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Clinic: Capital Punishment
- WED9:50 – 11:40 amTNH 3.127
- THU9:50 – 11:40 amTNH 3.116
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 497C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 4 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
This clinic provides students with the opportunity to assist in the representation of indigent criminal defendants charged with or convicted of capital offenses. Students work under the supervision of attorneys on death penalty cases at the trial, appellate, and post-conviction stages of the legal process. Students perform various tasks that are integral to death penalty representation, including visiting clients on death row; interviewing witnesses and conducting field investigations; drafting motions, appellate briefs, and habeas petitions; and assisting attorneys in the preparation for trials, evidentiary hearings, and appellate arguments.
Clinic students are expected to devote an average of 10 hours of work per week to their clinical responsibilities during the semester, though the workload in any given week will vary, depending on the needs of the case to which the student is assigned. Investigative work on some cases may require out-of-town travel. The Clinic meets once a week as a class (two hours) for training and practical skills sessions related to death penalty representation. Attendance at these sessions is mandatory.
As a prerequisite to enrolling in the Clinic, students are required to take concurrently, or to have taken previously, the Capital Punishment course (Law 278R / 378R). First-semester second-year students are welcome to enroll in both the Clinic and the Capital Punishment course, which takes as its subject the substantive and procedural law governing death penalty trials and appeals. A background in Texas and federal constitutional criminal procedure is also extremely helpful, but not required, to enroll in the Clinic. Grading is pass/fail. There is no paper or examination.
An application is required.
Mandatory extra class session on Friday, August 30, 2024 from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.
Clinic: Capital Punishment
- WED9:50 – 11:40 amTNH 3.127
- TUE9:50 – 11:40 amTNH 3.116
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 497C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 4 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
This clinic provides students with the opportunity to assist in the representation of indigent criminal defendants charged with or convicted of capital offenses. Students work under the supervision of attorneys on death penalty cases at the trial, appellate, and post-conviction stages of the legal process. Students perform various tasks that are integral to death penalty representation, including visiting clients on death row; interviewing witnesses and conducting field investigations; drafting motions, appellate briefs, and habeas petitions; and assisting attorneys in the preparation for trials, evidentiary hearings, and appellate arguments.
Clinic students are expected to devote an average of 10 hours of work per week to their clinical responsibilities during the semester, though the workload in any given week will vary, depending on the needs of the case to which the student is assigned. Investigative work on some cases may require out-of-town travel. The Clinic meets once a week as a class (two hours) for training and practical skills sessions related to death penalty representation. Attendance at these sessions is mandatory.
As a prerequisite to enrolling in the Clinic, students are required to take concurrently, or to have taken previously, the Capital Punishment course (Law 278R / 378R). First-semester second-year students are welcome to enroll in both the Clinic and the Capital Punishment course, which takes as its subject the substantive and procedural law governing death penalty trials and appeals. A background in Texas and federal constitutional criminal procedure is also extremely helpful, but not required, to enroll in the Clinic. Grading is pass/fail. There is no paper or examination.
An application is required.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students in the Children's Rights Clinic represent allegedly abused or neglected children in Travis County as their attorney ad litem. The cases are brought by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). The state may intervene in a family in a variety of ways, including seeking temporary or permanent custody of a child or termination of parental rights and adoption.
Two very experienced attorneys, Clinical Professors Lori Duke and Leslie Strauch, supervise the representation of clients by the student attorney. The supervising attorneys sign pleadings drafted by the students and accompany them at every court hearing, deposition, and trial on the merits. However, within a week or two, a student can expect to "sit first chair" at hearings, and also is expected to research and prepare the case.
Each student attorney will be assigned a mix of newly filed cases and other cases in various stages of development. If the case goes to final hearing, student participation in the trial will vary from partial to extensive. Each student will have multiple opportunities to appear in court during the semester. Some students will have the opportunity to participate in a bench trial. Occasionally students will participate in a jury trial. Students are likely to participate in mediation. In representing clients, students meet with a wide variety of persons, including medical and mental health professionals, teachers, foster parents, caseworkers and social workers, attorneys, layperson CASA volunteers who may serve as guardians, and police officers.
Court is generally Tuesday morning. The class meets once a week to focus on substantive law, procedure, and ethics, as well as child welfare policy. In addition to the classroom component, each student should expect to average about 12-15 hours per week on clinic work. The weekly workload varies. Students are required to visit their child clients. Sometimes these client visits require travel outside of Travis County (with travel reimbursed).
