Law School Public Interest Programs - Classes with a Public Service Component
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.
American University Washington College of Law
Human Rights Impact Litigation - Students provide direct representation, including court appearances in complex federal cases dealing with international human rights.
Selected Issues in International Trade - Students write papers commissioned by the Internataional Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP). ILEAP uses the papers in their technical support to clients.
The Constitution and Public Education - "The Constitution and Public Education" is a seminar that is part of the Marshall-Brennan Fellows Program. Marshall-Brennan Fellows receive academic credit for the course and their work teaching a course on constitutional rights and responsibilities.
A number of our Practicum courses, offered to third-year students, have included service components. For example, students have had the opportunity to take part in service components in Professor Sandra McGlothins's Family Law & Mediation course and in Professor Wendy Davis's Real Estate Transactions course.
Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Barry University School of Law
Boston University School of Law
Housing Law - This seminar course focuses on the various policy, legislative, and social aspects of the issues surrounding rent control, public housing, subsidized housing, condominiums, housing discrimination, zoning, environmental problems in housing and premises liability.
Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School
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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@lawgate.byu.edu (801) 422-3739.
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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@lawgate.byu.edu, (801) 422-9310.
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Mediation Training Teams course: Students participate as mediation trainers by teaching Brigham Young University students in undergraduate departments and Utah Valley State College students basic mediation and negotiation theory and skills through a 14-lesson curriculum which includes role plays, interactive lectures, and demonstrations. The law students involve the undergraduate students in service-learning activities in which school children and at-risk high school students receive training in dispute resolution, anger management, family communication, and playground mediation. Professor Tamara Fackrell, fackrellt@lawgate.byu.edu, (801) 422-9310.
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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@lawgate.byu.edu, (801) 422-2423.
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Basic Mediation course: Students provide no-cost mediation services in local small claims courts. Professor Susan Bradshaw, bradshaws@lawgate.byu.edu, (801) 422-2159.
California Western School of Law
California Innocence Project I & II.
Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law
Case Western Reserve University Law School
Catholic University of America School of Law
Chapman University School of Law
A general survey course taught by adjunct professor but no service component is required. The adjunct professor is Joanna Joyce Weiss, Latham and Watkins, Costa Mesa, CA.
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.
City University of New York Law at Queens College
Economic Justice Clinic - This 2nd year elective offers students the opportunity to provide representation to clients in workfare related cases
Fourth semester lawyering seminar course Provides opportunities for students to engage in hands-on public interest legal work. The seminar may change from year to year. During the 2005-6 academic year, it was the International Human Rights Seminar.
The Public Interest/Public Service Course - A classroom course that gives credit and supervision for off-site public interest/service related internships. This course is offered only in the summer term.
Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law
Directed Readings on International Environmental Law
Domestic Violence Clinic – An examination through practice, reading, and a classroom component of domestic violence law and practice. Students will, under supervision, provide advice and counsel to residents of the Avalon shelter, and may include court representation of clients. In addition to meetings with the faculty supervisor, there is a one-hour classroom meeting per week, conducted jointly with students enrolled in the Legal Aid Clinic. Class meetings will focus both on current practice experiences of the students and readings and discussions of domestic violence law. Third-Year practice required. Enrollment limited to four students.
www.wm.edu/law/academicprograms/curriculum/experiences/law745-01.shtml
Federal Practice Tax Clinic – This clinic consists of two components: a seminar about federal tax practice and procedure and a practicum in which students will assist in the representation of low income Virginia taxpayers before the IRS and in U.S. Tax Court cases. The seminar will include a detailed and systematic exploration of federal tax practice. Students will be instructed in: interview techniques, client relations, case evaluation, settlement, negotiation, and trial techniques and strategies. Ethical issues will be discussed. The course is limited to 5 third-year students. Third-Year Practice is required.
www.wm.edu/law/academicprograms/curriculum/experiences/law743-01.shtml
International Law Clinic, Iraqi Special Tribunal – This clinic is a special project conducted with the Regime Crimes Liaison Office of the Department of Justice. Second and third year students will be researching and writing legal memos on ten questions provided by the DOJ with the memos to be provided to the judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad trying Sadaam Hussein and others. The client is the DOJ and students will be preparing the memos under the supervision of Professor Malone who is the supervising attorney for the project. Depending upon the number of participants, students will be expected to research and write 25-40 pages on the provided questions. There will also be a weekly, one-hour classroom meeting on substantive background issues, student discussion of their work, and international legal research. Students will also be expected to conduct an hour-long public program on the general issues facing the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
www.wm.edu/law/academicprograms/curriculum/experiences/law748-01.shtml
Land Use Control Seminar – Students work on a project supervised by the James City County Attorney.
