers online courses as well as residential courses taught at our Winston-Salem campus.

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Summer Externships

Put legal theory into action through field placements. Spend your summer gaining practical experience from employers while earning course credit.

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Casa Artom, the Wake Forest residence in Venice, Italy.

Study Abroad

This summer, Wake Forest School of Law is offering a for-credit study abroad opportunity in Venice. This program provides a comparative view of U.S. law with that of the host country.

About Study Abroad »

Summer Intensives

1 week, 1 credit courses


These intensive courses give you the opportunity to sharpen in-demand skills that are sought by employers. Harnessing the industry experience of Wake Forest faculty and alumni, these one-week, one-credit courses are designed to let you concentrate on distinct practice areas of the law. You’ll acquire real-world experience that gives you the knowledge and skills that firms and organizations are seeking in new associates.

Introduction to Analytics & Data Literacy July 28 - 30 1 credit RESIDENTIAL

Introduction to Analytics and Data Literacy: This introductory course covers the analytical skills required to engage in data-driven decision making. You will learn basic terminology and a simple data analytic process that includes the collection, transformation and organization of data to help make better decisions and drive innovation.

Alternative Dispute Resolution May 23 - 28 1 credit RESIDENTIAL

Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution: The purpose of this class is to give students a basic understanding of the two primary forms of alternative dispute resolution ('ADR') processes: arbitration and mediation.

Soft Skills for Success in Private Practice June 11 - 12 1 credit RESIDENTIAL

Soft Skills for Private Practice: Being an excellent lawyer is simply the baseline for success in private practice. Once you enter the world of private practice, there are many additional tangible and intangible hurdles you must overcome to achieve success, whether that is partnership elevation, increased compensation, awards in your field, or careers outside of private practice. New attorneys are often left to their own devices to learn these soft skills for success. This course seeks to provide you with a roadmap to understand the process, timeline, and steps to becoming successful in private practice. It will use a combination of lectures, role-playing and skills exercises to explore these soft skills.

These summer intensives are offered synchronously and will meet online at specific dates and times. Current Wake Forest University students can register for these intensives through the registration portal beginning on Monday, March 21, 2022. Register by Sunday, May 29, 2022.

Tuition for intensives is $1,700 per course. Summer financial aid is available if you are registered for at least 3 credit hours. Institutional scholarships cannot be applied toward summer courses.

Summer Intensives do count toward your limit of nine hours of pass/fail credit.

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Summer Courses

Summer Session 1

May 23 - June 23, 2022


Advanced Topics in Intellectual Property: IP Issues for Start-Ups 2 credits ONLINE

Synchronous

This course studies intellectual property ("IP") issues as it applies in a specific business context. When viewed in a business context, the role of IP in markets and industries can be systematically analyzed. Students will explore the different roles that IP plays in various stages of business activity, ranging from the start-up phase of business formation to successful operation, mergers or acquisitions, initial public offerings, and other advanced business transactions. At the conclusion of this course, students should demonstrate a working knowledge of the basic elements of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law as it applies to the business organization with a focus on the entrepreneur and startup companies.

Advocacy, Debate, and the Law 3 credits RESIDENTIAL

Please note: This course meets from May 24 - June 16, 2021.

Co-taught by Wake Law professors and Communication professors from Wake Forest College, students participate and receive critique in interactive exercises such as speeches, debate, trial practice, and moot court arguments.

Innocence & Justice Clinic (Part I) 4 credits HYBRID

In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions. They will apply this knowledge to actual cases by reviewing and investigating claims of actual innocence by inmates and, where appropriate, pursuing legal avenues for exoneration and release from prison. Students will meet for two class hours per week and for one hour a week with instructor to examine and complete field work assignments. * This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.

Meaning and Interpretation in Public and Private Law 2 credits ONLINE

Synchronous

With practicing lawyers in mind, this course not only explores meaning and interpretation of various constitutional and statutory provisions but also explores meaning and interpretation of contracts and other private law documents and instruments drawn from actual practice. Exploring interpretation and meaning of such real-world documents and instruments requires more than just studying canons of construction. It also requires exploring: (1) how legal language is a system of interrelated signs (an area of study called semiotics); (2) how various levels of legal meaning tie into or fail to tie into real-world experience (an area of study called semantics); (3) how speaker meaning can differ from literal meaning and what this means in actual practice (an area of study called pragmatics); (4) how linguistic success and failure can in large part turn on framing, categories, metaphors, and narratives lawyers wittingly or unwittingly use; and (5) how context in its various forms not only drives meaning but also determines any operative text itself. Facility in all these areas is essential to both litigation and transactional practice.

Current Wake Forest University students can register for these courses through the registration portal beginning on Monday, March 21, 2022. Register by Sunday, May 29, 2022.

Tuition for summer courses is $1,700 per credit hour. Summer financial aid is available if you are registered for at least 3 credit hours. Institutional scholarships cannot be applied toward summer courses.

You may register for 2 summer courses. If you wish to register for additional courses, please contact Chris Martin, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.

Please note that a minimum enrollment of 6 students is required for each course.

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Summer Externships

Summer externships provide unique working and learning opportunities to put legal theory into action through field placements. Each externship placement is complemented by classroom instruction taught by Wake Forest School of Law faculty.

Charlotte skyline

Carolina Externship

Spend a month in Charlotte or another city in the Carolinas practicing in a business setting. The program includes an externship placement where you will work on issues affecting corporations. For placements outside Charlotte, course work is handled by distance education.

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US Supreme Court building

D.C. Summer Judicial Externship

Engage in the kinds of tasks performed by law clerks under the immediate supervision of an experienced attorney. This is a unique opportunity to work in some of America's most vibrant courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

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