Externship: Social Justice Advocacy 609

Course Number: LAW 609FP (Field Placement) & LAW 609S (Seminar); ULSR

Course Credits: 4 Credits (3 FP, 1 Seminar)

In the Social Justice Advocacy Externship, we will promote social justice and gain perspective on varied means of pursuing social change through the law. The externship includes two components:

  1. a supervised legal placement, focusing on work that furthers social justice and reduces inequality in its many forms, and
  2. a weekly seminar where you will participate actively in discussion, studying social justice lawyering and social justice movements.

Placements will be in a wide range of legal practices, which may include nonprofit advocacy groups working explicitly to seek social change, legal services providers that seek to reduce inequality, and corporate social responsibility offices that seek to foster change. Placements will be a combination of approved opportunities found by students and placements identified by the professor. In your placement, you’ll spend a day and a half (or three half-days) each week in the field, including work at the placement office, meetings with clients or community groups, or court appearances. Students in this program will work toward social change using a variety of strategies and methods, including individual representation, impact litigation, and community campaigns. You may interview clients, meet with community groups, investigate factual claims, research legal claims and strategize, research and write memos and briefs, and, if a student practice order is available, appear in court under close legal supervision. In the seminar, you will actively participate in discussions, presentations, and simulations. You will have individual and group meetings with the professor, maintain work logs, and write thoughtful journals. Placement fieldwork is supervised primarily by mentoring attorneys, with back-up from the professor. Seminar topics include: the role of law in social justice movements, legal strategies used to pursue social justice (including individual representation, impact litigation, and community campaigns), empowerment of clients, restorative justice, and ethics and civil disobedience. Throughout the semester, we will seek to collaborate, foster learning together, and build community.

Permission of the professor is required after application and interview.