Some faculty incorporate a service component into their doctrinal courses. The service component may be voluntary or mandatory, credit-bearing or pro bono. For example, an estates and trust professor may offer a service component in which enrolled students draft wills for low income seniors.
Mediation Assistance Program - Mediation Assistance Program provides 25 hours of training equivalent to the NYS Unified Court System training program for community mediators. It prepares students to serve as court-affiliated mediators and to counsel clients more effectively.
Aside from the numerous opportunities to study abroad and participate in summer institutes at the Washington College of law each year, WCL offers a wide range of classes with a public interest component in various areas of the law including human rights, immigration, civil rights, constitutional law, critical race theory, movement lawyering and criminal justice, just to name a few. To learn more about these course offerings, please refer to the course catalogue.
A number of our Practicum courses have included service components. For example, students have had the opportunity to take part in service components in Professor Sandra McGlothlin's Family Law & Mediation course.
Many students develop faculty supervised independent studies in order to receive academic credit for doing public interest work. For example, every year students receive independent study credit for working on cases with the New England Innocence Project.
Additionally, some courses require students' graded work to be useful for public interest organizations. For example, in Domestic Violence and the Law, taught by Mithra Merryman, a practicing attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, students develop projects to be used by agencies working on domestic violence issues.
During 2L and 3L years, students choose their courses. Many students also decide to pursue a concentration in one of the six following areas: Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Risk Management and Compliance, and Transactional Practice. Classes from the core curriculum (for example, corporations, taxation, federal courts, commercial code, administrative law and evidence) offer students a foundation essential for many public interest jobs. In addition, there are numerous courses addressing issues related to public interest law, including a Public Interest Law Seminar.
Community Lawyering course: Students are involved in community projects affecting youth in the juvenile justice system. Students help to advocate for and provide legal due process for youth in the system, and explore how the problem-solving talents of local youth and their parents can be better recognized and utilized for the benefit of other youth and their parents. Professor David Dominguez, [email protected] (801) 422-3739.
Youth in Mediation course: Students teach concepts of dispute resolution and skills to at-risk youth in the local juvenile detention center and in Provo School District, provide Victim-Offender and Parent-Teen mediation services, and do other related projects. Professor Tamara Fackrell, [email protected], (801) 422-9310.
Computer-Based Practice Systems course: Students learn to design and author practice systems using an extensively used practice system authoring program called HotDocs Pro. Students work on an authoring project that requires a minimum of 50 hours to complete in collaboration with cooperating law firms, legal service offices, government law offices, courts, and corporate legal departments. Professor Larry Farmer, [email protected], (801) 422-2423.
We currently have no classes with a public service component, and at least one is currently under consideration.
Advanced Mediation
Advanced Trial Practice
California Innocence Project I & II
Community Law Projects Seminar
Trademark Law Clinic
Campbell Law offers a class/mission trip each spring semester entitled Panama: Study and Service . The course is broken up into two components: (1) a classroom portion conducted primarily at Campbell Law School; and (2) a travel portion in Panama during spring break. Topics covered during the classroom portion include:
During the travel portion of the class, students work with Heart's Cry Children's Ministry, a non-profit founded by Campbell Law alum Misty Hedspeth to create efficiencies for orphan care around the world, beginning in Panama, Central America ( http://www.heartscrychildren.com/).
In addition to its clinics, CUA Law perennially offers a range of courses with a public service component. Examples include: Elder Law Seminar; Gender, Law & Policy; Human Trafficking Seminar; Juvenile Law; Labor Relations in the Public Sector; National Security Law and Policy Seminar; Natural Resources Law; Not for Profit Organization; Public International Law; Spanish for Lawyers.
On occasion, students have been granted academic credit to assist professors engage in public interest research or to represent clients. This has included drafting estate plans and wills for tax clients, and researching legal issues regarding economic development and business opportunities for low income clients.
https://charlestonlaw.edu/public-policy-and-service-curriculum-track-or-qualifying-designation/
Our entire curriculum is designed to serve students who plan to do public interest practice. The mission of the CUNY School of Law is to educate students for the practice of law with special interest on public service and public interest law. Thus a law degree from the CUNY School of Law is a degree in public interest law. Moreover, students may choose to take specialize by taking sequences of course. The specialization may be in any one of the following areas of practice: immigration, labor law, international human rights, civil rights and equality, and health.
Columbia Law School offers dozens of courses with a public service component. A few examples are listed below.
Abolition: A Social Justice Practicum
Educational Equality: The Role of Law
Immigration Law
Lawyering for Change
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Public Health Law and Social Justice
Children and the Law
Current Issues in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Election Law for Civil Rights Lawyers
Human Rights at Home: Advancing U.S. Social Justice
Law and Policy of Homelessness
Native American Law
September 11, The Trump Administration and the Rights of Non-Citizens
Socio-Economic Rights: Theory and Practice
Structural Change in Public Education Policy and Social Change Lab
The American Bail System
The Legal History of American Slavery
Transitional Justice
Vision, Action and Social Change
Our course offerings are listed here: http://support.law.cornell.edu/Students/students/CourseDescriptions/index.cfm
The Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic is a designated academic service-learning course through the Creighton University Office of Academic Service-Learning.
A few courses have experiential public interest components. Such courses include: International Human Rights Law Practicum, Restorative Justice Practices, Mediation, and Domestic Violence Practicum.
The Marshall-Brennan Seminar: This is the required companion course for students participating in the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. It is designed to prepare law students to teach constitutional law in local high schools and to supervise these high school students as they compete in regional and national constitutional moot court competitions.
Justice Lawyering Seminar: This course, which is a co-requisite of the field clinics, is a critical look at law and social justice. In that context, students will develop individual research and writing projects inspired by their clinical experience.
International Human Rights Advocacy: This is the required companion course for students participating in our Alternative Spring Break Service Learning Trip to Haiti. While a pre-requisite for students travelling to Haiti, it is open to the entire student body, as well. This course will introduce students to the development of human rights law and provide the fundamentals of modern human rights practice through real-world application to current human rights issues. Using Haiti as a model, each student will be assigned another specific country with a grave human rights issue. Students will address their country-specific issue as an advocate -- from factual investigation and research to production of advocacy materials.
Poverty Law
Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies - See https://web.law.duke.edu/academics/course/browser
Urban Development Practicum
Innocence Project
Public Law and Leadership
Capstone Leadership Experiences
Service Externship
Street Law
Access to Justice Practicum
Administrative Law
Asylum Law
Catalyzing Social Impacts
Child Welfare Law & Policy
Children's Rights
Climate Change
Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Constitutional Litigation
Counterterrorism Law
Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
Criminal Procedure: Investigation
Criminal Procedure Investigation Skills Workshop
Disability Law
Education Law
Election Law
Employment Discrimination Law
Energy Law
Environmental Advocacy
Environmental Law
Federal Courts
First Amendment
Food and Drug Law
Gender and the Law
Global Public Health Law
Health Law
Immigration Law
International Law
International Environmental Law
International Human Rights Law
Juvenile Law
Kids in Conflict with the Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Pro Bono in Practice Practicum
Public Health Law
Regulation of Intimate Relationships
Religion and State
State and Local Government
Transnational Criminal Practice
Vulnerability & Justice
White Collar Crimes
Community Law Teaching ("Street Law")
Public Interest Law Center
Clinical Externship Program
https://www.law.gwu.edu/clinics
https://www.law.gwu.edu/field-placement
Georgetown offers a host of practicum courses, which combine a practical learning experience either in the field or classroom with a traditional seminar model.
