Thomas Emerson Scott Jr.

Founded in 1996, the School of Law's Center for Ethics and Public Service is an interdisciplinary clinical program devoted to the values of ethical judgement, professional responsibility, and public service in law and society. The Center's in-house clinics and educational programs provide legal representation to low-income communities in the fields of children's rights, public health entitlements, and nonprofit economic development, as well as legal ethics education and professional training to the Law School, University, and Florida business, civic, and legal communities. The Center observes three guiding principles: interdisciplinary collaboration, public-private partnership, and student mentoring and leadership training. Our goal is to educate law students to serve their communities as citizen lawyers.

Virginia is justly famous for its collegial environment that bonds students and faculty, and student satisfaction is consistently cited as among the highest in American law schools. Intellectual challenges are met in a spirit of cooperation. Small first-year sections promote individual inquiry while providing support and friendship. Students learn together, reading each other's work and freely sharing course outlines and other materials, confidently relying on the nation's oldest student-run Honor System to maintain the highest ethical standards.