Legal Aid Clinic – Students work in the Williamsburg office of Legal Services of Eastern Virginia, providing legal service to poor people under the supervision of a faculty member. The legal work done by the students provides the basis for an exploration of the profession and the justice system. There is a one-hour classroom meeting per week in addition to office hours at Legal Services. In the classroom time, students discuss readings and their ongoing casework, exploring issues relevant to their client work. Third-Year practice required.
www.wm.edu/law/academicprograms/curriculum/experiences/law746-01.shtml
Columbia University School of Law
Drafting Relating to Wills and Trust - Students could opt to prepare simple wills, living wills and powers of attorney for low-income senior citizens at the JASA West Side Senior Citizen Center and elsewhere. (Professor Lawrence Newman)
Intenational Arbitration and Conflicts - Students intern at organizations doing international arbitrations.
Labor Rights in the Global Economy - Students worked with labor unions, and non-profit labor rights NGOs, some outside of New York. (Professor Mark Barenberg)
Law and Policy of Homelessness - Student papers often were on behalf of real organizations, rather than abstract issues. (Professor Kim Hopper)
Race and Poverty Law - Student papers often were on behalf of real organizations, rather that abstract issues and, were presented at a conference that was open to interested members of the public. (Professor Kim Crenshaw)
Stakeholder Environmental Decision-Making Project - Students participated in actual large scale, multiparty processes addressing important environmental and land-use issues in the NYC area. (Lecturer-in-Law Evan Van Hook)
Street Law. Three credit hours. Professor Winnie F. Taylor, (607) 255-1545
Course description, Spring 2002: This seminar would allow law students to lead weekly discussions at the Auburn Correctional Facility on contemporary legal topics. Although all students enrolled in the seminar will be expected to attend the weekly meeting, two students will be responsible for presenting a legal or policy issue at each meeting and then opening up the floor to questions and comments from the prisoners in attendance. Prison administrators will determine who will attend the legal seminar. The objective of this seminar is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the discussion of current legal issues among law students and members of the Auburn prison population. It will give our students an additional opportunity to take law and legal education beyond the traditional classroom setting. The list below is a sampling of topics that hopefully will spark the kind of spirited intellectual debate this seminar envisions:
- Reparations for African Americans: legal and Policy Issues
- Racial Profiling
- Family Law and the Rights of Fathers
- Term Limits on Elected Officials
- Pornography as Discrimination Against Women
- The Relevance of Race, Ethnicity, and Sex to Judicial Appointments
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Shaming Penalties
- Fourth Amendment and Other Limits on Policing Schools for Drugs and Guns
Creighton University School of Law
DePaul University College of Law
A few courses have experiential public interest components. Such courses include Mediation, Chiapas Human Rights Practicum, ( http://www.law.depaul.edu/programs/study%5Fabroad/chiapas.asp), Economic Justice, Domestic Violence.
Drake University School of Law
- First-year Trial Practicum
- Environmental Litigation.