Animal & Wildlife Law
Comparative Equality & Fundamental Rights
Advanced Seminar in Labor/Employment Law
Comparative Labor Law
Constitutional Law I
Constitutional Law II
Criminal Procedure I
Global Climate Change & Water Law
Global Warming & the Courts
International Criminal Law
International Trade Regulation
International Wildlife Law
Intra-State Conflict & Peace Building
Intro to French & European Union Law
Introduction to Islamic Law
Law & Leadership Seminar
Lawyering: Asylum Law
Ocean and Coastal Law
Tax Aspects of Charitable Giving
Administrative Law
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Art & the Law
California Environmental & Natural Resources Law
Children & the Law
Cities & Environmental Law
Climate Change & International Law
Community Property
Comparative Criminal Justice
Competition: Environmental Law Moot Court
Competition: Environmental Negotiation
Constitutional Issues Seminar
Contemplative Lawyering
Contemporary Issues in International Law
Criminal Litigation
Criminal Procedure II
Domestic Violence Seminar
Education Law
Employment Discrimination
Employment Law
Energy & Environmental Law
Environmental Law & Justice Seminar
Environmental Law & Policy
Environmental Law Journal Associate Editor
Environmental Law Journal Board
Environmental Law Journal Writer I
Environmental Law Journal Writer II
Family Law
Family Law Practice
Federal Courts
Gender & the Law
Gender, Children and International Law
Global Warming & Renewable Energy
Guerilla Lawyering
Immigration & Refugee Policy Seminar
Immigration Law
International Environmental Law Seminar
International Human Rights Seminar
International Law
International Organizations
International Trade & Environmental Protection
Katrina & Disaster Law Seminar
Labor Law
Land Use Regulation
Law of International Armed Conflicts
Lawyering: Ethics in Criminal Justice
Lawyering: Private Enforcement of Environmental Laws
Lawyering: Using the Law for Social Change While Challenging Imprisonment
Lawyering: Youth Law
Mediation & Collaborative Lawyering
Pacific Settlement of Disputes Between States
Poverty Law
Public Natural Resources & Land Use
Reproductive Rights & Justice
Sexual Orientation & the Law
Street Law
Tax Exempt Organizations
Toxics Law & Policy
Water Law
Women's Employment Rights Seminar
Workers' Compensation
Wrongful Convictions: Causes & Remedies
Women and the Law (Professor Mary Pat Truethart)
Domestic Violence Seminar - This course examines the problem of domestic violence between adult intimate partners (not as against aged parents or regarding direct child abuse, although the course will look at the effects upon children exposed to domestic violence and the law's response). The course considers problems of domestic violence starting with psychological origins of violence. It focuses on domestic violence and its consequences in the legal system in a number of arenas, including family law, civil litigation in various forms (from restraining orders to tort recovery), criminal law response, federal law response, race issues, immigration, and legal responses to same sex or other forms of non-marital intimate domestic violence.
In addition to the classroom component, there is an externship component that will be available to a limited number of students. This will involve one day a week spent in the domestic violence division of the Suffolk County court system, representing abused complainants who are seeking orders of protection. Under the Suffolk Student Practice Order, students can appear in court, can argue before the bench and can examine witnesses. One additional credit will be given for the externship experience. The one-credit externship may not be taken apart from the course, and is not a requirement of the three-credit course.
Many of Howard's courses have a public interest component and several are wholly public interest in nature. These courses include, but are not limited to: Social Justice Lawyering, Civil Rights Planning, Public Interest Lawyering (externship seminar), Education Law, Child Welfare and the State, Domestic Violence, Clean Air & Global Climate Change, Race Law & Change, and Environmental Justice.
Intellectual Property Practicum: This quasi-clinical course allows students the opportunity both to learn about the substantive law and business underlying independent filmmaking and to gain invaluable experience in researching and drafting related work product. A set of local independent filmmaker "clients" meets with the class periodically throughout the semester, and students participate in a series of workshops with motion picture professionals (in 2005, guests included writer/producer Angelo Pizzo, producer Michael Uslan and film festival producer Jeff Sparks, among others). The course includes assigned readings from Gregory Goodell's "Independent Feature Film Production" and other sources.
Workshop on Registry of Property - students work with legal justice department unit for 2 credits.
ACLU Civil Liberties Seminar
Lewis & Clark typically offers more than 40 classes focusing on subjects relating to public interest law.
One of the classes offered annually is Street Law Seminar taught in partnership with the Classroom Law Project. Lewis & Clark's offering of Street Law as a class rather than an extra curricular activity reflects our commitment to and recognition of the importance of providing good training to students providing know-your-right information to the community
None at this time.
Civil Rights Litigation Seminar
Housing Law
Public Interest Law Seminar
Law & Poverty Course
Law & Poverty Seminar
Street Law
Marquette has a number of courses with a public interest law component. Additional information on these courses can be found here:
http://www.law.marquette.edu/community/public-interest-courses.
Child Advocacy
This three-hour course allows students to represent children in court. For more information, contact Prof. Shirley Kennedy or Jamie McBride at 601/925-7143.
In addition to the Clinics and Externships offered at Hamline: students may participate in Equal Justice -- Applied Research - - a seminar offered jointly by the four Minnesota Law schools. The class meets at a different law school each year (Hamline in 2009) and is open to students from all four schools. This class is not an internship, but rather a three-credit research course.
During the class, students choose research topics from the LSEJ research topic list and work singly or in small groups to produce research papers that advance equal justice. Classroom sessions focus on the development of project topics, research skills needed for equal justice issues, policy analysis and problem solving, working collaboratively, the role of the public interest lawyer, and additional topics of interest to the seminar participants. Class members are linked with the attorneys whose legal issues generated their projects. These attorneys serve as field contacts to help supervise the project.
In addition, students spend approximately twenty hours on field work (either with their field contacts or other local public interest practitioners) to gain an understanding of public interest practice in general, the legal issues involved in their individual projects, and the real world implications of their topics.
Students' completed works are presented before a CLE audience of lawyers and are made available to practitioners, students, faculty and others on the LSEJ website.
Public Interest Law
Several courses have practicum components through which students and their professor take on actual public service work as part of the course activities. These have included: Environmental Advocacy, Domestic Violence and Mental Health Issues in Criminal Proceedings.
Center for Professional Values and Practice Capstone – the CPVP Capstone is a required course for CPVP Harlan Scholars and may be completed with a public service opportunity accompanied by a report on the student's experience.
Justice Action Center Capstone – the JAC Capstone is a required course for JAC Harlan Scholars. JAC students participate in projects with practicing attorneys in their area of concentration.
In addition to our extensive clinics, http://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/clinics/, many NYU Law courses focus on public interest issues, allowing students to concentrate on the study of the various facets of public interest law. While courses vary from year to year, please see http://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/areasoffocus/publicInterest/curriculum for a sampling of courses offered in the past few years that would be relevant to students concerned with public interest law.
Street Law – Law students learn how to teach legal topics to middle and high school students. Methods of instruction include lectures, role-playing, guest speakers, and the development of lesson plans. Students are assigned to a Durham Public School location and teach a unit on law as part of a social studies course, in cooperation with the regular teacher.
Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC) - LSSC is a required first year course, which delivers fundamental research and writing training while also challenging participants' values and sensitizing them to the formidable task the legal system faces in addressing societal difference. The course also provides students with the opportunity to develop team lawyering skills while assisting community organizations that are attempting to affect social change. During the second semester of the first year, all first year students are assigned to a "law office" and participate in a closely supervised clinical experience representing and assisting a non-profit community based organization in solving a societal problem involving issues of diversity and law. The participating organizations, primarily located in the Greater Boston area, compete for an opportunity to participate in the LSSC Program. Each law office team is responsible for producing a publishable report detailing its findings with extensive legal and anecdotal field research. In addition, each of the law offices presents a highly creative, often multi-media based, oral presentation to client organizations and the entire first year class.
