Course Schedule

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.

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.

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 9 hours per week on clinic fieldwork (for a total of 135 hours). 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.

Students in the Civil Rights Clinic represent clients in civil rights matters, such as due process rights in the criminal justice system, Eighth and Fourth Amendment rights, and discrimination claims. 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 direct representation, students hone lawyering skills, including client interviewing, fact investigation, negotiation, drafting pleadings, discovery and depositions, and trial advocacy. 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 hours per week for casework and seminar preparation. For more information, see https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/civil-rights/.

An application is required.

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. An application is required.

What is the DRC? 

Students in the Disability Rights Clinic (DRC) represent clients with disabilities in a variety of legal contexts.  In the fall semester of 2023, 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 therapies and other critical related services necessary for kids' 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.

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. Further, students will perform parole advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence who are in prison due to their victimization.

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:

1. Orientation will be the Saturday before school starts, August 26th from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. This is a mandatory meeting. You may not participate in the Clinic if you do not attend the orientation class. Please mark your calendar now.
2. A one-hour weekly meeting with the supervising attorney.
3. You will be scheduled for 4 hours per week office hours/phone duty at the Clinic.
4. You will be expected to document an average of eleven hours per week on your cases towards the hours required for clinic credit.
5. 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 this clinic.  

Prerequisites: Students enrolling should not be on scholastic probation. No other clinics may be taken at the same time as this clinic. An application is required.

Taught by Frances Leos Martinez, Clinic Director, and Heather K. Way. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. 6 credits (pass/fail) — offered in the Fall and Spring. Students must register for Law 697C.

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, artists, nonprofit organizclientations, 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, weekly team meetings with their clinic supervisor, and independent research and initiative. 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 from 2:30-4:30 pm. There will be one offsite class on a Friday afternoon or Saturday (at a time to be scheduled after the start of the semester). There is a mandatory orientation class on the first Friday of the semester, from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm. In addition to class, students are required to keep a weekly schedule of eight in-clinic office hours, over the course of at least two days from Monday-Friday, 8-5. 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 in-clinic office hours. Attendance is required at the orientation and all classes and case rounds.

Enrollment is by application only. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic early 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) or policy work 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).

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 10-12 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 enviormental statutes and rules and discuss environmental laws, environmental justice, the role of lawyes 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 Katy Thaler (environmentalclinic@law.utexas.edu).

Housing Policy Clinic – 4 credits, pass/fail (application required)

The Housing Policy Clinic equips law students with a broad range of policymaking skills, with a focus on policy reforms that systemically advance low-income persons’ access to affordable, just, and secure housing in the United States.

Projects:

Students will work on addressing cutting-edge housing policy issues in close collaboration with clients and stakeholders, including housing advocacy organizations, government officials, housing providers, and community organizations. Students will meet regularly with these stakeholders along with the clinic director. All of the Clinic’s projects involve research and writing, such as creating policy briefs, research reports, op-eds, model laws, and regulatory guidance. Projects also involve oral communications, such as delivering testimony before government bodies and presentations.

Classroom:

The Clinic will meet three times a week to 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 will also focus on skill development through hands-on exercises to support the Clinic’s housing policy projects. Classes will include time to work in teams on clinic projects, although students should expect to spend additional time on their projects outside of the classroom.

Outcomes:

Students participating in the Clinic can expect the following:

• Deep engagement in the housing policy landscape
• Challenging, fun, and meaningful projects
• Development of a broad range of skills necessary for policymaking careers, including:
  • Issue spotting policymaking opportunities
  • Translating research findings into actionable and impactful policies
  • Creative problem solving
  • Policy analysis
  • Policy advocacy
  • Oral and written communications (see above “Projects” section for examples of specific types of communication products)

This is a four-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. Students should expect to spend 12-15 hours per week on clinic work, including class time and class assignments.

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.

The Human Rights Clinic works to promote and protect human rights in Texas and around the world.

