Home Base Immigration Clinic
The Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic focuses on providing representation to individuals who are unable to obtain immigration legal services elsewhere, with an emphasis on immigrants with criminal convictions located in the East Los Angeles area, specifically the constituents of Dolores Mission and Homeboy Industries. Participation in the Clinic exposes students to the lawyering and advocacy skills necessary to be an effective immigrants’ rights attorney and teaches students about both substantive and procedural law as it relates to clients’ cases.
The Clinic also gives students the opportunity to reflect on the lawyer’s role in direct representation and community-based legal advocacy through reading, classroom discussion, and written assignments. To participate in the Clinic, students must have completed a course in Immigration Law or Introduction to Immigration Law or must be concurrently enrolled in Immigration Law with enrollment in the Clinic. Students will attend class once a week and will hold office hours 8-10 hours a week, wherein they will complete their casework.
Employment Rights Clinic
The Employment Rights Clinic is a unique collaboration between Loyola Law School and the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE or Labor Commissioner) in which students will investigate, mediate, and recommend outcomes for employment retaliation claims filed with the state agency. The course combines elements of a traditional clinic with elements of a judicial externship or clerkship. Students will learn practical skills required to investigate and mediate contested claims. In appropriate cases, students will prepare written determinations similar to court rulings that the agency will review and issue as binding decisions. In so doing, students will be required to determine the relevancy and weight of conflicting evidence; apply law to the unique facts of each case; and write decisions supported by evidence to resolve the claims.
The one-semester course includes a two-unit classroom seminar and a two-unit externship. The classroom component of the course will cover substantive state and federal anti-retaliation law as well as the broader universe of employment laws in which retaliation may occur (including wage-and-hour, health-and-safety, and anti-discrimination laws). The course will also critically evaluate the role of the Labor Commissioner and its state and federal analogues in regulating the workplace. Finally, the classroom component will provide students a forum to discuss their investigations, seek guidance in resolving claims, and present their findings and determinations. The course is graded pass/fail.