Public Interest Independent Study - Students can develop, in conjunction with faculty supervised, independent study projects with a public service component.
Poverty Law
Creating Change as a Lawyer explores the role lawyers and other individuals play as advocates for social, political, and civic change. Students in this class volunteer with a community organization during the course term.
Pro Bono in Large Law Firms explores ethical, practical, and structural issues surrounding pro bono work and students work on pro bono cases during the course term.
Law and Poverty (Two credit hours)
This class examines the situation of the poor in the American legal system and includes fieldwork and clinical work with clients in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. For more information, contact Professor Tom Broden, 574/631-8737.
GALILEE (Group Alternative Live-In Legal Education Experience) (One credit hour)
Students live for a few days in the inner city to learn about the legal needs of the urban poor. For information, contact Professor Teresa Phelps, 574/631-5763.
Legal Aid I & II (classroom & clinic component)
This class introduces students to the substantive areas of law encountered in a poverty law clinic such as domestic violence and homelessness. For more information, contact Professor Judith Fox, 574/631-4864.
There are several classes at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law that include public service components. Specifically, our Street Law course provides students an opportunity to teach the Street Law Inc. program in local high schools and middle schools.
The Law School’s clinic takes an active interest in the community and frequently provides students with opportunities to participate in community service. In addition to their cases, clinical students are expected to participate in at least one community engagement activity through the clinic during the semester. Every semester the clinic has a pro se divorce clinic, in which students assist participants with filing for a pro se divorce. The clinic also conducts a wills/health care document clinic, through which students assist elderly clients in completing wills and/or health care directives in conjunction with local agencies serving senior citizens. The clinic has also participated in expungement clinics, foreclosure prevention clinics, and driver’s license reinstatement clinics.
Children's Law
Civil Rights
Disability Law
Immigration and Asylum Law
Non-Profit Organizations
Racial Justice/Race Theory
Women's Rights/ Gender and the Law
Several of the Legal Research and Writing classes engage in a public service exercise in connection with a writing assignment. These have included researching and drafting briefs to be used in a brief bank for Legal Aid and assisting in child support and paternity determination court dockets.
Haub Law remains committed to the pursuit of racial and social justice in the United States and in the world. This commitment is in our DNA as a law school and will continue beyond the present moment. We will build on the longstanding work of our Criminal Justice Institute, Immigration Justice Clinic, Legal Services Externship, Civil Rights courses and externships, and environmental justice initiatives. Our students, faculty and staff will use our training, energy, and resources to effect change in the way that law is taught, learned, and applied. We will continue to condemn and combat racism and other forms of hate and oppression, and we will work with our alumni, partners, and friends to impact the community beyond the Haub Law campus. Our work on behalf of diversity, equity, and inclusion will take the following specific forms:
Social justice course offerings for the 2020-21 academic year were expanded and included the following courses: Access to Justice Seminar, Civil Rights Law, Advanced Civil Procedure Seminar: Social Justice Litigation, Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: The Law of Policing, Poverty Law, Prisoners’ Rights, Social Justice Advocacy Externship, Guided Externship in Civil Rights, Topics in Legal Theory: The Black Lives Matter Movement. A description of these courses can be found on the full roster of courses. For Fall 2021, the law school and University Seidenberg School for Computer Science will jointly offer a new interdisciplinary Access to Justice Lab course. The Curriculum Committee continues to explore new ways to bring social justice into the classroom.
Asylum & Refugee Law
Children and the Law
Constitutional Law I (LLMs Only)
Constitutional Law II: Equal Protection & Civil Rights
COVID-19: Law and Tech Policy Seminar
Critical Race & Feminist Legal Theory
Election Law
Election Security Seminar
Employment Discrimination
Family Law
Human Rights
Intersectionality & the Law
Immigration Law
International Human Rights Seminar
Law and Sexuality
Minority Business Ownership
Street Law
Veterans Benefits
The Legal Problems of Indigents course serves as a complement to one of our larger summer public interest employment programs. Students who receive funding through the summer fellowship program are required to participate in this poverty law course in preparation for their service in non-profit legal offices.
None
Poverty Law
Individual Income Tax– Students served in the Virginia Individual Tax Assistance Program (VITA).
Street Law Seminar
Advanced Mediation - Prof. Petrilla encourages participation in the mediation program.
Public Interest Law - Requires a community service component, to be approved by the professor.
Urban Issues Symposium – Students work with a neighborhood on redevelopment issues. For more information, contact Professor Peter Salsich, Jr. at (314) 977-2766.
None.
None
Santa Clara Law offers many courses that touch on social justice and public service. In addition to the clinical courses listed above, examples of courses with a public service component include the Social Justice Seminar held each spring, the Immigration Law Practicum, and Public Health Law Seminar: Public Health Law and Pandemic.
All Clinics include a classroom component which includes lectures and hands-on simulations. Professors include: Linda Fisher, Jon Romdeng, Daher Azmy, Virginia Handwick, Kevin Kelly, Lori Nessel, Philip Ross and Claudette St. Romain.
Immigration Law offers an additional credit hour for students who assist with the Immigration Detention Program
Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation: a first-year course with a field component arranged in partnership with local legal service organizations that can provide opportunities for students to conduct interviewing and intake of low-income clients.
Please see clinical education programs above for classes with a public service component that is available for second-year and third-year students.
Please see clinics.
Stetson offers Social Justice Advocacy as a course. One section of second semester Legal Writing focuses on Social Justice Advocacy. Stetson also offers seminars in Race and the Law, International Distributive Justice, and Elder Law.
Suffolk Law School also offers a wide range of public interest related courses, such as Children's Law Practice, Elder Law/Disabled Client, Environmental Law, Health Law, and Landlord Tenant Housing Issues Seminar.
In addition, at least two courses incorporate involvement in pro bono projects. Credit is offered in the Rape, Culture and the Law Seminar for students who choose an internship placement at The Victim Rights Law Center which offers students an opportunity to work on behalf of individual rape victims or on related research projects. Students in the Police Misconduct Litigation class have the option of doing a "project" for a practicing attorney in conjunction with an ongoing case. Last year, over 40 students were matched with attorneys all over the country and each student was involved in doing research and work on a section 1983 case, whether for a plaintiff's attorney or an attorney representing the government.
A Critical Look at Theraputic Drug Courts: Drug Treatment, Domestic Violence, Mental Health and Gambling Courts - Explores in depth, a radical change in the criminal justice system with a practical analysis drug treatment, domestic violence, mental heath and gambling courts situated in Western New York. Includes dialogue with the presiding judges and courtroom clinical experience. Students will analyze and interact with sessions of the Amherst Drug Treatment court at the Letro Courtroom in the UB Law School and at the Amherst Town Court.
Advanced Mediation Practice - This course allows students to hone their mediation skills to an advanced level by mediating real conflict situations, including family law, small business or other disputes referred by local courts and/or other community mediation resources.
Child Welfare Law II - Students complete field work at the Children's Legal Center assisting in law guardian work. For information, contact Professor Susan Vivian Mangold, 716/645-2428 or [email protected].
Domestic Violence Advocacy - Students are responsible for administering outreach legal advocacy program for female clients of a local battered women's shelter. For more information, contact Clinical Professor Suzanne Tomkins, 716/645-2103 or [email protected].
Labor Law Practice, Living Wage Law - Students worked with the Citizen's Living Wage Commission in the City of Buffalo and the non-profit Coalition for Economic Justice, inc. To analyze potentially covered contracts, monitor worksites, interview workers and consult with Commission members and other government officials regarding procedures for implementation of the new Buffalo living wage law in its formative stages.
NY Criminal Appeals : Practice & Procedure - Combines discussion of New York appellate procedure with the practice of law in the Appellate Division. Students review the mechanics of appeal, the scope of judicial review and problems endemic to appellate practice. At the same time, students work on appeals assigned to the Legal Aid Bureau and research and draft the briefs and prepare appendices.
Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School offers many classes having a public service component. Required courses include Constitutional Law I and II (instructional) and Professional Responsibility. Cooley Professional Responsibility classes and classes in other subjects frequently adopt class service projects assisting families and non-profit organizations in need. Elective courses having a public service component include Advanced Practice Skills - Mediation Training, Advanced Practice Skills - Family Law Mediation, Advanced Professional Ethics, Alternate Dispute Resolution, Negotiation and Confrontation, Child Abuse and Neglect, Children and the Law, Civil Rights Litigation Seminar, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Seminar, Consumer Law, Death Penalty Seminar, Defending Battered People, Disabilities Law, Education Law, Environmental Law, Family Violence Practice, Interviewing and Counseling, Immigration and Naturalization Law, International Human Rights Law, and Workplace and Employment Discrimination Law.
None.
Externship Program: Students receive academic credit for their work in public interest placements under the supervision of an attorney, as discussed above.
Reentry Clinic: Students participate in a free monthly clinic for clients seeking to seal their criminal record, obtain a Certificate of Qualification for Employment. Attendees may also meet with attorneys to learn how to obtain a valid driver’s license.
None.
In addition to the courses that are taken in concert with the clinics, journals, or externships listed above, the following classes have mandatory public service components:
Professionalism and the Work of Lawyers; Public Service Externship Course; Part-Time Student Practicum
Each of the legal clinics and a number of our externship courses include a public service component. Other classes sometimes incorporate a public service component. For example, our Poverty Law course requires students to develop a proposal shared with state and local elected officials.
Required Public Interest Classes:
Clinics: As described, each student will complete at least one semester of clinical education
Lawyering Skills: This course, which will be part of both semesters, will focus on teaching skills that all lawyers use, such as fact investigation, interviewing, legal writing and analysis, extensive legal research, negotiation and oral advocacy. Students are required to do an intake with a real client at a local public service or government organization.
Legal Profession: Required for all first-year students, and includes numerous attorney speakers, including many from the public interest and government fields.
Additional Public Interest Courses:
Access to Justice in China
Advanced Criminal Procedure
Advanced Criminal Law, Practice & Procedure
Administrative Law
Appellate Litigation
Cause Lawyers
Constitutional Law: First Amendment
Criminal Procedure
Critical Identity Theory
Economics and Management of Pro Bono Practice
Education Law & Policy
Election Law
Employment Discrimination
Environmental Law
Evidence
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Public Land and Natural Resources Law
Immigration Law & Policy
International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Labor Law
Land Use and Development Control Law
Law and Sexuality
Law and Social Movements
Organizations, Operations & Tax Aspects of Public Charities and Private Foundations
Regulatory Design & Innovation
Remedies
Sexual Orientation and the Law
Community Education Seminar
The purpose of this seminar is to train law students to educate the community about basic legal rights and responsibilities. Students attend an initial four hour seminar orientation, followed by weekly seminars that prepare students to teach in a local high school at least two times per week. Students prepare a paper or journal to be determined by the instructor. For more information, contact Professor Millard Murphy, at 530/752-6943 or [email protected].
Civil Rights Appeals Practicum
This course provides advanced instruction in appellate advocacy, including the drafting of briefs and oral argument in pro bono civil rights cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to two class hours, students are required to meet with the instructor for an hour each week. Successful completion of the course satisfies the advanced legal writing requirement. For more information, contact Professor Margaret Johns at 530/752-8022 or [email protected].
All in-house and faculty supervised clinical programs include both intensive public service work and a class-room based seminar component. The Domestic Violence Practicum and the New Business Counseling Practicum combine hands-on public service with coursework. Social Justice Practice includes a practical legal case-study component.
This list of classes is numerous, but changes each year. It would always include in-house clinics and externship courses.
For a current sampling of classes with a public service component, go to: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/publicinterest/curriculum
Labor and Employment Law Classes - Students must provide three hours of service at the local office of a national employee rights organization. For more information, contact Professors Rafael Gely and Suja Thomas at 513/556-6805.
Consumer Empowerment
The Law School regularly offers courses that involve formal classroom teaching and real-world service to the community. The following opportunities meet that standard and are regular course offerings:
Center for Children's Advocacy – Martha Stone, Director, [email protected]
Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative – William Breetz, Director, [email protected]
Street Law – This course has been taught by various professors. The Registrar's Office can provide information about the current instructor(s), [email protected].
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance – Diana Leyden, Tax Clinic Director, [email protected]
Health Care Law – Professor Vernelia Randall's Health Care Law class requires enrolled students to volunteer in nursing homes. For more information, contact 937/229-3378 or [email protected].
Many classes, beyond clinics and externships, have a public service component. Examples include:
Homeless Advocacy Policy Project (HAPP) is a student-driven project for credit focused on researching the laws criminalizing homelessness and advocating for the rights of homeless individuals.
Lawyering Process: In this required 1L writing class, some classes have a pro bono requirement, e.g. writing memos for organizations considering class actions.
Low Income Taxpayer Clinic: A Low Income Taxpayer Clinic is an organization independent from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that represents low-income taxpayers before the IRS in audit, appeals, collections and federal tax litigation. The clinic is unique in that in addition to JD students, it encourages student participants who are earning their Masters in Tax (MT) or Masters of Law in Taxation (LLM) degrees to get involved. Students participating in the clinic gain valuable experience handling client matters, researching individual and small business tax issues and working directly with the IRS and Colorado Department of Revenue.
Movement Lawyering Lab: Students in this class will both attend a seminar and engage in movement lawyering projects focused on the goals of selected community partners, with an anticipated focus on racial justice issues in education and the criminal system. The seminar and fieldwork portions will be supervised by Prof. Freeman and Prof. Webb as well as IRISE Community Scholar Daniel Kim. Through this model, students will have an opportunity to develop outputs in partnership with organizers and communities and contribute to short- and long-term goals of the groups. Partners are local and national.
Poverty Law and Low Wage Work: This seminar explores the relationship between employment laws, low-wage work, and domestic policies as they relate to workers' rights and poverty. Students complete a service project.
Practice III: Mentor's Practicum: This is a year-long, skills-based course for law school students seeking to refine their trial skills, and improve their understanding and application of evidence and criminal procedure. Students teach these skills to local area high school mock trial students.
Probate Practicum: Students are assigned a client to represent and assist through a guardianship and/or conservatorship proceeding.
Trial Practice III: Mentor's Practicum: This is a year-long, skills-based course for law school students seeking to refine their trial skills, and improve their understanding and application of evidence and criminal procedure. Students teach these skills to local area high school mock trial students.
Wills Lab: Student draft wills and related documents for indigent clients.
Youth Rights Workshop: Students teach know your rights workshops to middle and high school youth on the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments.
Poverty Law– Students enrolled in the Poverty Law course are strongly encouraged to become involved in pro bono work.
A plethora of courses at the University of Illinois College of Law address public interest and service aspects of the law in significant part or as a portion of the course coverage. The listing below addresses those courses that also specifically include a Public Service Component as an actual part of the course requirements.
Clinical Courses:
Family Advocacy Clinic
Students in the Family Advocacy Clinic represent parents and children involved in the juvenile abuse and neglect system under the supervision of an experienced attorney. Students are responsible for all aspects of the legal representation of their clients including challenging adjudicatory allegations in court, establishing visitation rights for the parents, and developing appropriate plans for reconciliation. Students learn the substantive and procedural law associated with abuse and neglect proceedings. In addition, students are trained and gain experience in skills such as interviewing, counseling, case planning and strategy, fact investigation, negotiating, research, drafting, motion practice, oral advocacy, and trial work.
Federal Civil Rights Clinic
Students working in pairs are assigned to represent pro se litigants in federal civil rights trials in the United States Courthouse in Urbana. The students are selected on the basis of spring tryouts and approved by the U.S. District Court Judge sitting in Urbana, and are provisionally admitted to the trial bar pursuant to Rule 83.5 (A) of the Local Rules of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Working under Federal Clinical faculty supervision, these students will work with their actual clients to prepare and try a civil jury trial during the enrolled academic year. Availability of this opportunity is limited based on the District Court's docket, the interest of student attorneys, and the consent of pro se litigants. It is expected that up to ten students will be selected. They will meet in a seminar class once per week in the fall semester and as needed at all other times, including the spring semester.
Immigration Law Clinic
In the Immigration Law Clinic, students receive intensive instruction in the substantive law, procedures, and concepts required to represent clients in a multitude of immigration matters, including: affirmative applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for immigrant victims of crimes and/or persecution, for abused, abandoned or neglected children, defense in removal proceedings before the Executive Office of Immigration Review; appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals; and for individuals seeking permanent residence status or naturalization. Authorized by federal regulation, second- and third-year law students engage in representation of real clients in immigration matters. Students complete these direct services under the supervision of clinic faculty to ensure representation consistent with best practices. Students may appear in court and in non-adversarial administrative interviews. Students gain experience in client interviewing and counseling, factual investigation, trial preparation, advocacy, persuasive writing, and other work relevant to representation of immigrant clients. Students will also hone oral advocacy skills as they present to their classmates and to community members on topics in immigration law. Intellectual Property Clinic
The IP Clinic provides students with real-world trademark and patent prosecution experience and is intended as a capstone class for those entering the practice of trademark or patent law. The IP Clinic includes a Patent Track and a Trademark Track.
Medical Legal Partnership Clinic
The Medical Legal Partnership Clinic is hosted by Land of Lincoln Legal Aid in partnership with Carle Foundation Hospital. Students learn about the medical-legal partnership model, social determinants of health, and how access to justice can improve health outcomes. Under the supervision of a Land of Lincoln experienced attorney, students assist clients with a variety of legal issues such as family matters, public benefit appeals, guardianship petitions, and advance directives. Students gain experience in client interviewing and counseling, investigation, negotiation, research, advocacy, drafting pleadings, and court and administrative appearances.
Veterans Legal Clinic
The Veterans Legal Clinic (VLC) offers students the opportunity to learn holistic, client-centered lawyering through representing military veterans in a broad array of civil legal matters. While some of the cases the VLC will handle are specific to this client population, such as discharge upgrades, the majority of the clinic's cases involve broader civil legal issues, including family law, housing, consumer disputes, public benefits, disability, employment, etc. The clinic seeks to foster in its students a strong professional identity, advocacy skills, and consistent engagement in reflective, intentional practice while providing excellent legal services to a severely underserved population. Students will take the lead in all aspects of their cases, including client interviews, pleading drafting, fact investigation, discovery, negotiation, and court hearings. Students will also be able to interact professionally with a wide variety of social service, medical, mental health, and other providers in the effort to meet their client needs.
Field Placements and Practicums:
COVID-19 Practicum
The COVID-19 Practicum examined issues arising from the unpredictable consequences arising from the pandemic through a short session course. The students were then paired with the with legal aid organizations across Illinois in addressing the societal effects of COVID-19 through the College of Law’s externship program. The classroom component of the Practicum addressed issues relating to constitutional law, employment law, contract formation and interpretation, tort liability, elder law implication, health law, and bankruptcy. The classroom portion of the course featured a team-teaching approach led by College of Law faculty members and select guest speakers. Students were also provided with generous grants to provide the participating students with the necessary financial resources to engage in the summer externship program.
Legal Externships
Externships are designed to expose 2L and 3L students to practical aspects of lawyering by allowing students to earn academic credit for performing uncompensated legal work, under the supervision of lawyers at approved non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, or judges. Students will complete assignments such as interviewing clients and witnesses; researching legal questions; preparing pleadings, discovery motions, and briefs; and, in some instances, trying cases.
Racial Justice Practicum
This one-week intensive course surveys issues of race and inequality in several substantive legal areas: civil rights, employment discrimination, immigration, housing, healthcare, criminal justice and more. Each topic is taught as a module by a guest lecturer who is an expert in the field. With a focus on both legal doctrine and policy, this course is designed to prepare students for the range of issues they will encounter in their summer placements and future careers as agents of socio-legal and racial justice. Followed by a tailored externship placement tailed to the racial justice issues. Students were also provided with generous grants to provide the participating students with the necessary financial resources to engage in the summer externship program.
State Appellate Prosecutor
Students in this course will each prepare a brief to the Illinois Appellate Court in a criminal case on behalf of the People of the State of Illinois. An attorney from the Champaign County State's Attorney's Office, in collaboration with the Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, will advise and supervise students in the preparation of the briefs. Initial class sessions will include instruction on and discussion of Illinois appellate procedure and brief-writing. In later weeks of the class, students will meet individually with the instructor to discuss issues arising in the preparation of their individual briefs.
International Financial Institutions & Development Seminar. The University of Iowa Center for International Finance & Development (UICIFD) is a Center dedicated to the study of problems and issues in the complex world of international finance and development. Currently, the principal activity of the UICIFD is to maintain a globally-read website (www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook), which hosts the innovative E-Book on International Finance & Development as well as other research products, such as the News & Development blog, Briefing Papers, FAQs. Seminar participants are the Center's "staff," and as such study various aspects of international finance while producing various research products for the Center's website.
Non-Profit and Philanthropic Organizations. Through the Iowa NonProfit Resource Center, students in this class work with nonprofit agencies in assisting them with start-up organizational issues.
Law and Technology Seminar. This year-long seminar, limited to 16 students, explores the existing law and literature relating to ethical issues surrounding medical research. The goal of the seminar is to produce a model statute, hopefully to be published, addressing the range of issues in this area with suggested solutions.
Service Tutorial: The Women's Prison Project (Skylark Project). In conjunction with the Iowa Coalition against Domestic Violence, up to six students work with domestic violence victims serving long-term or life sentences at Iowa Mitchellville Prison. They interview the women and help draft their commutation petitions as well as prepare the prisoners for their interviews before the Board of Parole and the Governor's office.
Health Law Tutorial. Students worked with the local nonprofit Hospice to provide legal information related to end of life legal issues
The Voluntary Income Tax Assistance Program is staffed on a volunteer, pro bono basis by students enrolled in the tax classes and supervised and guided by a faculty member, also a volunteer, who teaches the various tax classes offered.
None.
Mediation Practicum - The Mediation Practicum provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice mediation skills. In the Mediation Practicum, students learn basic skills of mediating and go to the courthouse to mediate Small Claims cases in Maine District Court (with supervision). In class meetings, students also analyze their mediation experiences and discuss best practices and ethical challenges for mediators.
Guardian Ad Litem - This course will satisfy most of the training requirements to allow students to serve as CASA Guardians or to apply to be a rostered Guardian ad litem in Title 22, Title 18-C and Title 19-A cases upon admission to the bar provided the student is admitted to the bar within 18 months of completing the training.
https://www.law.umaryland.edu/Faculty-and-Staff/Course-Catalog/index.asp
The Community Research Project (CRP) is the third semester of our required Legal Skills Program. Students work in teams of four or five to solve real-world problems for legal services agencies in this project-based collaboration-focused course. They perform research and analysis for a representative of the agency, but do not engage in direct client representation. The CRP advances UMass Law's mission by integrating skills training and public service. In addition, the program answers calls for reform in legal education by teaching skills and values in a real-world context, and by developing skills in problem solving, collaboration, and organization of legal work.
