Strategic Lawyering for Social Justice
Additional Information
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Expository Writing
Other Professional Skills: The class explores how lawyering skills are assisted and amplified with the use of data, communications, media and messaging, community involvement, and other skills not often focused on in law school.
Grading
30% Participation,
50% Paper,
20% Other (Class participation counts toward grading, along with semester paper, class presentation and assignments. Class attendance is mandatory.)
With Permission of Instructor
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can send you an email with instructions for accessing the recording for the class session(s) you missed.
- I will make PowerPoint slides or other class materials routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
- If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can make PowerPoint slides or other class materials available to you.
- Classes have been recorded in recent years and this should continue. Both professors will make themselves available for consultation and discussion to assist students who must miss a class. Please reach out to us with any requests or issues. We are here to help.
Meeting Times/Location
T 4:30PM - 6:30PM
Tanenbaum Hall 253
Category
Seminar
Credits
3.0
This three-credit course will meet weekly to examine the many strategies and tools available to lawyers who want to use the law to further social justice. We will discuss how lawyers can strategically achieve broad based change to policies, practices, law and social culture, including racial injustice. Through academic and legal practice readings, guest speakers, and class exercises, we will examine how successful public and private lawyers identify, analyze, and develop effective lawyering strategies aimed at advancing systemic solutions to problems that adversely impact individuals, organizations, communities or the rule of law. We will employ case studies to understand how social change initiatives can succeed through visionary leadership and effective lawyering in collaboration with stakeholders and other disciplines. We will explore the role that media, messaging, and data can play together with varied lawyering methods in making social and legal change. We will assess elements of differently labelled lawyering approaches, such as community lawyering and rebellious lawyering, as well as ethical considerations that apply in this special arena.
Class attendance is mandatory and class participation counts in grading. There is no final examination. Students will do a brief presentation and then submit a final paper on an approved topic, as determined by the faculty in consultation with each student.
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.
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.
Equity and Inclusion Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of equity and inclusion; Perform legal analysis in the context of topics related to equity and inclusion; Communicate effectively on the legal aspects of equity and inclusion; Demonstrate an understanding of how equity and inclusion are connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines.