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, and criminal law, just to name a few. To learn more about these course offerings, please refer to the course catalogue ( http://www.wcl.american.edu/registrar/catalog.cfm) and the course schedule ( http://www.wcl.american.edu/registrar/coursesapp/searchcourse.html), which can be located on WCL's main website under the "Academics" tab.
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, dominguezd@law.byu.edu (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, fackrellt@law.byu.edu, (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, farmerl@law.byu.edu, (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.
Elder Law
Public Interest Law Practice and the Poor
Access to Justice Courses: These one-credit courses are designed to educate students about the unmet legal needs in a particular area of the law and to train the students to provide the needed service. The opportunity for the service is either incorporated into the course (Access to Justice: Immigration) or follows the course as part of a pro bono clinic (Custody and Divorce).
Practicums: Practicums are offered based on faculty interest and, thus, vary from semester to semester. An Immigration traditional non-clinical course becomes a practicum when the professor partners with an outside organization and builds into the course required assignments that will benefit the outside organization. An example is the Education Law Practicum.
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 http://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/descriptions/316_01.html
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
Advanced Appellate Advocacy/Moot Court - Some of the moot court teams have a public service project component as part of their participation requirements.
Child Law Legislation Seminar - Students work on projects being considered by legislators and/or advocacy groups.
Consumer Antitrust Studies - Students do field work in the antitrust or consumer protection fields with government or public interest organizations.
Domestic Violence Seminar - For a final exam, students can choose to develop a project that can be used in the field such as a manual for attorneys or a seminar on teen dating violence.
Street Law - Students teach legal issues to students in local high schools.
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.
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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
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.
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.
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
There are many courses at Santa Clara Law with a Public Service Component. The courses that are offered each year in connection with our clinical programs include:
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.
Bankruptcy– Students prepared the Consumer Protection module for the School of Law's Self Help Legal Center.
Regulation of Health Care Providers – Students prepare draft legislation, look for a legislator to sponsor, and then lobby for public health initiatives in Illinois
Children & the Law - Each student assists a pro bono attorney with the adoption paperwork for children being adopted out of the foster care system. Adoptions are actual cases before the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation - Students interview and counsel clients with Public Counsel, a nonprofit law firm in Los Angeles.
Clinical Program - The Children's Rights Clinic, Street Law - Youth in Transition, and the Immigration Law Clinic offer valuable services to the community while giving students hands-on experience helping indigent and otherwise underrepresented individuals.
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 svm@acsu.buffalo.edu.
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 tomkins@buffalo.edu.
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.
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 Appellate Techniques (Ethics), Advanced Professional Ethics, Advanced Skills-Mediation Training, Alternate Dispute Resolution, Negotiation and Confrontation, Asian-Americans and the Law, Child Abuse and Neglect, Children and the Law, Civil Rights Litigation Seminar, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Seminar, Death Penalty Seminar, Defending Battered Women, Disabilities Law, Education Law, Environmental Law, Family Violence Practice, Federal Indian Law and Seminar, Interviewing and Counseling, Immigration and Naturalization Law, International Human Rights Law, Public Resources and Endangered Species, 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
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 mmmurphy@ucdavis.edu.
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 mzjohns@ucdavis.edu.
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.
Administrative Law
All In-House and Out Placement Clinical Offerings
Community Law – CA Constitutional Literacy Instruction
Current Problems in Work Life Law
Current State and Local Government Problems Seminar
Immigration Statutory Class
Public Health and Homelessness: Intersections of Law and Health Care
Social Justice Lawyering Concentration Seminar
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, mstone@law.uconn.edu
Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative – William Breetz, Director, wbreetz@law.uconn.edu
Street Law – This course has been taught by various professors. The Registrar's Office can provide information about the current instructor(s), registrar@law.uconn.edu.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance – Diana Leyden, Tax Clinic Director, dleyden@law.uconn.edu
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 randall@udayton.edu.
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.
The Civil Clinics offer students the opportunity to represent clients under the supervision of law professors in a model law office setting in numerous areas including litigation, transactional, and international human rights matters. In addition to representing clients, students participate in the related seminar which meets weekly.
The Appellate Defender Clinic has attorneys from the Fourth District Office of the State Appellate Defender supervise law students preparing criminal appeals for clients of the office. Each student receives a transcript from a felony jury trial and is primarily responsible for preparing the appellate brief in the case. Students who qualify for licenses under Supreme Court Rule 711 generally will be able to argue their cases orally before the Illinois Appellate Court for the Fourth Judicial Circuit if oral argument is granted in that case.
Clinical Externships offer students the opportunity to receive law credit for pro bono work for a nonprofit organization, government agency, or judicial experience. In addition to meeting hourly work requirements with the sponsoring agency, the students must also submit periodic reports, a skills analysis and a final evaluation of the experience. The work must be legal in nature and conducted under the supervision of an attorney. Legislative Projects allows students to work on projects with the Illinois State Legislature. Students in this class spend a number of hours in Springfield, Illinois, working with legislative leadership. Internship/Independent Study opportunities with the South African Human Rights Commission, which are funded by the College, allow the students to participate actively in work of the Commission, under the supervision of a dedicated faculty member. Law of Professional Responsibility includes a pro bono element as a way of reinforcing the ABA commitment toward pro bono efforts. In the course of this class, students can receive extra credit for strictly volunteer community service. Students present a proposal, provide the service, and complete a written report detailing their experience and what they learned from the pro bono service.
Children and the Law also includes a pro bono component. Students are encouraged to serve as judges in the Vermilion County Juvenile Peer Court. This Court is where children are tried and sentenced for misdemeanor and other minor offenses by a jury of their peers (other minors). Trained minors also serve as the attorneys. The court personnel use local lawyers and law students as the judges. The adjudications and sentences are real.
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.
http://www.law.umaryland.edu/academics/program/curriculum/catalog/
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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Death Penalty Law
Disability Law
Education Law
Elder Law
Employment Discrimination
Environmental Law
Fair Housing
Freedom of Speech and Association
Gender & the Law
Immigration Law
Landlord/Tenant Law & Practice
Landlord/Tenant Practicum
Law & Society
Legislative Practicum
Public Policy Dispute Resolution
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, afrank2@unl.edu.
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.
Courses with a public service component include our periodically offered Legislative Issues Workshop. This workshop includes work with legislators during Oregon’s bi-annual legislative session.
Many of the law school faculty teach seminars with a public service component. The following a non-exhaustive list of faculty who teach courses with a public service component related to their seminars:
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.
Nonprofit organizations - The class has group projects which vary but involve community service to nonprofit organizations. The current project is to learn about a local nonprofit and complete a report assessing the effectiveness of the marketing/development effort (telling the organization's story), the effectiveness of organizational governance, compliance with legal requirements relating to governance and operation, and existence and effectiveness of policies such as conflict of interest and financial controls.
Family Law - This class has a public service option. One component of the student's participation grade in the class is a modest service learning requirement. Students may either spend 3 hours observing a relevant courtroom proceeding, academic talk or training or they may coordinate with Tara Casey, Director of the Carrico Center for Pro Bono Work to do relevant pro bono work. Students may participate in the Richmond Families Initiative, The Protective Order & Domestic Relations Courtroom Outreach Project, The Street Law Program, Safe Harbor Education Outreach, Protective Order CLE, Court Appointed Special Advocates, FACES of Virginia, Metropolitan Richmond Women's Bar Association Domestic Relations Handbook or may observe court in the Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court regarding support, contested custody, domestic protective order, or truancy matters.
Children and the Law - The class has a public service option. One component of the student's participation grade in the class is a modest service learning requirement. Students may either spend 3 hours observing a relevant courtroom proceeding, academic talk or training or they may coordinate with Tara Casey, Director of the Carrico Center for Pro Bono Work to do relevant pro bono work. Students may participate in the Street Law Program, Court Appointed Special Advocates, FACES of Virginia or may observe court in the Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court regarding criminal juvenile cases, abuse and neglect, contested custody domestic protective orders, or truancy matters.
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: http://www.law.usfca.edu/academics/jd/electives.html
None.
Family Violence Seminar - Professor Thomas Lyon offers an additional one to two units for students who provide direct services to victims of domestic violence with one of several local legal services nonprofits.
Housing and Tenant/Landlord Law Seminar – Adjunct Professor Tai Glenn offers an additional one to two units for students who provide direct services to victims of slum housing with one of several local legal services nonprofits.
The Law School offers an ever-changing assortment of courses each semester, a number of which have a public service component although they are not classified as clinics or internships. Students in such courses typically partner with faculty and courts, agencies or non-profit 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
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. http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/curriculum/elective-courses/social-security-law-and-practice/index.aspx
Children and the Law - This course will begin with an analysis of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It will then explore 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.
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.
Public Interest Lawyering – The School's Public Interest Lawyering course combines traditional academic learning with field service. Students complete their field service at local homeless shelters or juvenile halls.
Street Law Program – The School's Street Law Program requires students to provide legal education to local youths in area high schools, shelters, and service agencies.
Clinic and Externship. http://willamette.edu/law/programs/clp/index.html
Faculty often infuse public service issues into classroom discussion. A representative list of classes is available at law.wm.edu/academics/programs/jd/index.php.
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
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