Employment Civil Rights Clinic

The Employment Civil Rights Clinic focuses on rights in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on race, sex, disability, and other protected characteristics. Work may also address issues such as unemployment benefits, wage and hour claims, severance negotiations, union issues, workplace safety, and more. Placements include externship placements with nonprofit, private, and governmental organizations such as:

• U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission
• Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination
• Private firms representing plaintiffs
• The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
• Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
• Greater Boston Legal Services

About the Director

Steve Churchill is Of Counsel at Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., an employment, labor, and class-action law firm in Boston. Prior to joining LLR, he worked as a Clinical Instructor at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center from 2004 to 2010, where he ran the Employment Civil Rights Clinic. Before working at the Legal Services Center, he worked at a Boston firm for ten years, with a focus on employment law. He is a co-founder of Fair Employment Project, Inc., a non-profit that provides information and assistance to Massachusetts workers and their advocates. He has participated in many trials and appeals, in both state and federal courts. He also has participated in labor arbitrations and a wide range of administrative hearings, in agencies such as the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Division of Unemployment Assistance, and the Merit Systems Protection Board. He is a 1988 graduate of Stanford University and a 1993 graduate of Harvard Law School. During law school, he worked at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau for two years, first as a student attorney and then as Executive Director.

Clinical and Course Information

Employment Law Clinic 
Fall, Spring, or Winter-Spring
Open to 2L, 3L students
LLM students by permission
Co-requisite: Employment Law Workshop: Advocacy Skills (offered in Fall 2012) or Employment Law Workshop: Strategies for Social Change (offered in Spring 2013)

Contact

Steve Churchill
schurchi@law.harvard.edu

Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs
6 Everett Street, Suite 3085 (WCC)
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA 02138
clinical@law.harvard.edu