There are no prerequisites for the course. Students, however, must meet Texas requirements for the participation of qualified law students in the trial of cases under rules promulgated by the Texas Supreme Court. The course is pass/fail. There is no paper or final exam. The course counts toward the ABA Experiential Learning Requirement.
An application is required.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students in the Civil Rights Clinic represent clients in civil rights matters. Such matters include police misconduct, jail mistreatment, housing justice, unlawful immigration detention, worker’s rights, and disability discrimination. Students work on cases and law reform advocacy projects with co-counsel from civil rights organizations and attorneys across the country, under the supervision of clinic faculty. Through clinic work, students hone lawyering skills, including fact investigation, drafting pleadings, discovery and depositions, legal research and writing, case development and selection, and client or witness interviewing. Students work on cases in teams, meeting with supervising clinic faculty on at least a weekly basis. Students also participate in a classroom seminar, in which students learn relevant substantive and procedural law, discuss the political and social contexts of civil rights cases, and think through how to resolve legal problems effectively and ethically. The seminar meets twice a week for a total of three hours. The supervising Clinic faculty member is Clinical Professor Lia Sifuentes Davis. The clinic is offered in the fall and spring, for six (6) credits, pass/ fail. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. Students should expect to devote an average of 10-12 hours per week for casework and seminar preparation. For more information, see https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/civil-rights/.
An application is required.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students, working pursuant to the clinical practice rule and under the supervision of CDC faculty, represent people charged with misdemeanors in Travis County. Students function as lead counsel, working directly with clients to identify goals for the representation and to develop strategies in an effort to achieve the best possible outcome. Students maintain a primary role at all court appearances, whether those appearances involve negotiations, discussions with a judge, evidentiary hearings, or trial. Depending on the stage of assigned cases, other responsibilities often include investigation, discovery practice, and drafting of motions.
Students may not be enrolled in another clinic while they are enrolled in the Criminal Defense Clinic. An application is required.
Mandatory extra class session on Friday, September 6, 2024 from 12:00 - 6:00 PM and Saturday, September 7 from 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 497C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 4 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
What is the DRC?
Students in the Disability Rights Clinic (DRC) represent clients with disabilities in a variety of legal contexts. Students will represent low-income parents of children with disabilities in cases brought against school districts that have violated state and federal special education and anti-discrimination laws.
What kind of experience will I gain?
DRC students draft civil complaints, develop expert testimony, mediate their cases, and try them when necessary. Students work in teams on one to three cases, depending on their areas of interest, client need, and capacity.
Will I work to resolve disputes?
Significant focus and attention is given to ADR in DRC. Students serve as lead student counsellors in formal mediation of their complaints before mediators on contract with the Texas Education Agency. Through this model, students develop skills common to both litigation (drafting, discovery, witness prep) and transactional (negotiation, line-editing, creative problem-solving) practices.
Will I have much client contact?
Yes! Students practice the skills involved in building trust with their child clients and families through regular counselling by phone, zoom, and sometimes through in-person home visits. The DRC emphasizes the art of making the law accessible to nonlawyer parents and, where possible, their children.
How does DRC get its clients?
Families needing DRC legal services are selected primarily through a medical-legal partnership with the Dell Children’s Medical Group and other state-wide partners. Many of the children served live in under-resourced rural communities, and a majority are young children of color. Some children are in foster care or have experienced housing instability, and a large number have been identified as having autism.
What kinds of situations do DRC clients confront?
DRC students have worked on cases in which educators have physically abused or neglected children with disabilities, put into segregated and locked education settings kids whose conduct was driven by unmet disability-related need, and failed to facilitate critical services necessary for the student's inclusion in school. Many of our cases have involved kids whose behavior has become challenging because of the lack of appropriate services, and some have involved contested hearings in the suspension and expulsion contexts.
What are the course requirements?
The Disability Rights Clinic meets once per week for two hours. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this four-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-15 hours per week on clinic work, including class time.
Roughly one-third of class time is devoted to understanding and discussing substantive education law and how it plays out "on the ground" in Texas school districts. Additional class sessions are used to teach and practice specific skills involved in identifying and analyzing the strength and weakness of legal claims, drafting, working with experts, negotiating, conducting formal mediation, and putting on witnesses at hearing. Each week, students deepen their understanding of special education law practice by presenting their case developments and giving feedback through case rounds.
Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic early as enrollment is limited and faculty permission is required to register. Students should submit an electronic application by the end of the application window. For more information, contact Professor Lucy Wood at lwood@law.utexas.edu or at (512) 626-2060.
Taught by Professor Lucy Wood 4 credits (pass/fail) — offered Fall and Spring The clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters.
Who should take this clinic?
Students who want to gain experience in litigation and/or mediation, and those who would like to go on to represent children or people with disabilities in either a pro bono or public interest practice, should consider this clinic. DRC partners with it several of its graduates in Big Law to broaden its reach. Graduates of DRC have worked in large law firms supporting special education work as a pro bono focus, in mid-size firm practice representing school districts, as lawyers in nonprofit settings representing persons with disabilities, in juvenile and criminal defense work, and in governmental entities requiring expertise in education or disability law.
An application is required.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
NOTE: During academic year 2024-2025, the Domestic Violence Clinic will be offered ONLY during the Fall 2024 semester. The Domestic Violence Clinic WILL NOT be offered during the Spring 2025 semester.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Grading is Pass/Fail. The clinical component of this course will involve student representation of domestic violence survivors in a myriad of legal problems, including custody, divorce, visitation, housing, protective orders, parole advocacy and occasionally in consumer and public assistance matters. Students will also perform parole advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence who are in prison due to their victimization. Law students work alongside social work intern partners from the Steve Hicks School of Social Work to provide clients with holistic services for better outcomes.
The class sessions will cover the matters relevant in civil domestic violence cases: safety planning, comprehensive intake, case analysis and handling, investigation, negotiation, trial preparation, discovery, and temporary and permanent orders, including protective orders.
In addition to regular class time, there are five additional mandatory time commitments for participation in the Domestic Violence Clinic:
- Mandatory extra class session on Saturday September 7, 2024 from 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM. You may not participate in the Clinic if you do not attend the extra class.
- A one-hour weekly meeting with the supervising attorney.
- You will be scheduled for 4 hours per week office hours/phone duty at the Clinic.
- You will be expected to document an average of eleven hours per week on your cases towards the hours required for clinic credit.
- This is a litigation clinic, and you will be first chairing your cases. Court appearances may require that you miss class.
Due to these requirements, you may not take another clinic or internship at the same time that you take the Domestic Violence Clinic.
Prerequisites: Students enrolling should not be on scholastic probation. An application is required.
Clinic: Entrepreneurship/Community Development
- MON2:30 – 4:30 pmCCJ 3.306
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students must attend a mandatory orientation on Friday, August 30, likely scheduled 1:00 - 4:30 pm.
Taught in the Fall by Frances Leos Martinez, Clinic Director. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. 6 credits (pass/fail) — offered in the Fall and Spring.
The Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic provides students with a unique opportunity to develop business law and problem-solving skills while representing clients operating community enterprises -- small businesses, entrepreneurs, creatives, nonprofit organizations, and community groups.
Students learn how to represent their clients on a broad variety of transactional business law matters. Typical legal matters include:
- assisting businesses with choice of entity decisions
- forming for-profit and nonprofit entities
- applying to the IRS for tax-exempt status
- drafting and negotiating contracts
- providing legal advice to nonprofit boards of directors and staff
- drafting lending and real estate documents
- assisting with intellectual property matters
Clinic students learn how to represent their clients through clinic classes, in-person teamwork, weekly team meetings with their clinic supervisor, and research and initiative on their cases. The Clinic classes emphasize the applicable substantive law; the larger social and theoretical context of the Clinic’s work; and the development of practical lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, negotiating, contract drafting, and public speaking.
The Clinic class meets on Monday afternoons 2:30-4:30 pm. Three classes will run to 5:30 pm. There is a mandatory orientation class on the first Friday of the semester, from 1:00-4:30 pm. In addition to class, students are required to keep a weekly schedule of 8 in-clinic office hours, over the course of three days from Monday through Friday, between 8:00 am-5:00 pm. The Clinic is a significant time commitment. Students are expected to devote an average of 16-19 hours a week to the Clinic, including class time and clinic case work. Attendance is required at the orientation and all classes and case rounds. Students should also note that teamwork is a key component of clinic case work. Students will be assigned to a team partner with whom they will work during the semester.
Clinic casework is conducted in teams and students will be assigned to the same team for the semester.
Enrollment is by application only. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during early registration as the Clinic fills up quickly. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list if space is unavailable during registration. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic.
There are no prerequisites for this clinic, although a background in business law (such as business associations, real estate, or tax law) will come in handy.
An application is required. For additional information, you may contact the Clinic Director Frances Leos Martinez (fmartinez@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-1222), or the Clinic Program Coordinator (ecdc@law.utexas.edu).
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
ENVIRONMENTAL CLINIC – 6 credits, pass/fail (application required)
Students in the Environmental Clinic work with non governmental organizations and underserved communities throughout Texas to advocate for solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems, including environmental injustice and climate change. Students in the Clinic learn to think creatively about how to use the law to protect and improve environmental quality and public health.
Students work on cases in teams, under the supervision of clinic faculty, and should expect to spend approximately 12 hours per week working on clinic cases. Recent clinic projects have included:
- civil rights complaints,
- environmental enforcement in federal courts,
- work to ensure access to clean drinking water
- permitting and rulemaking proceedings before courts and administrative agencies,
- nuisance actions,
- community education,
- pollution monitoring, and
- environmental policy research.
Through their work on cases, students in the Clinic have gained practical experience with factual investigation and analysis, community education, administrative research and advocacy before regulatory agencies, and legal drafting and litigation support.
Students also participate in a weekly two-hour seminar in which you will gain practice navigating environmental statutes and rules and discuss environmental laws, environmental justice, the role of lawyers in social movements, and the efficacy of current laws for protecting health and the environment.
The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. There is no prerequisite for the clinic.
An application is required.
For additional information regarding the clinic, contact Clinic Director Kelly Haragan (kharagan@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-2654) or Clinic Administrator Rita Stramel (environmentalclinic@law.utexas.edu).
Clinic: Housing Policy
- TUE, WED, THU10:30 – 11:45 amCCJ 3.306
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Housing Policy Clinic – 6 credits, pass/fail (application required)
Students in the Housing Policy Clinic work on cutting-edge policy projects to systemically advance low-income persons’ access to affordable, just, and secure housing. The Housing Policy Clinic offers law students:
- Deep engagement in the housing policy and law reform landscape
- The opportunity to develop public policy solutions and legal reforms to the nation’s most pressing housing challenges
- Close interaction with clients and other housing policy stakeholders
- Development of an expansive range of lawyering skills, including:
- Creative problem solving
- Translating research findings into actionable and impactful policies
- Law and policy analysis
- Interviewing and counseling
- Oral and written advocacy
Projects
HPC students work in teams of two to three students on one to two policy projects, working closely with the clinic faculty, clients, and other stakeholders, including housing advocacy organizations, government officials, and community organizations. Over the course of the semester, students complete a number of written deliverables for their clients, such as policy briefs, research reports, know your rights materials, model laws, and regulatory guidance. Students also have the opportunity to hone their oral advocacy skills, such as through delivering testimony to legislative and regulatory bodies.
Classroom
In the classroom, HPC students discuss current and emerging housing law and policy issues and hear from guest speakers actively working in the housing policy and housing justice space. In the classroom, we also focus on skill development through hands-on exercises to support the Clinic’s housing policy projects. Classes include time to work in teams on clinic projects, although students should expect to spend additional time on their projects outside of the classroom.
Time commitment
HPC students should expect to spend a total of 16-18 hours per week in the Clinic, including work on their policy projects, class time, and class assignments.
Additional information
This is a six-credit hour clinic that is offered only in the fall (although students who have completed the Clinic may apply to participate as advanced clinic students for the spring semester). Grading is on a pass/fail basis.
There are no prerequisites for this Clinic, but an application is required. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic early as enrollment is limited.
For more information, contact Professor Heather Way at hway@law.utexas.edu.
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students in the Immigration Clinic represent vulnerable low-income immigrants from around the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Students gain hands-on experience by taking on the primary responsibility and decision-making authority for their cases under the mentorship of the Clinic faculty. The Clinic’s caseload varies each semester but focuses on deportation defense and asylum claims, including for detained persons. The Clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Afghanistan, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Eritrea, Mexico, and Pakistan. The Clinic represents clients of all ages, including unaccompanied children and families. Students also engage in national and international advocacy projects to improve the rights of immigrants in the United States. Through client representation and advocacy as well as the classroom component of the Clinic, students learn substantive immigration law, develop client relationship skills, and practice a variety of legal advocacy skills and techniques. The Clinic allows students to explore different models for effective and collaborative lawyering, including interdisciplinary practice with social work student interns and expert witnesses from medical, social science, and mental health backgrounds.
Immigration Clinic students work on their cases collaboratively in teams. The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. As an orientation, the first two classes of the semester are extended (an additional hour), and an extra session is held on Wednesday evening during the first week of classes (1.5 hours). Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper; instead, students receive feedback throughout the semester from faculty and peers and conduct a self-evaluation at the end of the semester that is discussed with faculty. Students should expect to spend approximately 20 hours per week on Clinic work, including class time and office hours in the Clinic suite. Work on cases and projects may be required over breaks (Thanksgiving or Spring Break). Participation in the Clinic is generally not compatible with participation in moot court or other competitions that require travel during the semester, and personal travel may need to be limited in light of case and project obligations. Students will occasionally travel to area immigration detention facilities and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and DHS offices are located, sometimes including early morning departures and unavoidable absence from other classes.
An application is required, and students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during the early registration window as enrollment is limited. For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Denise Gilman (dgilman@law.utexas.edu) or Elissa Steglich (esteglich@law.utexas.edu).
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
Students in the Law & Religion Clinic represent vulnerable individuals and groups of all faiths who face challenges to their religious liberty. This will involve a diverse array of clients, including, among others: prisoners, mosques, students, employees, churches, teachers, faith-based schools, sanctuary churches, synagogues, and immigrants. Students can expect to work on cases involving the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, similar state constitutional provisions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, its state equivalents, antidiscrimination statutes, Title VII, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Under the direction of clinic faculty, students will have the opportunity to be first chair on some matters or serve as co-counsel with various civil rights organizations and law firms on others.
Through that work, they will develop lawyering skills they can apply in nearly any type of legal practice they pursue, including analyzing potential cases, client interviewing, fact investigation, representing and advising organizations, negotiation, drafting pleadings, dealing with opposing counsel, discovery and depositions, trial advocacy, and appellate work.
Students will work on cases in teams and will meet with Professors Greil and Collis as a group multiple times a week: to discuss their cases and in a classroom seminar where they will learn the substance and complexities of religion law (this will include some readings from a packet of key material). They will also have one-on-one sessions with the Professors to discuss how their lawyering skills are progressing and to counsel on other issues. The Clinic encourages students from all backgrounds, ideologies, religions, and beliefs to join.
The clinic is offered in the fall and spring, for six (6) credits, pass/fail. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. You can find a broader description of the clinic and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at https://law.utexas.edu/first-amendment-center/.
There are no prerequisites for this clinic. An application is required.
Clinic: Supreme Court
- TUE3:55 – 5:45 pmTNH 3.142
- FRI10:30 am – 12:20 pmTNH 3.142
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
SUPREME COURT CLINIC IS A 6-CREDIT COURSE that provides students the opportunity to work on cases pending before the United States Supreme Court. Students will be assigned to represent actual clients that are before the Court as petitioners (those seeking review of adverse lower-court decisions), respondents (those defending favorable lower-court decisions), or amici curiae (those participating in other parties' cases because their interests could be affected by the Court's decision). Cases may be at either the certiorari or the merits stage and may be in almost any substantive area of law. Clinic cases may involve a wide range of issues, including federal statutory issues and constitutional issues.
As part of their Clinic work, students will learn about Supreme Court procedures and the strategic considerations relevant in Supreme Court practice. Students will evaluate their clients' substantive positions, research the relevant issues, participate in strategic planning, and help draft the briefs or other documents to be filed with the Court. They also will participate in identifying potential cases for the Clinic to handle. And they may have the opportunity to moot advocates scheduled to argue before the Court. Students will work closely with other students, and under the supervision of experienced members of the Supreme Court bar (who will assume final responsibility for all documents filed with the Court).
An application is required.