Drexel University College of Law
Poverty Law
Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies - See http://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/descriptions/316_01.html
Duquesne University School of Law
Emory University School of Law
Federal Housing Policies and Homelessness
Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law
Florida A&M University College of Law
Florida International University College of Law
Florida State University College of Law
Children's Advocacy Center
Clinical Externship Program
Fordham University School of Law
Professional Responsibility: Advanced Public Interest Seminar
http://law.fordham.edu/syllabus/syl5424.pdf
Lobbying and Legislative Process – http://www.piercelaw.edu/registrar/CoursDesc.htm
Street Law Class – www.piercelaw.edu/registrar/CoursDesc.htm
George Mason University School of Law
George Washington University Law School
Georgetown University Law Center
Deliberative Democracy and Civic Organizing: Theory and Practice – www.law.georgetown.edu/curriculum
Legal Research & Writing(1L, Section 3) – www.law.georgetown.edu/curriculum
Social Welfare Law and Policy Seminar – www.law.georgetown.edu/curriculum
Georgia State University College of Law
Golden Gate University School of Law
Honors Lawyering Program Skills Lab - Students in the Honors Lawyering Program work with supervising faculty on a public interest project each summer as part of their program requirement. The project changes each year; in Summer 2001, the students interviewed and counseled women offenders at
Street Law - Students enrolled in this course teach law to students at high schools throughout the Bay Area. Contact: Professor Thomas Nazario, 415/422-6832 or nazario@beta.usfca.edu.
Gonzaga University School of Law
Women and the Law (Professor Mary Pat Truethart)
Hamline University School of Law
Hofstra University School of Law
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.
Howard University School of Law
Howard Law's Labor Law and Equal Employment Opportunity Classes, both taught by Professor Christi Cunningham, have public service extra credit options. Students may volunteer service to the D.C. Workers' Rights Clinic for extra credit. For more information, contact Professor Cunningham, 202/806-8034 or ccunningham@law.howard.edu.
Illinois Institute of Technology: Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Public Interest Law and Policy (3 credit hours)
- Legal Writing IV - Public Interest Law (3 credit hours)
- Over 40 other courses with a public interest component
- Legal externships with public interest and government agencies
Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington
Immigration Law – This course examines the rights of aliens to enter the United States, to remain in the United States after arrival, and to secure or retain citizenship. It includes special restrictions imposed on aliens that restrict their opportunity to secure employment, welfare benefits, or other entitlements, and the judicial response to those restrictions. The course explores a significant number of Supreme Court decisions that have addressed the many important constitutional issues lurking in immigration law.
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.
Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis
Inter American University of Puerto Rico: Inter American University of Puerto Rico School of Law
Workshop on Registry of Property - students work with legal justice department unit for 2 credits.
John Marshall Law School – Atlanta
Lewis & Clark College School of Law
The courses associated with the clinical programs all have a public service component. In addition, some of the Professional Responsibility courses (a mandatory course for graduation) include a required pro bono component. Professor Steve Johansen has such a requirement when he teaches Professional Responsibility. His phone number is 503/768-6637 and his email is tvj@lclark.edu.
Liberty University School of Law
Students in Dean Jory Fisher’s Children and the Law Seminar are strongly encouraged to teach at least one class of Street Law either at the Detention Center or the Presbyterian Home location.
Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center
Loyola Law School: Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Civil Rights Litigation Seminar
Public Interest Law Seminar
Street Law
Loyola University Chicago: Loyola University Chicago School of Law
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.
Loyola University New Orleans: Loyola University New Orleans School of Law
Law & Poverty Course
Law & Poverty Seminar
Street Law
Marquette University Law School
While Marquette has not currently developed a “track” for public interest law, all of its courses will include components addressing impact upon and service to disadvantaged populations.
Mercer University School of Law
Michigan State University College of Law
- Tax Clinic Class
- Rental Housing Class
Mississippi College: Mississippi College School of Law
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.
New England School of Law: New England School of Law
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.
New York Law School: New York Law School
Center for Professional Values and Practice Capstone – The CPVP Capstone is a required course for 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 Harlan Scholars. JAC students participate in projects with practicing attorneys in their area of concentration, and these projects can include public interest components.
Poverty, Families, and Social Welfare Policy – Introduction to poverty policy issues, with particular attention to welfare reforms undertaken since 1996 and with special emphasis on large urban centers such as New York. The seminar is structured in three parts. The first part is about poverty. Readings describe families living in poverty, the effects of poverty on families and children, and theories of poverty. The middle third considers the evolution of welfare policies, with particular emphasis on changes in the law since 1996. The final third focuses on the continuing experimentation with welfare policies by the states, promising directions for change, and the politics of welfare reform. Students are required to write several short papers during the term and a research paper at the end of the semester. Students are also required to volunteer at least ten hours in an approved placement in a shelter, human services organization, or poverty advocacy project, and are encouraged to use the experience as a start for the paper.
