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The Employment Civil Rights Clinic focuses on enforcing state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on race, sex, disability, and other protected characteristics. When necessary, the clinic also addresses other employment law problems faced by our clients, including issues such as unemployment benefits, wage or benefit claims, or severance negotiations. The clinic typically has cases pending in state court, federal court, and administrative agencies such as the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Division of Unemployment Assistance. The clinic has an overarching mission to identify systemic problems affecting employee rights and to identify innovative strategies to address those problems.
Students working on employment cases engage in a wide range of practice experiences, including case screening, client counseling, negotiating with opposing counsel or employers, conducting witness interviews, taking depositions, drafting briefs, and presenting oral arguments at hearings. In the past several years, students have co-chaired a trial, taken key depositions in federal court discrimination cases, participated in mediation sessions, negotiated settlements with opposing counsel, presented oral arguments, interviewed other advocates to identify possibilities for reform, and performed other key roles to resolve numerous cases.
For academic year 2009-2010, students wishing to work in this clinic must enroll in either Employment Law Workshop: Advocacy Skills (fall) or Employment Law Workshop: Strategies for Social Change(spring).
For more information on the Employment Civil Rights Clinic, contact Steve Churchill, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, at schurchi@law.harvard.edu, (617) 390-2578.
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