To obtain the certificate, students must complete both a doctrinal and experiential component for a minimum of 14 total credit hours. The experiential component requires that students complete the equivalent of one academic year of supervised legal work addressing the needs of the poor and marginalized. The doctrinal component focuses on the legal and policy frameworks that structure rights and access for the poor and marginalized.
A. Required Experiential Components (7-10 credit hours)
- One semester of LAW L897 Clinical Seminar–Live Client Clinic (5 hrs.)
- One semester of any of the following:
LAW L833 Street Law
LAW L886 Environmental Law Seminar: Enforcement Policy Advocacy
LAW L897 Clinical Seminar–Live Client Clinic
LAW L900 Academic Externship (2 hrs.)
LAW L924 Human Rights Advocacy Project
LAW L976 Environmental Law and Policy Lab
- 50 hours of public service work, which must be pre-approved by Professor Judson Mitchell. Public service work is broadly defined to include work performed for a stipend, in addition to pro bono work. Pro bono hours completed to satisfy the Law and Poverty requirement may also be used to satisfy this certificate. All public service work towards the certificate requirement, both compensated and uncompensated, must be reported through the Pro Bono Reporting database, online at http://loyolalawtech.org/probono/.
B. Required Doctrinal Components (4-8 credit hours)
- LAW L781 Law and Poverty or LAW L782 Law and Poverty Seminar (2 hrs.)
- One of the following pool courses (2-3 credit hours)
LAW L782 Law and Poverty Seminar: Tax and Social Justice
LAW L802 Law and Education Seminar
LAW L818 Labor Law
LAW L820 Employment Discrimination
LAW L832 Immigration and Citizenship Law
LAW L834 Environmental Justice
LAW L837 Property Seminar: Property, Land Use, and Justice
LAW L839 Civil Rights Actions § 1983
LAW L862 Criminal Law Seminar or Criminal Law Seminar: Death Penalty
LAW L877 Constitutional Law Seminar: Race and the Law or Incarceration or Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Law
LAW L884 International Law Seminar: Human Rights Advocacy in the U.S.
LAW L885 Gender Law in Practice
LAW L886 Environmental Law Seminar (all topics allowed)
LAW L896 Professional Seminar: Diversity in the Legal Profession or Public Health Law
LAW L902 Elder and Disabled Law
LAW L903 Election Law
LAW L911 Introduction to American Indian Law: Overlapping Jurisdictions
LAW L932 Immigration Law Seminar
LAW L933 Asylum and Refugee Law
LAW L934 Detention and Removal Defense
LAW L936 Immigration Justice: Practice, Policy & Process: Selected Problems
LAW L938 Health in Immigration and Citizenship Law
LAW L955 Advanced Constitutional Law: 14th Amendment
LAW L976 Environmental Law and Policy: Florida Keys
AND
- An additional pool course if a student completes less than 10 credit hours under the experiential component.
C. Performance
Students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better in the Certificate courses and an overall GPA of 2.5 or higher to receive the Certificate.