At the start of each project, the class interviews a representative of the agency. The teams then draft project outlines and research plans. They then conduct the necessary legal and factual research, and produce several drafts of the written work product, usually a traditional predictive memorandum. Next, the teams make oral presentations to the faculty member teaching the course. The team that makes the best presentation then presents to the agency representative. Based on the representative's questions and feedback, the teams do additional research and revisions, and submit their final memoranda. The best memorandum is presented to the agency.
The course is taught in classes of 20 to 24 students. Most class meetings resemble workshop sessions. Although there are some set pieces and exercises, much of the class involves facilitation as the teams plan and organize their projects, conduct their research, plan their presentations, and write up their findings. The course's team-based learning model has generated high levels of student engagement.
CRP projects often involve traditional research memoranda. However, the course could also involve drafting training or compliance materials, community education materials, model briefs, or proposed legislation. In the four projects undertaken so far, the CRP has served three different divisions of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the Massachusetts Public Defender's Office). The projects have involved the rights of mental health patients in involuntary and conditional voluntary commitment proceedings, the rights of parents and children in care and protection proceedings, and juveniles' right to counsel in delinquency proceedings.
Additionally, a service component is incorporated into the Domestic Violence doctrinal class.
Many of our workshop courses include field components dedicated to serving the public interest. These include juvenile justice, election reform, health law, workplace justice, children and the law and more. In addition, all of our litigation skills placement opportunities for Certified Legal Interns are public sector, allowing students to share with each other the experiences they have serving clients most in need.
Michigan Law regularly offers courses that have service components, but the courses vary from year to year. Additionally, courses designated as "practicum" or "practical simulation" usually offer some type of public service component.
In addition to clinic and externship offerings, the following classes have public service components:
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Course catalog: http://catalog.missouri.edu/courseofferings/law/
Civil Rights, Public Interest, and Public Policy Pathway: https://law.missouri.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/civil-rights-public-interest-public-policy-1-7-20.pdf
Cause lawyering
In the Family Law Practice course, students working in teams of two handle a low income divorce case. For information, contact Professor Alan Fran, [email protected].
Land Use and Community Economic Development explores community economic development with a special emphasis on affordable housing, the land use approval process, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area. Students write research papers, prepare materials, and work with local organizations on economic development and land use issues and work with local government agencies and local developers to research models of providing affordable housing to teachers or work with a nonprofit housing advocacy group researching consumer credit issues (around housing finance) or methods to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Public Lands and Natural Resources Field Seminar focuses on the application of law and science to natural resource issues on public lands in the desert region. It includes a six-day field trip to the Kaibab Plateau, near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the trip, students visit areas on public land where significant legal issues have arisen concerning the management of natural resources, including old growth forests, rangelands, the Colorado River, and critical endangered species habitat. At each location, students discuss resource management and legal issues with federal/ state land managers and, in some cases, representatives of the environmentalist community and resource industries.
Legal Education & Assistance to Prisoners (LEAP) is a course where students learn about state and federal post-conviction remedies and family law and, in the field component of the course, provide training for inmates who work in the law libraries at several state correctional facilities in Southern Nevada. Students meet monthly with inmates to analyze training needs, conduct workshops, and develop selfhelp materials for use by inmates in the prison law libraries.
Climate Impact Planning - A Climate Action Plan for UNLV - Law students, in conjunction with grad students from other departments, will research greenhouse gas emissions by UNLV, identify the policies and practices that generate those emissions, and draft a plan to reduce UNLV's climate impact (and save it money using a template developed by the University of California Santa Barbara, and with the support of consultants from Second Nature, Inc., and the National Association of Environmental Law Societies.
This seminar presents an excellent opportunity for students interested in climate change to explore global, national, regional, state, and local responses to climate change, and to understand how institutions can respond to climate change. It will also offer students an opportunity to develop and hone skills in factual investigation, policy analysis, and strategizing for institutional change -- skills essential to many kinds of law practice.
The Nevada Appellate Court Initiative - Students learn about the initiative to create an intermediate appellate court in Nevada and work with community partners including the Nevada Supreme Court's Administrative Office of the Courts and organizations or groups that need information about the Nevada Appellate Court Initiative. Students will research the role of intermediate appellate courts in court systems, pros and cons about the proposed new court, and develop materials and presentations that will be part of a public education campaign on this important issue. Students will also develop their awareness of ethical issues and have opportunities to reflect on and practice responsibilities of legal professionals and to increase their awareness of the social and cultural contexts of legal institutions and services and of the value and many opportunities for civic engagement.
Class will meet weekly and students will work in teams to develop a presentation and deliver the presentation to at least three community groups or organizations. Students will also be required to reflect on the service experience and how it contributed to their learning the subject matter of the course, the professional obligations of lawyers and the value of civic engagement.
The University of New Hampshire School of Law's academic curriculum offers a broad range of challenging courses laying the foundation for careers in a variety of social justice practice areas—including criminal law, indigent legal services, civil rights and civil liberties, public interest in private practice, intellectual property in the public interest, and international human rights. With guidance from the Social Justice Institute, the Dean's Office, and Academic Advisors, students interested in social justice careers manage core subjects with elective coursework focused on specific practice areas.
Appellate Law in Practice
Consumer Law
Criminal Law in Practice
Domestic Violence/DUI Prosecution in Practice
Equal Access to Justice
Financial Literacy
Immigrant Rights Seminar
Immigration Practice
Innocence & Justice
Non-Profit Corporations
Poverty Law in Practice
Several transition-to-practice courses give students the unique opportunity to explore public service more deeply and apply what they have learned to real-world problems. In these classes, students will hone practical skills, working closely with faculty on projects and learning from practitioners on a broad range of legal topics.
Students interested in public service can pursue a Law & Public Policy Concentration. While working on this concentration, students can select from a wide range of courses to that include a public service component or prepare students to work in public service careers such as Nonprofit Organizations, Local Government Law, Environmental Law Practicum, and Children and the Law.
Bioethics & Law Clinical Practicum
Criminal Appellate Practicum
Criminal Prosecution Practicum
Environmental & Occupational Health & Safety Summer Institute
Health Law Practicum
Lawyering Process III – student work at Legal Services Provider
Legal Services Practicum
Worker's Compensation Practicum
Seminar: Law and Development – Aula Verde is a project for the development of economic strategies through nature and the environment in the midst of a public housing project with very high criminal incidence. Through this program former convicts are employed in a butterfly farm that serves as a community enterprise and receives visits from school children of adjacent communities. In 2004 Dean Rivera incorporated this project into the Law School curriculum as an applied research project with an accompanying two semester seminar with an initial enrollment of fourteen students.
Start-up Accelerator Practicum
Introduction to working with startup companies and entrepreneurs on issues of corporate governance and early-stage venture capital investments. Students will work with real companies at Lighthouse Labs, a start-up accelerator located in downtown Richmond. Students will work with the instructor to provide services like drafting operating agreements, term sheets, and documents relating to private equity investments. Also covers drafting and amending capitalization tables, calculating payments to owners and investors, and advising clients on the economic and practical implications of these transactions.
Poverty Law Practicum
Explores the legal and policy responses to poverty in the United States and addresses how the law shapes the lives of poor people and communities. Special focus upon the Greater Richmond area, examining the extent of poverty, the root causes, and the historical development of social welfare policy. Focuses on the rights-based aspect of poverty law and various policies that attempt to ameliorate poverty.
Aging/Disability Law Practicum
Examines discrimination, entitlements, ethical issues and comparative law related to the elderly and the disabled. The Practicum, an integrated teaching, research, and community service program, provides health and elder rights representation to underserved communities in cooperation with a medical-legal partnership with the VCU Health System. Topics include legal issues relating to such matters as capacity, guardianship, powers of attorney, Medicare, Medicaid (Medical Assistance), the protective services system, tax law as it applies to the elderly and disabled population, questions relating to options for long term care, and the practical aspects of providing legal services to the elderly and disabled population.
