More than 100 years after students started the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, there are now 40 clinics and Student Practice Organizations at HLS, focused on everything from cyberlaw to veterans’ rights.
= Clinic
= Externship
= Student Practice Organization
1913 | HARVARD LEGAL AID BUREAU
The nation’s oldest student-run legal services organization, it focuses on areas from family law to special immigrant juvenile status matters. |
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1949 | HARVARD DEFENDERS
Students represent clients in criminal show-cause hearings before clerk-magistrates. It’s the only legal services organization in Massachusetts that represents low-income defendants in these hearings. |
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1970 | HARVARD PRISON LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT
Students represent inmates in Massachusetts prisons at disciplinary hearings, parole rescission and revocation hearings, second-degree life sentence hearings, and more. |
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1975 | JUDICIAL PROCESS IN TRIAL COURTS CLINIC
Students work alongside judges in Massachusetts state and federal courts doing research and writing related to cases, sentences, and opinions. |
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1979 | LEGAL SERVICES CENTER
HLS’s first in-house clinic, housed in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston. The LSC includes the two clinics listed directly below as well as the more recent Federal Tax Clinic, the Predatory Lending and Consumer Protection Clinic, and the Veterans Law and Disability Benefits Clinic. |
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND FAMILY LAW CLINIC
Students manage all aspects of a family law case, from the initial client intake to representing clients, in both family and district courts. |
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HOUSING LAW CLINIC
Students represent tenants who are facing evictions by private-market and subsidized landlords. In the Housing Justice for Survivors Project, they represent tenants facing housing instability as a result of domestic or sexual violence. |
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1980 | GOVERNMENT LAWYER: U.S. ATTORNEY CLINIC
Students are placed in the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, where they handle work in such areas as anti-terrorism, organized crime and computer crimes |
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1981 | HARVARD MEDIATION PROGRAM
Students are trained in mediation and mediate court cases in Boston as well as conflicts outside of the legal system. |
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TENANT ADVOCACY PROJECT
Students represent tenants of and applicants to public and subsidized housing at Housing Authority hearings throughout Greater Boston. The organization started as Students for Public Interest Law. |
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1984 | HARVARD IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE CLINICAL PROGRAM
Students represent international clients who are seeking protection from being returned to human rights abuses in their country of origin. |
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1987 | HEALTH LAW AND POLICY CLINIC
Originally the AIDS Law Clinic, it focuses on legislative and regulatory reforms to improve access to healthcare for low-income clients, in particular those living with chronic conditions. |
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1990 | CRIMINAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE
Students represent indigent clients charged in Massachusetts courts with crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. |
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1995 | CRIMINAL PROSECUTION CLINIC
Students in district attorneys’ offices represent the commonwealth of Massachusetts in prosecuting nonjury criminal cases. |
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TRANSACTIONAL LAW CLINICS
Students provide legal assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs in a variety of transactional matters, from contract review to commercial financing and leasing. |
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1998 | RECORDING ARTISTS PROJECT
Students do sophisticated, hands-on legal work for musicians and other entertainment clients throughout the Boston area. |
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1999 | CYBERLAW CLINIC
It provides legal services to clients on issues relating to the internet, new technology and intellectual property. |
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2001 | MAKING RIGHTS REAL: THE GHANA PROJECT CLINIC
Students work with Ghanaian organizations that focus on the human rights dimensions of Ghana’s health policies and practices. |
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2002 | HLS ADVOCATES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Students engage in legal projects with partner organizations around the world that advance human rights. |
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2003 | INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC
Students work to protect the human rights of clients and communities around the world while learning the responsibilities and skills of human rights lawyering. |
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2004 | CHILD ADVOCACY PROGRAM
Students are placed with organizations and agencies that work to advance children’s interests through direct services, impact litigation, and policy reform. |
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EDUCATION LAW CLINIC OF THE TRAUMA & LEARNING POLICY INITIATIVE
A collaboration between HLS and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, it helps children impacted by family violence and other adverse experiences succeed in school. |
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EMPLOYMENT LAW CLINIC
Originally an inhouse clinic, it focuses on workplace rights, with a particular emphasis on state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on protected characteristics. |
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2005 | PREDATORY LENDING AND CONSUMER PROTECTION CLINIC
Students represent low-income people in cases related to predatory lending and other consumer matters including bankruptcy and debt collection defense. |
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2006 | CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CLINIC
At capital punishment resource centers, primarily in the southern United States, students represent clients with capital sentences. |
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HARVARD NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION CLINICAL PROGRAM
Students focus on dispute systems design, negotiation, mediation, and facilitation for U.S.-based and international clients. |
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2007 | EMMETT ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CLINIC
Students work on local, national and international projects covering the spectrum of environmental issues. |
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HLS NEGOTIATORS
Working closely with the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, it offers students the chance to represent clients in the fields of negotiation, dispute resolution, and conflict management. |
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SPORTS LAW CLINIC
Students are placed in legal departments of major leagues or sports franchises and with law firms that represent individual players, |
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SUPREME COURT LITIGATION CLINIC
Students gain experience in Supreme Court- and appellate-level litigation through involvement in pending cases. |
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2008 | PROJECT NO ONE LEAVES
A student-run, Boston-based canvassing group, it partners with local organizers to connect low-income communities to resources to protect and assert residents’ rights. |
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2009 | GOVERNMENT LAWYER: SEMESTER IN WASHINGTON
Students work as legal interns in Washington, D.C., in a variety of federal offices—with a focus on policy, legislative or regulatory matters—while taking a government lawyering course. |
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HLS MISSISSIPPI DELTA PROJECT
Students provide policy and legal services to clients in the Mississippi Delta region, one of the poorest regions in the U.S. |
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2010 | FOOD LAW AND POLICY CLINIC
Students learn to use law and policy to impact the food system, and provide advice to nonprofits and government agencies and sustainable food producers. |
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GOVERNMENT LAWYER: ATTORNEY GENERAL CLINIC
Students work in the offices of state attorneys general in Massachusetts or around the country in such areas as environmental crimes, public integrity, and major crimes. |
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2011 | HARVARD IMMIGRATION PROJECT
Students provide direct representation to asylum seekers, refugees and individuals in deportation proceedings. |
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2012 | HARVARD LAW ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT
Students provide pro bono legal research and analysis to entrepreneurs at Harvard and MIT. |
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VETERANS LAW AND DISABILITY BENEFITS CLINIC
Students work in a variety of settings to protect the rights of military veterans and their families and people with disabilities. |
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2013 | CRIMMIGRATION CLINIC
Students work at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. |
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2015 | FEDERAL TAX CLINIC
Students represent low-income taxpayers in conflicts with the Internal Revenue Service. |
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2016 | DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW CLINIC
Students participate in an externship with the Protect Democracy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to holding the executive branch accountable to the laws and practices that protect democracy. |
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