Immigrant Justice Clinic

Overview. The Immigrant Justice Clinic is a full-year clinic offered for 10 credits (5 credits/semester). Students will receive separate letter grades at the end of the year for the clinic work and seminar. The clinic is open to day and evening students in their last two (2) years of law school and Accelerated JD students in their last year.

Case Work: Consistent with the concept of immigrant justice, students will perform work that helps to support immigrant justice organizing. The work changes year to year depending on the current organizing goals and needs of the organizations. Each student/team of students will work on a large project that supports immigrants’ rights organizing such as: conducting Know Your Rights workshops, helping to build capacity among community members to assist their neighbors, and translating a complex system of laws and procedures into guides, videos and other materials directed at a lay audience. Each student/team of students will also represent individual members of the community groups in immigration matters such as arguing for release from detention, helping to prepare applications for relief from removal and applications for work authorization. Students may also be asked to participate in large-scale application clinics that help a number of people apply for benefits at the same time.

Seminar: The clinic includes a two-hour per week seminar. The class will focus on building students’ skills in client/community relationship building, collaboration, oral and written advocacy and presentations. The class will also provide students with background on various community organizations including their histories, theories of change and current work. Finally, the class will provide students with an understanding of the ways in which immigration laws impact communities on the ground. In the supervision meetings that occur outside of class, students will be given a guided path towards completing their case or project. Primarily in these meetings but also in class, students will be given an opportunity to engage in critical reflection of their performance, explore the ethical implications of their work, and develop an individual professional identity.

Time Commitment: The seminar for the clinic takes place on Wednesdays, 4-6pm. Each student will also need to set aside an hour a week for supervision with the clinic professor, days and times to be determined. The professional work in the Immigration Clinic requires a minimum of 13 hours per week outside of class and supervision meetings. This does require daytime hours as court and client meetings typically occur between 9:00am-6:00pm. Please speak with Professor Shah if you have questions about the time commitment. In the fall semester, there will be one all-day boot camp to introduce student to key legal concepts that you will use throughout the year. Date and time for the training to be determined.

Pre/co-requisites and Language Ability: Students must have completed or be currently enrolled in Immigration Law and Evidence. Preference for students who have taken or are currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure. Fluency in relevant languages other than English (particularly Haitian Creole, Spanish and Portuguese) is preferred.

Work Outside Clinic: Students are permitted to work outside the clinic but each accepted student must inform Professor Shah if they are planning to accept employment during the clinic year including the name of the employer and the type of work. Students are not permitted to do work that would conflict with any of the 10 in-house clinics so accepted students must report potential work outside the clinic by May 1.

Grading: Students are evaluated mid-year to assess progress and set goals. Students will receive separate letter grades at the end of the year for the seminar portion of the clinic and for the casework. If you have any questions contact Professor Ragini Shah.