Immigration Rights Practicum
Hands-on experience in immigration law through a combination of doctrinal teaching and representation of actual clients in immigration court. Analysis of and response to an immigration consultation, effective representation of clients in removal proceedings, understanding issues at the intersection of federal immigration law and local law enforcement, and protection of the constitutional rights of immigrants. No third-year practice certificate is required.
Public Policy Research & Drafting
Combines both advanced legal research and writing instruction with a client-based experience. Provides students with an opportunity to explore advanced legal research in the public policy field, develop their writing skills in the context of creating an issue paper, and engage in client relations with nonprofit organizations from the greater Richmond community.
Equal Justice Applied Research seminar - Students choose research topics from the Legal Scholarship for Equal Justice (LSEJ) research topic list – a project of the Minnesota Justice Foundation - and work singly or in small groups to produce research papers that advance equal justice. Classroom sessions focus on the development of project topics, research skills needed for equal justice issues, policy analysis and problem solving, working collaboratively, the role of the public interest lawyer, and additional topics of interest to the participants. Class members are linked with the attorneys whose legal issues generated their projects. These attorneys serve as "field contacts" to help supervise the project. In addition, students spend approximately twenty hours on field work (either with their field contacts or other local public interest practitioners) to gain an understanding of public interest practice in general, the legal issues involved in their individual projects, and the real world implications of their topics. Students' completed works are presented before a CLE audience of lawyers at the end of the semester and are made available to practitioners, students, faculty and others on the LSEJ website.
Catholic Social Thought and International Law - Class readings and materials introduce the legal framework that governs international relations among nation states, with a special emphasis on the United Nations and its relationship to the domestic law of states, and also emphasize the Catholic Church's teachings on the role of international law. Students experience the process of international legal development through attendance, lobbying, and consultation with foreign delegations at an annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Each year representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to consider a particular theme related to gender equality, and identify challenges, propose global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide. Prior to attendance at the meeting students will study Church teaching and international agreements or statements related to the theme of the meeting.
Information on current class offerings with a public service component can be found on the law school's website: https://myusf.usfca.edu/law/registration/course-resources
None.
Access to Justice Practicum – This course allows students to work on real-world projects involving important civil rights, poverty law or access to justice issues for low-income people. Students join a project team and gain experience in litigation, writing amicus briefs and/or drafting legislation, reports or advocacy manuals.
Children and the Law – This course explores the unique role of children in our legal system, looking at children as victims, perpetrators, and even property. Discusses underlying and often conflicting rationales for these laws with a focus on how representation of children differs dramatically from representation of adults.
Child Interviewing Practicum– This course identifies means of encouraging children to provide truthful information about violence and abuse while minimizing suggestiveness and trauma. The lab interviews children for the Los Angeles County dependency courts, trains interviewers and conducts research.
Children’s Legal Issues– In this course, students assist a family from start to finish in finalizing a foster child adoption, and gain experience in California’s child welfare system, juvenile court system and foster care and adoption law.
Civil Rights Law – This course examines the ways in which the Constitution and federal civil rights laws are enforced and implemented. Provides an overview of various areas of civil rights law, with particular attention to litigation under 42 USC ‘1983, a Reconstruction-era law that remains the primary statutory tool for redress of Constitutional violations by state actors.
Consumer Law – This course explores the consequences when businesses are not forthcoming about the truth about their products, when consumers don’t read the fine print of contracts or product liability boilerplate, and what consumers can do to hold businesses accountable.
Criminal Procedure – This course focuses on the powers of the police to investigate criminal cases and examines the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Covers topics including searches and seizures, the warrant requirement and its exceptions, surveillance law and entrapment.
Equality and Difference – This course examines the legal treatment of religious, racial, cultural, gender and sexual differences and differences in physical and mental ability. Explores the question of whether the law should – and whether the law does – recognize these differences.
International Human Rights – This course introduces students to international human rights law, policy and practice both through learning the law and practice of human rights and by exploring important and emerging issues in the human rights field.
Labor Law – This course focuses on substantive and practical issues that arise in the practice of labor law (including ethics), as well as the interrelation of labor, business and government in collective bargaining, and federal regulation of union and management practices and pressures.
Medical Legal Community Partnership– This course partners USC Gould students with students from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and USC Sol Price School of Public Policy to work on access to medical care issues and community barriers to health, including medical debt, employment issues and family law.
Mental Health Law – This course explores foundational mental health law and legal practice concepts through three intersecting systems: the mental health system, the criminal system and the immigration enforcement system.
Poverty Law – This course introduces students to a mix of theory, doctrine and practical content, including the response of government and the legal system to problems of the poor, as well as theories about the causes of and solutions to poverty.
Suing the Government – This course covers the theoretical/doctrinal background of litigation against the government, including sovereign immunity and the practical aspects of who can sue the government, for what, where and how.
Veterans Legal Practicum – In this course, students assist former service members of the United States Armed Forces with legal issues stemming from the visible and invisible wounds of war, including discharge upgrades, military sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Please see the semester schedules, as not all courses are taught every year.
Texas Law offers an ever-changing assortment of courses each semester, some of which have a public service component although they are not classified as clinics or internships. Students and faculty in such courses typically partner with courts, government agencies or nonprofit organizations to conduct research, draft reports, and develop policy recommendations.
In addition to the community service requirement and the two required seven-credit clinics which have a public service component, doctrinal courses such as Tax and Non-Profit Law offer a service component in which enrolled students work with District of Columbia groups on such matters as applications for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status.
Many courses at Pacific McGeorge incorporate elements of public service and the application of theory to community assistance. With its emphasis on internationalizing the curriculum, Pacific McGeorge introduces students to the law's proactive roll in addressing pressing international issues.
The College's social justice mission is most evident in the clinical curriculum. Law students are trained in public interest law in the Public Service Externship Program, the College of Law Legal Clinic, the Domestic Violence & Juvenile Law Clinic, the Criminal Law Practice Program, and the Dispute Resolution Clinic.
Some of the Professional Responsibility classes (a mandatory course for graduation) include a public service component.
Foundations of Legal Studies
Immigrant Rights Project
SEED Project
Teaching Law in High School - Streetlaw course taught to local high schools students
Administrative Law
Advanced Campaign Finance
Advanced Criminal Law: From Theory to Practice
Advanced Topics in Law and Public Service
Animal Law
Anti-Terrorism, Law and the Role of Intelligence
Antitrust in the Global Economy
Civil Liberties Seminar
Civil Rights Litigation
Climate Change Law and Policy
Computer Crime
Conservation Planning and Law
Constitutional Law II: Survey of Civil Liberties
Criminal Investigation
Criminal Procedure Survey
Cyber Law and Policy
Drug Product Liability Litigation Seminar
Education Rights and Enforcement
Employment Discrimination
Energy and the Environment
Energy & Environmental Products Trading and Commodities Regulation
Environmental Law
Federal Criminal Pre-Trial and Trial Practice
Federal Lands, Energy and Natural Resources Law
Federal Sentencing
Foreign Relations Law
Government Contract Law
Health Law Survey
Historic Preservation Law
Human Rights Study Project
Immigration Law
International Criminal Law
International Human Rights Law
International Law and the Use of Force
Juvenile Justice Seminar
Land Use Law
Law and Public Service
Law of Armed Conflict
Law of the Police
Legislative Drafting and Public Policy
LGBTQ Rights Before and After Obergefell
Mental Health Issues in Juvenile Justice
National Security Law
Prison Reform Litigation and Advocacy
Professional Responsibility in Public Interest Law Practice
Providing K-12 Education; Taxes and Money
Racial Justice and Law
Reproductive Ethics and Law
State and Local Government Law
The Role of the Federal Prosecutor
White Collar Criminal Defense Practice
Women in the Criminal Justice System
Youth Law
Access to Justice Seminar – This course explores the legal, ethical and financial issues surrounding providing legal services to low-income people. Satisfies the externship perspectives requirement.
Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing – The course has three major components. First, it provides an introduction to sources of law, legal reasoning, interpretative methodologies, and professional responsibility. Second, it teaches the sources and techniques for basic legal research. Third, it develops and hones students' ability to write about complex legal issues in a variety of settings and for a variety of audiences. In the final academic quarter of this traditional first year research and writing course, students have the option of selecting a capstone project. The capstone choices vary from year to year and have included: Public Interest Practicum: Immigrant Wage Claim Issues; Public Interest Law Practicum: LGBT Youth; Asylum Law Practicum; Civil Rights Policy Practicum; Human Rights Research Practicum; Judicial Clerkship Practicum; and Public Interest Practicum: Tenant Screening. In each practicum the students use their research and writing skills to support services to clients of a local nonprofit organization or to provide assistance on a case pending before a court.
General Externship Perspectives Seminar -- Course provides a framework for evaluating and analyzing externships from an educational and philosophical perspective. The seminar facilitates dialogue among students engaged in different kinds of externships and encourages consideration of the ways rules, policies, and standard business practices affect different organizations, populations, and practitioners.
Immigration Law – This course will concentrate on the statutory and regulatory scheme concerning the immigration and naturalization of aliens in the United States, including the historical origins of U.S. immigration law and current proposals for major reforms of these laws. In one section of this course, the students complete a project in collaboration with the Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project, a project that seeks to defend and advance the rights of noncitizens within the criminal justice system and noncitizens facing the immigration consequences of crimes.
Juvenile Justice Seminar-- Course examines how the legal system treats juveniles who are accused of crimes. Students in this course are encouraged to volunteer for the Street Youth Legal Advocates Project by either helping to staff clinics for at-risk youth or by supporting the juvenile records sealing project.
Poverty Law – Overview of legal issues affecting poor people, including relevant background readings on poverty and access to justice, and selected problems such as housing and homelessness, education, employment issues of low-wage workers, income support and welfare reform, consumer law, family law and child-care. Open to second- and third-year students.
Property I – Analysis of the legal relationship among persons as to the ownership, transfer, and use of property from both a historical and a contemporary perspective. In one section of this traditional first year law course, the professor has required students to observe the Housing Justice Project (HJP) at King County Superior Court. The HJP provides free legal assistance to low income tenants in landlord/tenant proceedings utilizing pro bono attorneys and volunteer students.
Seminar in Contemporary Muslim Legal Systems -- In the contemporary Muslim world many governments are trying to establish legal systems that ensure economic development and the protection of human rights, while at the same time pledging to ensure that their legislation, judicial decisions and private contracts reflect Islamic norms. In this course, we will examine case studies from one or more countries that have tried to develop effective legal and economic systems while ensuring that their citizens will recognize their legal systems as "Islamic." This course addresses law reform projects and human rights promotion in the Muslim world.
Wisconsin's Curriculum Guide to Public Interest Law: http://law.wisc.edu/academics/curriculum-guides/public.html
Social Security Law & Practice - Students assist a legal aid attorney with cases.
Children and the Law - This course begins with an analysis of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It then explores the division of power over the child between the state and parents, children's constitutional rights in school, parents' privilege to discipline, child abuse and neglect, the sexual abuse of children, state removal of the child from parental custody, foster care, termination of parental rights, and adoption.
Students apply the doctrine and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Feminist Legal Theory - This course exposes students to the major paradigms of feminist legal thought and their application to a number of contemporary legal problems. It begins with an analysis of the theoretical constructs of legal feminism: formal, constitutional equality; dominance theory; and difference theory. It then grapples with the critique of these paradigms, including ones based on critical race theory and the intersection of gender, class and sexual orientation. After mastering the theories and critiques, the course will apply both to a variety of issues, including sexuality, reproductive rights, rape, pornography, domestic violence and marriage. Students apply the doctrines and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Poverty Law - This course engages students in a general study of the history and current reality of poverty in our society, as well as how the legal system has responded to the poor, both through governmental programs and civil justice systems.
Class topics include the history and current demographics of poverty, the antipoverty policy issues that underlie the body of law in the area of social welfare, access to justice and the evolution of legal services to the poor, the development and application of due process and the quest for equal protection and various substantive topic areas.
Students apply the doctrine and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Public Interest Lawyering - This course is a practical look at how lawyers use their skills to serve the public good. Through course readings, class discussions, court observations, and four writing assignments, the course explores cause lawyering and what it means to be a public interest lawyer. Students define public interest lawyering, review the history of public interest lawyering, discuss the roles of the public interest lawyer, and study the unique professional responsibilities of a public interest lawyer. They then explore the strategies used by public interest lawyers (both within the court system and outside the court system), the challenges associated with funding, and working with clients different from ourselves. Finally, they consider how to become a public interest lawyer while staying true to themselves and their values.
Villanova Sentencing Workshop - The Sentencing Workshop brings together students, judges, criminal law practitioners and others to discuss sentencing policy through the lens of pre-screened, actual cases.
The heart of the workshop is student-judge interaction, and discussion of real cases during three intensive weekend sessions. Specifically, the workshop will include three sessions, each beginning on a Thursday evening and ending mid-day on Saturday. The workshop participants will include approximately twelve students, eight trial judges, a prosecutor and a defense attorney, and other professionals. Each of the workshop sessions will revolve around actual cases submitted by the judges. Before each workshop session, the participants will review voluminous information on each case (often including source materials such as police reports and court transcripts), determine an appropriate sentence, and prepare a very brief sentencing memorandum explaining his or her sentencing decision. This sentencing information will be distributed to the other workshop participants in order to facilitate discussion of the cases. Most of the sessions will be devoted to discussing the cases and learning about the factors that go into the sentencing decision.
Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies - This course examines the causes of wrongful convictions. Some of the topics covered include eyewitness identification, false confessions and incompetent lawyering.
Clinical courses only.
All students in the taxation of individual income course are encouraged to participate in the volunteer income tax assistance program (VITA) run by the tax law society.
International Human Rights Practicum
Environmental Clinical Independent Study
Teaching Law in High School: students teach law in Detroit high schools
Income Tax; Corp Tax – Students provide free income tax assistance to low-income citizens.
In the spring of 2018, in conjunction with the University’s College of Business, the School of Law offered a course in tax preparation. As a component of the course, students prepared returns for taxpayers of modest means through a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program hosted by the University.
Clinic and Externship. https://willamette.edu/law/programs/aao/clp/index.html
Faculty often infuse public service issues into classroom discussion. A representative list of classes is here.
Yale provides many opportunities for students to initiate their own independent research and study. Through the student-organized research and legislative drafting seminar, students can submit a proposal for such seminars and, if approved, receive credit. In addition, students may receive credit for independent study with the approval of a faculty sponsor.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Animal Law
Appellate & Certiorari Practice
Children's Law
Civil Rights
Advanced Constitutional Law
Advanced Criminal Law
Domestic Violence Law
Election Law; Voting Rights
Environmental Protection; Natural Resources
Ethics in the Public Interest Context
Government; General Public Policy & Legislation
Health Law
Human Rights; Humanitarian Law
Immigration and Asylum Law
International Policy & Development
Low-Income Taxpayer
National Security; Community Safety
Non-Profit Organizations
Prisoners' Rights
Racial Justice/Race Theory
Sexual Orientation and the Law
Worker's Rights; Corporate Responsibility
12/16/2022