CLN: Justice Lab (Shanahan)
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Team Projects
Drafting Legal Documents
Expository Writing
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (Your grade will be based on seminar (3/7) and clinic work (4/7). Please contact Prof. Shanahan for the detailed learning goals and assessment criteria.)
With Permission of Instructor
Often, your work for your clinic client can be developed into a scholarly paper that satisfies your senior writing requirement. If this is of interest to you, please discuss it with Prof. Shanahan.
Class meets in person.
Meeting Times/Location
TR 1:30PM - 3:30PM
Tanenbaum Hall 112
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
7.0
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
->Clinics have special registration procedures. If enrolled, you must confirm and commit your seat by Monday, November 24th, at 5pm (instructions provided by email). After you confirm and commit, you may not drop without permission from the instructor and the Dean of Students.
->You must have a 15-minute meeting with Prof. Shanahan before registering, or your enrollment will not be approved. Schedule here.
Justice Lab is a clinic that puts students at the forefront of finding creative, interdisciplinary solutions to challenging systemic legal problems, with a focus on state and local law. It serves as an incubator for new approaches to the legal system. Each semester, clinic students take on timely reform projects for nonprofit, government, and community organization clients. Clinic students develop their capacities as expert researchers, creative problem solvers, community partners, project leaders, and strategic advocates who employ a range of lawyering strategies to create a more just legal system.
Students in earlier versions of this clinic have worked in Philadelphia and in cities and states across the country to: -draft and advocate for city and state legislation, -write and advocate for changes in regulations and policy guidance, -develop and advocate for court rule changes, -create and implement trainings for judges and lawyers, -create policy reports and advocacy campaigns with local, state, and national impact, -engage in media advocacy from national network news to social media campaigns to Op-Eds, and -work directly with local, state, and national leaders to pursue informal changes across the legal system.
This work has included fines and fees reform, housing law, debt collection and consumer law, juvenile justice, misdemeanor criminal law, child support and family regulation laws, and domestic violence. Past clients can be found on the Justice Lab website.
The clinic is an intensive experience with three key components: a complex seminar curriculum, intensive faculty supervision, and student ownership and autonomy over client work.
->In the classroom. Seminars address the theoretical and substantive bases of the clinic’s work, facilitate skill development, and provide opportunities for students to reflect on how their experience of practice and understanding of theory inform each other. Students consider the complexity of poverty, social, economic, and racial justice, and legal systems across different areas of law and from interdisciplinary perspectives. They also develop a range of advocacy skills including interviewing, research and information gathering; problem solving, strategic analysis, and design thinking; policy and legislative advocacy; written and oral advocacy; collaboration; working with diverse communities; leadership, project planning, and management; and media engagement.
->In supervision. Students have twice weekly supervision meetings with the clinic director and work with clients and colleagues during weekly clinic office hours. These meetings give students opportunities to dive deeper into the substance of their work, to amplify their skill development, and to get individual feedback on their professional development.
->With clients. Clinic students have complete ownership and autonomy over their work. They are not interns or assistants who receive assignments. Rather they are student attorneys who develop and implement all phases of client representation and advocacy, supported by the design of the course and the director’s supervision.
Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice.
Constitutional Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of constitutional law; Perform legal analysis in the context of constitutional law; Communicate effectively on topics related to constitutional law; Demonstrate an understanding of constitutional law affects other areas of law.
Courts and the Judicial System Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of both substantive and procedural issues in the operation of our legal system; Perform legal analysis in the context of procedural issues and the judicial process; Communicate effectively on topics related to procedure and the judicial process; Demonstrate an understanding of how procedural issues and the judicial process affect all other area of our legal system.
Criminal Law and Procedure Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of criminal law and procedure; Perform legal analysis in the context of criminal law and procedure; Communicate effectively on topics related to criminal law and procedure; Demonstrate an understanding of the role criminal law and procedure play in society and their impact on other areas of law and society.
Family Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of family law; Perform legal analysis in the context of family law; Communicate effectively on topics related to family law; Demonstrate an understanding of how family law affects other areas of law.
Health Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of health law and policy; Perform legal analysis in the context of health law and policy; Communicate effectively on topics related to health law and policy; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection among health law and policy and issues of access to services, public and private financing of health industries, and the political and economic issues surrounding issues of health law and health services.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Environmental Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of environmental law; Perform legal analysis in the context of environmental law; Communicate effectively on topics related to environmental law; Demonstrate an understanding of how environmental law affects other areas of law.
Administrative and Regulatory Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of administrative and regulatory law and the administrative process, including the role of statutory authorization and work of administrative agencies; Perform legal analysis in the context of administrative and regulatory law; Communicate effectively on topics related to administrative and regulatory law; Demonstrate an understanding of the role administrative and regulatory law play in our legal system and in society as a whole.
Professional Responsibility and Ethics Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Public Interest Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of public interest law; Perform legal analysis in the context of public interest law; Communicate effectively on topics related to public interest law; Demonstrate an understanding of how public interest law is connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines.