Critical Race Lawyering Civil Rights Clinic

Course Description

The Critical Race Lawyering Civil Rights (“CRLCR”) Clinic is an intensive semester-long experiential course in which law students engage in direct representation of individual or organizational clients in areas where discrimination and inequality are pervasive. The clinic specifically focuses on issues impacting marginalized communities in the South. Students will engage in direct representation of individual and/or organizational clients in active litigation.

Learning Outcomes

Students will develop judgment skills including the ability to identify and diagnose problems in terms of objectives and alternative strategies; to assess the risks and benefits of outcomes of the proposed action; to take effective action; and to reflect on and learn from experience.  

Students will also gain analytical and reasoning skills.  They will hone their ability to find, analyze, and use relevant legal materials (including, among others, statutes, cases, regulations, and other administrative materials) to identify and resolve problems and communicate legal analysis in a variety of written and oral formats.

Students will also learn professionalism and professional responsibility. They will develop an acute sense of responsibility regarding professional choices and their consequences, including the effects of professional roles, the need to adhere to or depart from professional norms, and the values implicit in those choices.

Students will obtain lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, case planning & development, case theory development, and oral advocacy.

Finally, students will develop the ability to reflect on the lawyering choices they do and do not make, understand and reflect upon the role of the law in structuring individual and societal relations, learn cross cultural competencies, and learn to recognize and work to address racial bias and inequality within legal systems.

Application Procedure

Students interested in applying for the clinic should submit the standard application, resume, and transcript online through CAMS. To arrange an interview, please use the CAMS system as well.

* 7 credits include 3 clinical credits and 4 academic seminar credits per semester.