Clinic: Transnational Worker Rights
- WED3:55 – 5:45 pmJON 6.257
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
The TRANSNATIONAL WORKER RIGHTS CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers, who labor in Texas, in legal actions to recover unpaid wages for work they have performed, to combat workplace discrimination, and to enforce other basic employment rights. Students may also engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers – especially their right to access the U.S. justice system to fully enforce their employment rights, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. The clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the evolving fields of immigrant employment rights and transnational migrant worker rights. The clinic seeks to enforce and understand employment rights of transnational workers working in Texas as an example of advocacy for the labor and human rights of immigrants and low-wage working people around the globe. Clinic students will serve as primary legal counsel representing immigrant and low-wage working people in federal and state employment litigation and administrative actions. Students will get the experience of working inside an independent public interest law firm and will be supervised and mentored by several of the nation's leading low-wage employment lawyers.
Depending on the requirements and the current litigation stage of each case, students will variously: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop legal action strategies; initiate and manage active litigation; negotiate with opposing employers and their lawyers; prepare litigation documents in the student's cases including pleadings, motions, and briefs; conduct discovery in the student's cases including written discovery and the taking of depositions; research legal issues; develop damages calculations; represent clients in hearings, court proceedings, and mediation; and negotiate and manage the final legal settlement or recovery of damages in the case. The clinic's legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition, the clinic seeks to ground each student's particular casework within the dynamic, emerging field of transnational labor rights advocacy.
Bill Beardall, the clinic director, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and a nationally recognized expert on low-wage employment rights. He has more than four decades of experience representing migrant workers and mentoring young employment litigation lawyers.
The TWR Clinic is conducted in partnership with the Equal Justice Center (EJC), a non-profit public-interest law firm, based in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. The EJC is the leading law firm in Texas specialized in advocating for the rights of low-wage workers. Clinic students get the opportunity to work closely with a variety of EJC lawyers, who are among Texas' leading employment attorneys. In this clinic, students devote the bulk of their clinic hours each week to handling active cases for real clients. This case work includes regularly scheduled office hours at the nearby Equal Justice Center office; regularly scheduled remote office hours in the EJC's robust remote law practice during periods of pandemic shutdown; regular case reviews with supervising attorneys; and essential conferences with clients. During the first week of the course, before starting their casework assignments, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation on low-wage employment litigation practice.
Normally the law practice of this clinic occurs off-campus in the law offices of the Equal Justice Center. However, like many law offices, the EJC has been largely closed to in-person staff and public operations, since spring 2020, due to the pandemic. Nevertheless the EJC law practice and the TWR Clinic law practice have been gradually and deliberately reopening to in-person operations by appointment and by modified office hours. Equally important, the EJC learned from the pandemic how to operate dynamically and successfully as a cyber-practice utilizing innovative electronic law practice methods. Moreover, most other law offices and the entire civil justice system are undergoing a similar transformation. Reflecting this broader transformation across the profession, the EJC and TWR Clinic currently operate as a hybrid in-person/remote law practice, which continues to evolve along with the norms in civil justice system. One salutary effect of the EJC's adaptation to cyber law practice methods has been that TWR Clinic law students are getting an opportunity to learn - along with the rest of the legal profession - the new art of hybrid in-person/remote law practice and litigation. Thus, while the 2023 spring semester clinic law practice is expected to be conducted largely in-person, it has become clear that the judicial system and legal profession are permanently adopting many new and more efficient, remote electronic operations and methods. These remote law practice methods will put to full and effective use by the EJC and the TWR Clinic, giving clinic students an opportunity to learn these pioneering remote electronic techniques and systems. As a result, TWR Clinic students will gain experience preparing them to take their place among the first generation of lawyers adeptly utilizing a new range of remote cyber-law-practice methods.
Throughout the semester, the students' principal casework will be complemented with a regular classroom session that meets once a week for approximately two hours. The classroom sessions will explore various deeper aspects of employment law, rights of immigrant workers, effective litigation practice, and special topics in employment law practice for immigrant and low-wage workers. Classroom instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational labor market. Subtopics include: U.S. labor and immigration policy; wage laws, employment laws, and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational "guest workers"; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; employment law practice as viewed from the perspective of lawyers for employee-plaintiffs, lawyers for employer-defendants, and employment lawyers representing government agencies; ethical issues in employment rights representation; and evolving mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights, regardless of immigration status.
The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to contract law, civil procedure, labor and employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, and experience related to Latin American communities.
