The way Larry Marshall sees it, medical schools wouldn’t dream of granting MDs without first ensuring that their students spent time working with real patients under the supervision of physicians in clinical settings. So why don’t law schools require similar training for their students?

Marshall, a longtime professor at the Northwestern University School of Law and founder of its Center on Wrongful Convictions, first saw the power of clinical education in the early 1990s, when he and his students began working together on behalf of several wrongly convicted Illinois death row inmates. The effort made national headlines and ultimately influenced Governor George Ryan to commute the sentences of all prisoners on the state’s death row before Ryan left office in 2003.

Now, as newly appointed professor and director of clinical education at Stanford Law School, Marshall hopes to build on that success by providing more opportunities for students to step out of the lecture hall and into the legal trenches, where they will have opportunities to integrate what they have learned into the realities of practice, under the intense guidance of clinical faculty. This experience, Marshall contends, can be the capstone of a student’s legal education, preparing the student for a career of thoughtful and ethical practice.

Supervising students on pro bono cases demands a great deal of faculty face-time compared to traditional teaching. Nevertheless, Marshall believes that within just a year or two, Stanford will be able to provide a quality clinical experience for every law student who wants one. Ultimately, he would like Stanford to be the first top school in the country to require hands-on training for all its future lawyers.

As he explains, “It’s an incredible learning experience for a student to watch the progress of a case from the beginning to the end, and it’s an incredible inspiration for students to recognize the power that they have as lawyers. I’m not going to say that the panacea for all the legal system’s problems is clinical education. But one commonality among lawyers is they’ve been through law school. That creates a real responsibility for us to find devices to inspire our students about how glorious a profession law can be.”

Stanford Law School has been offering clinical opportunities to complement its regular curriculum ever since the 1970s. Currently, about 60 percent of students take part in one of eight hands-on programs. They include the Stanford Community Law Clinic in East Palo Alto, which provides legal assistance to low-income Bay Area clients, and in-house clinics dealing with civil rights advocacy and litigation, cyberlaw, education, the environment, and Supreme Court litigation. During the past year, the law school added an immigrants’ rights clinic to the list. In addition, the law school runs a criminal prosecution clinic through which students work under the guidance of a professor and experienced prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Marshall is now exploring directions for new clinics that he expects Stanford to launch. In particular, he is keen to develop a transactional law clinic that would give students practice helping small business entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations.

Prof. Pam Karlan, who leads the Supreme Court litigation clinic, calls Marshall’s permanent appointment “a real coup” for the law school and says she has been “repeatedly awed by his combination of a broad vision of how to think about clinical education and his practical insights.” Her colleague Bill Koski, who heads the Youth and Education Law Clinic, agrees. “His reputation and work in Illinois have very much followed him out here. People have high expectations that are well-deserved.”

Marshall, 46, graduated first in his law class at Northwestern in 1985. He later clerked for Patricia Wald on the United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit), and for United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

At Northwestern—in addition to directing the Center on Wrongful Convictions—Marshall taught courses in civil and criminal procedure, constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, legal ethics, and appellate practice; published numerous articles; and was a frequent commentator on radio and television. A Chicago Tribune editorial once called him “heroic” for his death penalty work. He also has been honored by the American Bar Association, the Mexican Legal Defense Fund, the Public Interest Law Initiative, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Senior Lecturer David Mills, who directed Stanford Law School’s clinical program from 2002 to 2004 and spearheaded its rejuvenation in recent years, called Marshall “one of the finest lawyers I have ever had the honor of dealing with. He certainly has already provided true inspiration and educational value to those of us, both faculty and students, who have had the privilege of working with him.”

Stanford Law Dean Larry Kramer echoed the sentiment, calling Marshall “a highly respected traditional academic” who is also one of the nation’s leading clinical teachers. Under Marshall’s new leadership, Kramer said, “we believe we can create a clinical program unlike that anywhere else in the country—a program whose quality and reputation matches that of the school generally.”

Marshall’s permanent appointment at Stanford is effective February 1. He is joined in California by his two youngest children (three others are grown) and his wife, Michelle Oberman, who teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law.