Supreme Court Clinic

HLS will now offer one combined Supreme Court Clinic in which students have the opportunity to gain experience in Supreme Court- and appellate-level litigation through involvement in pending cases. Students work in teams under the supervision of prominent and experienced attorneys to learn the skills, structure, and methodology of litigating a Supreme Court case. They will have the opportunity to work alongside distinguished and experienced legal minds and assist with petitions for certiorari, briefs in opposition to certiorari, merits briefs, and amicus briefs, and preparation for oral argument in Supreme Court cases. 

In the Supreme Court Litigation clinical, students work full-time in the winter term in Washington, D.C. to facilitate  interaction between students, instructors and the litigation process at the Supreme Court. Students are fully involved in intensive work on actual cases before the Court, and also participate in a series of lectures and classroom discussions on Supreme Court practice -- including strategy, procedure, brief writing, and oral advocacy. Students are assigned to small teams, each working closely with an instructor to write and file a petition for certiorari, brief in opposition to certiorari, merits brief, amicus brief and/or to prepare for oral argument in a pending case. Recent cases in which clinical students have been involved include: Abbott v. Abbott, Jerman v. Carlisle, Hamilton v. Lanning

Clinical and Course Information

Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Winter clinical
Open to 2L, 3L, LLM students by application
Co-requisites: Supreme Court Litigation
Application deadline: TBD