While Clinic clients include U.S. citizens and immigrants from a wide array of continents and countries, a majority of clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is very useful, but is not in any way required.
Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bbeardall@law.utexas.edu. Please put "Worker Rights Clinic" in the subject line of any communication.
College Athletics, Money and Student-Athletes
- THU2:30 – 5:00 pmTNH 2.123
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 296V
- Short course:
- 9/12/24 — 11/14/24
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
This pass-fail course will study – in real time – the likely Fall 2024 (or Spring 2025) resolution of three class-action antitrust lawsuits (House v. NCAA, Carter v. NCAA and Hubbard v. NCAA) that will radically alter the landscape of college athletics. Although the parties negotiated a term sheet in May 2024 that broadly addresses big picture items, as of June 2024 neither the member schools nor the thousands of former and current DI athletes know the details of the $2.7 billion settlement agreement the NCAA board of governors and the autonomous/power conferences reached with the class action lawyers who represent the student-athletes (SAs).
Broadly speaking, the parties agreed that the NCAA and autonomous conferences will compensate SAs for earnings they did not receive for the commercial use of their name, image and likeness, video games and broadcasts because NCAA rules prevented them from being paid when they played sports. The settlement will also restructure college athletics going forward and will allow the conferences to create a new compensation model that can include revenue sharing agreements with their SAs. The course will mostly focus on the House settlement though we will also discuss how laws like Title IX, immigration, and labor laws may be implicated if colleges pay SAs.
There are no required textbooks. Assigned readings will include court pleadings, likely will include news articles (or blog entries) and media clips, and may include excerpts of law review articles or policy papers. Evaluation will be based on participation in class discussions, postings to Canvas, and a 10-page (minimum) paper. Students who have taken other sports law classes are welcome to take this class. While you do not need to be a former SA (though former SAs are welcome!) to take this class, you likely will be confused by (and miserable in) this class if you are not an avid college sports fan.
Commercial Leasing: Advising and Revising
- WED3:55 – 5:45 pmTNH 3.125
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 296W
- Experiential learning credit:
- 2 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
Commercial Leasing: A practical perspective.
Whether you are a lawyer in a private law firm, in house counsel for a hospital, or a business owner operating a restaurant, you will likely come across a commercial lease at some point in your career. This practicum will guide students through real examples of lease negotiations, litigation strategies, and risk mitigation techniques. Students will review case law, learn how to analyze and draft lease provisions, discuss evolving real estate use in various market scenarios, and how to think outside of the box to complete the transaction. We will develop a working checklist when analyzing a commercial lease and students will be assigned drafting and editing exercises both in class and as part of the final exam.
Conflict of Laws
- MON, TUE, WED9:05 – 9:55 amTNH 3.124
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 382
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated topics: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This course focuses exclusively on choice of law. Most of the course focuses on the sources from which state courts draw in choosing the applicable law. But the course also covers (1) constitutional limits on state choice of law, (2) the rules governing the choice of state law in federal court, and (3) the principles that determine whether and when a federal statute may be given extraterritorial effect. By the end of the course, students should have developed a sound understanding of the methodologies that influence choice of law in the United States and the policy considerations that will shape further development of the law in this area. The first and third topics in Conflict of Laws are covered in a separate course entitled “Jurisdiction & Judgments.”
Const Law II: Constitutional Amendments in the United States and the World
- MON, TUE3:55 – 5:45 pmTNH 2.124
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 481C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
This course will focus on the design, history, practice, and theory of constitutional amendment in the United States. Students will explore key questions, including: (1) What does the US Constitution require for a constitutional amendment?; (2) Are there limitations on what may be amended into or out of the US Constitution?; (3) What is (or should be) the role of courts in constitutional amendment?; (4) What values are reflected in the architecture of the country's constitutional amendment procedures?; and (5) Why doesn't the US Constitution make anything unamendable, in contrast to many other countries in the world which protect human dignity, civil rights, and fundamental freedoms against amendment? Readings will be complemented by class visitors, including a Justice of a Constitutional Court and authors of some of the scholarly publications we will read and discuss. Evaluation will be based on a take-home examination inviting students to answer their choice of open-ended essay questions relating to the central themes in this course.
Const Law II: Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law
- MON, TUE, WED9:05 – 9:55 amTNH 3.129
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
The course begins by developing my position on legitimate and valid legal argument in the United States. That position is based on (1) the postulate that to be morally legitimate the use of a legal argument must be consistent with the moral commitments of the society in which the legal argument is being made and (2) an "empirical" conclusion that the United States is a liberal, rights-based society (i.e., a society whose members and governments draw a strong distinction between moral-rights discourse and moral-ought discourse, are committed to moral-rights conclusions) trumping moral-ought conclusions when the two conclusions favor different outcomes, and derive their moral-rights conclusions from a basic commitment to treating all moral-rights- bearing entities for which they are responsible with appropriate, equal respect and concern. The combination of the above postulate and empirical finding lead me to conclude that (1) arguments derived from the liberal principle just articulated are not only inside the law but are the dominant mode of legitimate and valid legal argument in the United States (dominant in that they operate not only directly but also by determining the legitimacy, legitimate variant of, and legitimate weight to be given to the other modes of legal argument that are actually made in our society) and relatedly (2) there are internally-right answers to all legal-rights questions in our society. The second part of the course then explores a variety of moral-philosophical and jurisprudential alternatives to my own. The third part analyzes from my and various alternative moral and jurisprudential perspectives a variety of various judicial opinions that deal with these issues. The fourth part executes parallel analyses of a variety of "appropriate, equal concern"- real Constitutional Law issues and judicial opinions. I expect to focus particularly on affirmative action, the right to die, right to a liberal education, and the possible right to a minimum real income or minimum share of the societal-average minimum real income.
Const Law II: Reproductive Rights & Justice
- MON, WED1:05 – 2:20 pmTNH 2.139
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
This course is about reproductive rights under U.S. law and reproductive justice in U.S. policy and practice. We will consider sex, parenting, pregnancy, labor & delivery, reproduction, and contraception as rights and as targets of regulation. We will also learn to analyze issues of law and policy through a reproductive justice framework. We will consider and evaluate reproduction as experienced by racial minorities, LGBTQ populations, incarcerated women, and disabled people, among others.
Constitutional Law I
- TUE, WED2:30 – 3:37 pmTNH 2.137
- FRI10:30 – 11:37 amTNH 2.137
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 480G
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
The course is an examination of the Consitution as a document of law, political theory, and politics. Focus is primarily on federalism, separation of powers, and some aspects of due process and equal protection. Much effort is put into helping students learn how to think about constitutional law as future lawyers and as citizens. It is taught largely with by the Socratic Method.
Constitutional Law I
- MON, TUE, WED1:05 – 2:12 pmTNH 2.138
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 480G
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
This course will introduce the three structural principles of the Constitution - federalism, checks and balances, and the separation of powers - as well as the individual rights the Constitution protects.
Constitutional Law I
- MON, TUE, WED10:30 – 11:37 amTNH 2.114
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 580G
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
We will be studying Constitutional Law together at an extraordinary and difficult moment. Our constitutional arrangements have been put under considerable stress, and little seems happily settled. We will have just emerged from a difficult election, and our national electoral arrangements are creaky at best and democratically questionable at worst. The Supreme Court, which will be the object of much of our attention, is itself shrouded in controversy, with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg followed by a politically-fraught appointment to the Court and questions of court-packing hanging in the air. The reasons we have a Constitution, how we should interpret the Constitution, and how it can be amended are suddenly especially prominent issues. Dusty questions of federalism and separation of powers are now vividly and concretely important, with some state governments and the President at war over immigration, the environment, and social justice, on the one hand, and Congress and the President at odds on the other. In the domain of social justice, controversy over the meaning of equality is far from new, but so too is it far from settled. Affirmative action, abortion and same sex intimacy and marriage are all objects of recent or current sharp contention.
Our project will be to consider and try to understand the role of the Constitution, the courts and our political community in addressing the questions that presently swirl around us. I do not expect or hope that we will all agree. I do hope that we will all deepen our understanding of how best to think about these matters, and I will insist that our conversations be conducted in an environment of mutual respect.
I said at the outset that this is an extraordinary and difficult moment to study constitutional law.. It is also an exciting moment to do so, and I am looking forward to seeing you all.
--Larry Sager
Constitutional Law I
- MON, TUE, WED10:30 – 11:37 amTNH 3.125
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 580G
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.
Constitutional Law I
- MON, TUE, WED2:30 – 3:37 pmTNH 2.140
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 580G
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.