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The Civil Rights Litigation Practicum is an 8-unit course devoted to skills training, legal theory, and practice as they relate to civil rights. The 4-unit class is offered each fall. The 4-unit spring semester externship completes the course. The Practicum satisfies Loyola’s writing, breadth, and pro bono service requirements. Students are expected to enroll for both the fall class and the spring placement; this is a full academic year commitment.
The fall semester class covers constitutional and legal doctrine in a variety of areas - the rights of racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, immigrants, and women, and education and economic rights. The class includes instruction and exercises in the areas of litigation strategy, interviewing skills, legal researching and writing, pleading practice, and discovery.
During the spring semester 4-unit clinical externship students perform field work, including researching and writing, client and witness interviews, case development, pleading practice and discovery. Students do that work with premiere civil rights organizations ACLU of Southern California, Bet Tzedek, California Women’s Law Center, Consumer Watchdog, Inner City Law Center, Public Counsel, and Western Center on Law and Poverty. Students are also assigned to the law offices of Paul Hoffman, Carol Sobel, Hadsell/Stormer, and Gastellum/Contreras, outstanding law firms with extensive pro bono dockets.