Clinics

Through the Clinical Legal Education program, HLS students represent clients in actual cases under the supervision of Harvard faculty and staff attorneys. With clinical placements in more than 30 areas of the law and the opportunity for students to create their own, HLS has more clinical opportunities than any law school in the world, including:

Child Advocacy Program: Working with outside organizations, students represent children in advocacy cases and promote systemic change through impact litigation and legislative reform.

Criminal Justice Institute: Handles misdemeanor and felony cases in court, and represents juvenile clients in administrative and school hearings.

Criminal Prosecution Clinic: Students represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prosecuting non-jury District Court criminal cases.

Cyberlaw and Intellectual Property Clinic (Berkman Center for Internet and Society):  Engages in cutting-edge Net issues including governance, intellectual property, privacy, and content control.

Death Penalty Clinic: Students work for death penalty resource centers primarily in the southern United States.

Education Law Clinic / Trauma Learning Policy Initiative: Provides representation to families in special education cases on behalf of children who have experienced adversity and pursues systemic remedies to improve the educational system.

Environmental Law and Policy Clinic: Pursues litigation and legislative reforms in a wide spectrum of environmental issues.

Gender Violence Clinic: Explores the causes and effects of gender violence through work at Equality Now and other organizations.

Government Lawyer - The Prosecutor: Focuses on prosecutorial work, placing students at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston or the Massachusetts Attorney General.

Government Lawyer - Semester in Washington: Students work full-time in Washington, D.C. on policy, legislative, and regulatory matters at a variety of federal agencies or legislative offices. 

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic: In conjunction with Greater Boston Legal Services, represents applicants for U.S. refugee status, asylum cases, and related protections.

Harvard Legal Aid Bureau: A civil legal services office run by students who represent low-income clients with housing, family law and other problems.

International Human Rights Clinic (Human Rights Program): Teaches the vital issues, institutions and processes of the human rights movement by actively promoting the rule of law, documenting abuses, and conducting fact-finding missions.

Judicial Process: Students work with individual justices of the District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Juvenile Court, and Housing Court Departments of the Massachusetts Trial Court.

Negotiation and Mediation Clinic: Involves dispute resolution skill-building to prepare students for complex, multi-level negotiations.

Sports Law: Sports Law clinical placements are in a variety of settings including legal departments of major leagues or sports franchises, and with law firms and lawyers doing sports law in representing individual players or teams/leagues.

Student Practice Organizations:  Offers legal practice opportunities in criminal defense, prisoner rights, tenant advocacy, mediation, human rights, and entertainment law to 1L, 2L, and 3L students on a volunteer basis. 

Supreme Court Clinic: Students work on high-profile and high-impact cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeal, and state supreme courts.

Transactional Law Clinics: Provides legal services to small businesses, non-profit organizations, real estate parties, community development corporations, or individuals and companies in the arts and entertainment industry. 

War Crimes Prosecution: Students are introduced to international criminal prosecution by working with international tribunals.

WilmerHale Legal Services Center: Located in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, students work directly with clients under the supervision of experienced attorneys in one of 9 clinics.

Independent Clinical: 2L, 3L, and LLM students can also design a clinical placement in areas not included in the clinical curriculum.

Read more about our clinics, including what students have to say about them, in our program brochure Clinical Voices.