New York University: New York University School of Law
n addition to our extensive clinics, see www.law.nyu.edu/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 www.law.nyu.edu/depts/publicinterest/curriculum/sampling.html for a sampling of courses offered in the past few years that would be relevant to students concerned with public interest law.
North Carolina Central University School of 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.
Northeastern University: Northeastern University School of Law
Children's Law – Professor Mary O'Connell allows students, in lieu of a final exam, to conduct a research project for a local children's rights advocacy organization.
Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC) – Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC)- formerly Law, Culture, and Difference - is a required first year course, which delivers fundamental research and writing training while it challenges participants' values and helps sensitize 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.
Northern Illinois University: Northern Illinois University College of Law
None.
Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law
Northwestern University: Northwestern University School of Law
Notre Dame: Notre Dame Law School
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.
Nova Southeastern University: Shepard Broad Law Center
Dependency Workshop - Works primarily with Guardian Ad Litem Program
Street Law Workshop
Ohio Northern Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law
For information on the ADR Public Service Projects, see http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/programs/adr/public_service.php.
Oklahoma City University: Oklahoma City University School of Law
Pennsylvania State University The Dickinson School of Law
Legal Problems of Indigents
Pepperdine University: Odell McConnell Law Center
None
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico
Quinnipiac University School of Law
Poverty Law
Regent University: School of Law
Individual Income Tax– Students served in the Virginia Individual Tax Assistance Program (VITA).
Roger Williams University: Ralph R. Papitto School of Law
Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Center for Law and Justice (Newark)
Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey School of Law, Camden
Advanced Mediation – Prof. Petrilla encourages participation in the mediation program.
Public Interest Law – Requires a community service component, to be approved by the professor.
Saint John's University School of Law
Saint Louis University: Saint Louis University School of Law
Urban Issues Symposium – Students work with a neighborhood on redevelopment issues. For more information, contact Professor Peter Salsich, Jr. at (314) 977-2766.
Saint Mary’s University of San Antonio: St. Mary’s University of San Antonio School of Law
None.
Saint Thomas University: St. Thomas University School of Law (FL)
Clinics and Field Experience Courses.
Samford University: Cumberland School of Law
None.
Santa Clara University: Santa Clara University School of Law
East San Jose Community Law Center Interviewing and Advising
Students who wish to advise clients under the supervision of an attorney at the East San Jose Community Law Center Advice Clinic are required to take this course. ESJCLC provides free legal services to low-income individuals seeking help with employment, small business, consumer, and immigration matters. Law students are the primary case handlers for these individuals. ESJCLC accepts cases for full and partial representation, and offers weekly clinics during which clients get free legal advice to direct their own cases.
East San Jose Community Law Center
This class provides opportunities for upper-division students to master lawyering skills while directly serving the community. There are various areas of clinical specialization: consumer law, employment law, immigration law, and small business consulting. All students must attend an intensive skills training program and regular 75-minute seminar meetings twice a week.
Seattle University: Seattle University School of Law
Seton Hall University: Seton Hall University School of Law
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.
South Texas College: South Texas College of Law
Southern Illinois University School of Law
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.
Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
Southern University Law Center
Southwestern University: Southwestern Law School
Children & the Law – Each student completes an individual foster child’s adoption. Cases involve a child currently in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and a prospective adoptive parent or parents. Adoptions are not mock cases but pending cases before the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation – Students interview and counsel clients at Public Counsel, a legal services provider in Los Angeles.
Please see clinics.
Stetson University: Stetson University College of Law
Occasionally professors will design programs around their courses. Each semester our Elder Law and Environmental Law classes will have a unique program that supports the course. For example, Prof. Royal Gardner's Environmental Law Class has worked on the Brownfield projects for pro bono hours.
Syracuse University: College of Law
High School Externships - Street Law Program (Leslie Bender)
Law Students teach a course in practical law to high school students for two credits. The class meets five days a week, but each student must attend two days a week. http://www.law.syr.edu/faculty/syllabus.asp?id= 72
Mediation Assistance Program (Margaret Harding)
Law Students learn to be mediators and offer mediation assistance.
