This four-hour, experiential learning course will introduce students to community lawyering and how lawyers can contribute their legal knowledge and skills to support community identified initiatives that highlight the community’s collective power to bring about long-lasting or sustainable change. In today’s evolving society, lawyers often help individual and corporate clients navigate the complexities of the law which is now becoming increasingly connected to concepts around diversity, inclusion and equity. This class will help sharpen your lens around these concepts and develop you into a well-rounded lawyer prepared to practice in a more diverse world. You will work hands on with a community client group(s) facing challenges involving affordable housing, displacement, land use, zoning, and historical preservation. This course will help you understand the intersection of the law and justice and deepen your creative and critical thinking to address the community client’s concern. You will learn that community lawyering involves viewing legal problems through a community’s perspective. You will also learn how lawyers can aid communities in solving their own problems, which fall often between what is legal and what is just.
