This course challenges students to consider the various roles that lawyers play in movements for social change and the political nature of litigation, judicial decisions, and social change. Students study past and present examples of lawyers working to advance public policy. This includes the work conducted by lawyers to end legal segregation of the public schools, organize the Montgomery bus boycott, build the post-September 11, 2001 civil liberties movement, and organize the growing movement to reform education and public safety policies that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline.

This upper-level course covers legal history and how lawyers are involved in social change. This course includes traditional law school pedagogy. This course is required for all students affiliated with the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law.

Recommended for the following Professional Pathways: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties; Criminal Defense; Criminal Prosecution; Family Law; Government/Public Sector; Immigration; International Law/Human Rights; Labor and Employment; General Practice – Litigation/Dispute Resolution; General Practice – Transactional; Law Through a Different Lens – History and Humanities

2 Credits