Temple University: James E. Beasley School of Law
Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Texas Tech University School of Law
Wills and Trusts (aka Wills Project) – Professor Vaughn James (806) 742-3990, Ext. 246
The course is a study of the transfer of property by descent, wills, testamentary substitutes, and trusts, including a study of construction problems. Students are divided into groups. Each group has the opportunity to draft wills questionnaires, conduct interviews, draft wills, and oversee the execution of the wills. The class has the opportunity to co-sponsor four wills clinics at neighborhood communities partnering with the Civil Practice Clinic and Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas.
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law: Thomas Jefferson School of Law
VITA (tax assistance program for indigent clients) – TJSL has a faculty supervised volunteer clinic that students run to assist low income individuals in tax preperation and tax issue problem solving.
Cooley Law School offers many classes having a public service component. Required courses having a public service component 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. Professor Vestrand’s Professional Responsibility class recently adopted a family in crisis raising funds for home heating and other critical necessities, and donating food. Assistant Dean Miller’s Professional Responsibility class recently visited the local soup kitchen making donations of personal care items and learning about the kitchen’s programs.
Many other faculty members teaching required courses include public service material. Elective courses having a public service component include Advanced Appellate Techniques (ethics), Advanced Professional Ethics, Advanced Skills-Mediation Training, Alternate Dispute Resolution, 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, Immigration and Naturalization Law, International Human Rights Law, Public Resources and Endangered Species, and Workplace and Employment Discrimination Law.
Touro College: Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
None.
Tulane University: Tulane University School of Law
Students in the Bankruptcy class are offered the option of working in a Bankruptcy Community Service program for Community Service credit. Prof. Mark Wessman teaches this class (504/865-5989).
University at Buffalo Law School, SUNY
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.
University of Akron: C. Blake McDowell Law Center
Capital Punishment Seminar
Students may opt to assist the professor in preparing petition(s) for certiorari on behalf of indigent deathrow inmate(s).
Clinical Seminars where students receive academic credit for their work in public interest, public sector or nonprofit organizations under the supervision of an attorney.
University of Alabama: University of Alabama School of Law
None.
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
University of Arkansas at Little Rock: William H. Bowen School of Law
None.
University of Arkansas School of Law
University of Baltimore School of Law
University of California - Los Angeles
University of California at Davis: University of California at Davis School of 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.
University of California, Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Community Law Practice requires a clinical component at East Bay Community Law Center. All in-house and faculty supervised clinical programs include a seminar component. Social Justice Practice includes a practical legal case-study component.
University of California-Hastings
Administrative Law
Public Interest Concentration Core Seminar
All of the In-House and Out Placement Clinical Offerings referenced above.
Immigration Statutory Class
University of Chicago: University of Chicago Law School
Poverty and Housing Law Clinic (seminar with clinical component at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago)
University of Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati College of Law
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.
University of Colorado: School of Law
None.
University of Connecticut: University of Connecticut School of Law
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
University of Dayton: University of Dayton School of Law
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.
University of Denver: Sturm College of Law
Poverty Law – In Professor Julie Nice's Poverty Law class, students have undertaken a wide variety of legislative, litigation, and public policy projects relating to the needs of low income people.
Street Law 1 and 2 – Law students work in two-person teams to teach law to students in urban high schools.
Wills Lab (following Trusts and Estates) – In Professor Lucy Marsh's Wills Lab (following Trusts and Estates course) up to 30 students draft wills and related documents for Legal Aid clients under Professor Marsh's close supervision.
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
University of Florida: Fredric G. Levin College of Law
Poverty Law– Students enrolled in the Poverty Law course are strongly encouraged to become involved in pro bono work.
University of Georgia School of Law
- Public Interest Practicum – Designed to teach students to discover what peoples' needs are, to be able as lawyers to summon community resources for meeting those needs, and to determine what lawyers can do to ensure the community's services are in place and functioning. Students will be required to work with both service institutions and individuals who are the clients of those institutions. They will be assigned to cases and graded on their success in solving the problems raised.
