After completion of the first year courses, a student may take courses for credit at any ABA-accredited law school during summers. Students planning to enroll in summer law programs must have the prior written approval of the associate dean. Credit for approved summer law courses taken outside of the School of Law may be counted toward the number of credits required for graduation, but will not be computed as a part of the student's grade point average. The School of Law does not currently offer a summer program. However, in recent years, students have enrolled in other ABA-approved summer programs in Europe, Mexico, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore.
Clinical courses place students in the role of the professional.
Students can elect an array of courses which give them the opportunity to directly experience the practice of law. In the externship courses, students work in judges' chambers, the legislature, public agencies, and in private practice. In some clinical classes, such as Pretrial Litigation, Negotiation, and Trial Practice, students study and simulate lawyering skills. After careful instruction by both full-time faculty and adjunct professors, who include some of the finest lawyers and judges in Hawai'i, students exercise the lawyering skills at the school and then are critiqued. Many of the performances are videotaped in the school's Moot Courtroom and later reviewed in a special video-review room in the Library.