Public Service

Skills – 2units. ADR and Social Entrepreneurship provides students with a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and social entrepreneurship. This course equips students with essential skills in conflict resolution, negotiation, and system design, applying them to pressing social challenges. Through real-world case studies, social business creation, and interactive simulations, students will learn how ADR principles can drive innovative, sustainable solutions.

Seminar – 2 units. This course will study local government laws and practices that seek to regulate the lives of immigrants living within their jurisdiction. These areas include housing, labor and employment, driving and professional licenses, health, public benefits, and even immigration crimes and enforcement. We will study the range of laws and their differences across jurisdictions as well the factors that may explain why these laws yield both positive or negative results for immigrants in different localities.

Skills – 1 unit - This course will introduce students to the practice of conscious lawyering, including concepts in professional and personal identity, self-awareness, focus, emotional intelligence, cultural and personal values, mindfulness, meditation, and mind-body connection. This course will help train students to be mindful and aware while engaging in the practice of law including litigation, negotiations, transactional deals, client management, and day-to-day work in a law practice.

Skills – 2 units. In this course students will learn from discussion and practice about the range of ways that law, regulation, and government action impact transgender and nonbinary identities. Discussion will be informed by and prepare students for interactions with clients in the student-run Gender and Name Change Project (GNCP).

Seminar – 1 unit. This seminar examines the unique status of children in our legal system, and explores the fundamental question of how the law allocates decision-making power and responsibility for children among the child, the family and the State. This course will deeply explore the topics of delinquency and dependency, as well as the varied contexts children interact with the law beyond those two systems.

Seminar - This discussion-based course will focus on academic articles, mostly drawn from critical race and critical feminist traditions, that examine the theory and doctrine covered in 218A: Constitutional Law II--Equal Protection. The choice and sequence of readings will be tied to those assigned in 218A in order to create dialogue between Equal Protection doctrine and critical perspectives on that doctrine.

Discussion - 3 hours.

Seminar - 2 hours. When surveyed, Americans consistently report high confidence and trust in the United States Military and service members. This trust and confidence has come from a history of devotion to the defense of the United States, which includes a culture of teamwork and discipline. To this end, the military has developed laws and regulations tailored to the unique mission. As the United States has seen social change, these unique laws and regulations can be at odds with or promote change within our society.

Seminar - 2 or 3 hours. This seminar explores the ways political units in different countries attempt to maintain social order and advance criminal justice. Students examine the people, policies, and institutions responsible for adjudicating alleged criminal law violations around the globe. They also learn about how rules of professional responsibility and legal ethics guide the behavior of the institutional actors who participate in these criminal processes.

Seminar – 1 unit. Recent developments in neuroscience and psychology support the contention that we live in a world impacted by trauma. But lawyers are not often trained in recognizing how trauma affects our work. Trauma-informed lawyering is an approach to the practice of law that equips students with the knowledge and skills to navigate these difficult environments.