Workplace Rights Clinic (YR)

In cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) and in addition to classroom instruction during the fall semester of the substantive and procedural aspects of employment law, students will participate throughout the year in various forms of advocacy to help low-wage workers across the state gain power and enforce their statutory and human rights. LAJC is an impact-oriented legal services organization that utilizes multiple advocacy strategies, including but not limited to research, report-writing, legislative and administrative advocacy, and community education/organizing, as well as impact litigation and individual client advocacy. Clinic students can anticipate being involved in the wide-reaching work that LAJC does to advance workers’ rights. Assignments may include conducting legal research and preparing memoranda necessary for broader campaign planning and strategy; engaging in legislative and administrative advocacy by drafting written comments and other materials; participating in advocacy planning sessions with client instructors; and, where possible, advising on, developing, and litigating actual employment cases in federal and state court, as well as before administrative agencies, alongside clinic instructors. These matters may be related to unpaid wages, labor trafficking, H-2A and H-2B issues, and health and safety complaints, as well as other potential subject matters arising out of the employment relationship. Specific assignments will vary according to the inventory of projects and cases available at the time. When working specifically on cases, students should be able, under the supervision of an attorney, to perform most lawyer functions associated with their casework, including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of pleadings, and negotiations. Please note, however, that this is not a heavily litigation-based clinic and most work is tied to broader advocacy or parceled pieces of larger litigation. On broader advocacy, students will participate in legislative and administrative advocacy and discussion of broader campaign strategy. Students will be expected to arrange a satisfactory schedule with their supervising attorney. For additional information about the employment and labor law curriculum, please visit the PELLS Web site (http://www.pells.org).