- Approaches to Lawyering - Exploration of different ways to think about the practice of law employing, among others, sometimes overlooked sources in the Western tradition that often take the form of stories (e.g., Moses and Njaal). Students will interpret texts and observe lawyers and judges. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their reading of the texts, their discernment of what lawyers actually do, and their exploration of potential interpretative and personal connections between the texts and lawyering.
- Law, Public Policy and the Elderly - Exploration of aspects of federal and state elderly programs and problems; special risk populations; significance of older population growth; representation of elderly clients; guardianship; lifetime estate management; testamentary estate disposition; living wills and "right to die" debate; health and long-term care; housing, transportation and employment policies; and public assistance. Research paper required for all students. Additionally, those enrolled for 3 credit hours will spend approximately 50 hours during the semester in a supervised clinical setting.
- Independent Project - Independent projects provide students with a flexible opportunity to independently explore legal issues or questions sometimes not found in any course or seminar and without following format of a formal research paper. Projects must involve significant legal, social, or empirical research or experience.
- Supervised Research - Supervised Research involves an in-depth written analysis of a legal issue under close faculty tutoring and supervision. It requires significant legal research, original thinking and analysis, and must produce final paper of a kind and quality similar to that found in law review articles.
University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law
University of Houston Law Center
University of Idaho: College of Law
University of Illinois College of Law
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.
University of Iowa College of Law
Non-Profit and Philanthropic Organizations – students complete five legal documents for actual non-profit groups.
University of Kansas: School of Law
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.
University of Kentucky College of Law
University of La Verne College of Law
Our students who are enrolled in Clinical Placement attend three classes throughout the semester.
University of Louisville: Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
None.
University of Maine School of Law
University of Maryland: University of Maryland School of Law
Service to vulnerable populations is not simply an aspiration; it is a requirement. Under the Cardin requirement, named for Congressman Benjamin Cardin '67, all day students must take one of a series of courses that connects theoretical study with legal services on behalf of poor and other under-represented people and communities. Students can satisfy this requirement by taking a pre-approved clinical offering or externship, or by taking a Cardin Program Legal Theory and Practice course.
University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
University of Miami School of Law
Many of our workshop courses include field components dedicated to serving the public interest. These include juvenile justice, election reform, 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.
University of Michigan: University of Michigan Law School
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.
University of Minnesota: University of Minnesota Law School
The Law School offers a Public Interest Clinic, taught by Professor Steve Befort.
University of Mississippi School of Law
University of Missouri - Columbia: School of Law
University of Missouri Kansas City University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law
- Children and the Law
- Employment Discrimination Law
- Civil Rights, Environmental Law
- Estate Planning and Drafting
- Gender and Justice
- International Human Rights Law
- Race and the Law Seminar, and various constitutional law courses
University of Montana: University of Montana School of Law
Public Interest Lawyering
University of Nebraska: University of Nebraska College of Law
In the Family Law Practice course, students working in teams of two handle a low income divorce case. For information, contact Professor Alan Fran, afrankz@unl.edu.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas: William S. Boyd School of Law
LEAP - Legal Education & Assistance for Prisoners Seminar - Students provide legal information to inmates at several Nevada Department of Corrections facilities. Students are assigned to a team that will work with the inmates at one of the facilities. Students meet with and conduct interviews with the inmate law clerks to identify legal topics about which they need information. Students then research those issues, develop training materials and conduct workshops or training sessions for the inmates using the materials they develop. Students visit the facilities once each month.
University of New Mexico School of Law
University of North Carolina: University of North Carolina School of Law
Domestic Violence Law – This course has a voluntary practical skills component for Spanish speaking students.
Non Profit Organizations – This course addresses a number of issues involved in the formation, operation, daily management, and taxation of nonprofit organizations. It also examines the historical underpinnings and the political and public policy considerations that have given shape to the so-called "third-sector" with a practical skills component.
University of North Dakota School of Law
University of Oklahoma College of Law
University of Oregon: University of Oregon School of Law
Legislative Issues Workshop - In addition to class sessions, students work for a legislator during Oregon's bi-annual legislative session. Contact Assistant Dean Merv Loya, mloya@law.uoregon.edu or 541/346-3887.
University of Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Law School
Many of the law school faculty teach seminars with a public service component which is often coordinated with the Public Service Program. The following is a partial list of faculty who have taught courses with a pro bono component related to their seminars:
- Professor David Rudovksy, Evidence (student perform legal research in civil rights cases)
- Director of Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research (director teaches a seminar in Juvenile and/or Family Law and students work concurrently on legal research for practitioners)
- Professor Jason Johnstone, Environmental Law (students performed research for various environmental agencies)
- Professor Nathaniel Persily, Constitutional Law (students perform research for the Brennan Center)
- Professor Fernando Chang Muy, Immigration Law (students assist with pro bono assistance in immigration matters)
- Professor Harold Reicher, International Human Rights (students perform research for international human rights agencies including the United Nations)
- Professor Seth Kreimer, Constitutional Litigation (students perform research for the American Civil Liberties Union)
- Professor Dina Schlossberg, Small Business Clinic (work for the People's Emergency Center).
University of Pittsburgh: School of 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
University of Puerto Rico School of Law
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.
University of Richmond T. C. Williams School of Law
University of Saint Thomas: School of Law (MN)
Minnesota Justice Foundation Seminar – The MJF Seminar, subtitled Legal Scholarship for Equal Justice, offers students an opportunity to research and write about issues/policies that members of the public interest bar have identified as being worthy of deeper consideration and evaluation. The course, which is offered jointly by all four Twin Cities schools, offers three students from each school the opportunity to do supervised research that is directly related to helping assure equal access to justice.
University of San Diego School of Law
University of San Francisco School of Law
University of South Carolina: University of South Carolina School of Law
None.
University of South Dakota School of Law
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
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.
University of Tennessee College of Law
- Children and the Law
- Community Development
- Community Legal Education
- Not-for-profit Corporations
- Ownership & Justice
- Public Interest Law
University of Texas at Austin School of Law
University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law
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.
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
University of Toledo: College of Law
There are several doctrinal course offerings that relate to public interest law and public service, including Gender and the Law, Sexual Orientation and the Law, Civil and Political Rights.
However, 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 Clinic, the Criminal Practice Clinic and the Dispute Resolution Clinic.
University of Tulsa: College of Law
None.
University of Utah College of Law
Community Justice – Conducting research for groups serving the poor or educating low income individuals.
Teaching Law in High School – Streetlaw course taught to local high schools students
University of Virginia School of Law
University of Washington: University of Washington School of Law
Access to Justice – This course explores the legal, ethical and financial issues surrounding providing legal services to low-income people.
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.
University of Wisconsin: Law School
None.
University of Wyoming School of Law
Valparaiso University: Valparaiso University School of Law
Vanderbilt University Law School
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
Villanova University: Villanova University School of Law
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.
Wake Forest University School of Law
Washburn University School of Law
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.
Washington and Lee University: School of Law
None
Washington University: Washington University School of Law
Wayne State University Law School
Teaching Law in High School (students teach law in Detroit high schools)
West Virginia University College of Law
Income Tax; Corp Tax – Students provide free income tax assistance to low-income citizens.
Western New England College: School of Law
Western State University College of Law
Whittier Law School: Whittier Law School
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. For additional information, contact Scott Wylie, Associate Dean fo
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.
Widener University School of Law--Delaware Campus
Willamette University: Willamette University College of Law
The Certificate in Dispute Resolution requires 100 hours of practicum volunteering in some area of dispute resolution. For additional information, contact Professor Rich Birke, rbirke@willamette.edu.
The Civil Practice Clinic and the Externship Program include a classroom component which gives credit for time spent volunteering. For additional information, contact Jennifer Wright, jlwright@willamette.edu; David Daniel, ddaniel@willamette.edu.
William Mitchell College of Law: William Mitchell College of Law
Elder Law Workshop
Independent Clinics – Students may earn credit by participating in lawyering experiences outside the formal clinical courses offered. The plan must contain educational objectives, a description of the fieldwork, and a proposed method of evaluation. The student's fieldwork must
Poverty Law – A public service component is offered in conjunction with the Poverty Law class.
Yale University: Yale Law School
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.
The International Law and Development Workshop provides some students with an opportunity to follow up their semester coursework with a variety of real-world legal projects in Northeast Africa.
Yeshiva University: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
None