Through supervised practice, students learn the responsibilities and skills of human rights lawyering and advocacy. Mirroring the approach of practicing advocates, students work in small project teams, developing lawyering, advocacy and ethical skills and receiving intensive mentoring and feedback.

The Human Rights Clinic’s practice spans a wide range of issues, including sexual and reproductive rights; human rights and the environment; U.N. treaty bodies and special procedures; and many more. All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by human rights advocates.

The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework. Routinely the Clinic admits non-Law students.

The Clinic employs a variety of lawyering methods that are tailored to the needs of each project. These include: documentation and reporting; international litigation; advocacy. The clinic meets two times per week. Classroom lectures and discussion focus on substantive human rights law, client interviewing, case and project preparation and strategy and review of ongoing cases and projects. In addition to the classroom component, students should expect to spend 15–20 hours per week on clinic work. The weekly workload varies substantially, depending upon the stage of each project or case.

Clinic work may include some travel. Preference is given to students who have taken a human rights course or who have other human rights or public interest experience. 

An application is required.

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 focused primarily on detention and deportation defense and asylum cases. The Clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Afghanistan, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Eritrea, Mexico, and Pakistan. Students provide assistance and direct legal representation to migrants held in immigration detention centers. Students also engage in national and international human rights advocacy projects and collaborate with organizations to reform and 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. Students also develop client relationship skills and practice a variety of legal advocacy techniques. The Clinic allows students to explore different models for effective and collaborative lawyering.

The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week on clinic work, including class time and office hours. Students will occasionally travel to area detention facilities and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and DHS offices are located. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during the application window as enrollment is limited and faculty permission is required to register.

An application is required. For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Denise Gilman (dgilman@law.utexas.edu) or Elissa Steglich (esteglich@law.utexas.edu). 

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, synogogues, 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 twice a week: once to discuss their cases and once 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 Professor Collis 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 here.

There are no prerequisites for this clinic. An application is required.

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.

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.

An application is required.

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 use recent developments in case law to develop a working checklist when analyzing a commercial lease.

Textbook: Commercial Leasing: A Transaction Primer, Third Edition

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.”

The course will focus on constitutional interpretation involving the Religion Clauses, the Expression Clauses, and the Right to Bear Arms. Both interpretive and substantive issues will be addressed to question what the scope of each constitutional provision should be and whether that scope should be interrelated with the scope of other provisions. Specific topics will include: gun control, dollars to religion, school, prayer, criminal advocacy, pornography, hate speech, and new communications technologies.

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 floating examination inviting students to answer their choice of open-ended essay questions relating to the central themes in this course.

*This course may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis by students who have fulfilled Constitutional Law II requirement. Any student wishing to take this option should seek approval by email to registration@law.utexas.edu.

This course will cover the history and the recent judicial interpretation of the First Amendment's free speech clause. Beginning with debate over the original meaning of the First Amendment, the course will proceed chronologically through World War I. Subjects will include the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798,the suppression of abolitionist literature before the Civil War, the range of popular and legal views about the meaning of free speech between the Civil War and World War I, and the suppression of dissent during World War I. Most of the course will address the modern judicial interpretation of free speech that began in the years immediately following World War I. Coverage of modern judicial interpretation will be topical rather than chronological. Subjects will include subversive advocacy, prior restraints, tort law and the First Amendment, offensive speech, symbolic dissent, freedom not to speak, the government as employer, the government's management of public property, access to the mass media, campaign finance, obscenity, and commercial speech. Readings, particularly for the historical portion of the course, will consist of secondary sources as well as legal decisions. NO PREREQUISITES.

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. 

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

Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.

Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.

This course will analyze theories of liability and defenses in the area of construction dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on Texas law. It involves participation in several case studies, which will include extensive discussion of the practical aspects of resolving construction disputes through litigation and arbitration. The class participants will study case materials involving property damage, personal injury, and claims for delay and payment. The semester will conclude with a mediation exercise with one of the leading construction mediators in Texas. The teaching goal is to furnish students with the basic tools to evaluate and handle a variety of construction related disputes.