Civil Litigation Clinic

In this full-year, 12-credit clinic, students take the lead representing individuals and families living in poverty in civil legal matters related to housing, family law, discrimination, wage-theft, unemployment benefits, or other poverty law issues. Working with Greater Boston Legal Services, the Civil Litigation Clinic (CLC) arms students with the litigation tools they need to advocate against justice challenges impacting CLC’s clients. CLC students thus work to promote housing justice, fair employment, and dignity in surviving adversity including domestic abuse or discrimination while they gain soup-to-nuts litigation experience.

Metcalf Cup & Prize award-winning professor Constance A. Browne is at the helm to teach, mentor, and collaborate with CLC’s student attorneys at every step. As one student put it, she brings an “unmatched commitment to every single student, every single client, every single lesson.” In CLC’s seminar, Browne uses simulations to teach critical pre-trial and trial advocacy skills including client interviewing, theory-of-the-case formation, motion practice, mediation techniques, deposition skills, and trial practice (from opening to closing statements and everything in between). The seminar also provides students with space to reflect on their casework, get feedback from colleagues, and discuss the limits of litigation as a tool for addressing systemic injustices.

To learn more about CLC or be put in touch with former students, please email Connie Browne or Madeline Meth.

Faculty

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  Constance Browne

  Clinical Professor of Law

Courses

Pre/co requisites: Students must take or be enrolled in Professional Responsibility and Evidence.