1 – To provide UDC Law students with the training, supervision, and field experience necessary to become effective and reflective lawyers.

2 – To undertake projects advancing the public interest and providing quality representation to community groups and organizations in need of legislative lawyering services.

This is accomplished by seminar instruction and field experience designed to teach UDC Law students how to excel when working with text, law, policy, and politics. Among other things, the seminar surveys topics relevant to legislative lawyering, including an examination of the process of enacting legislation and regulations, the building and researching of legislative and regulatory history, the drafting of statutory and regulatory text, talking points, white papers and other policy materials, an introduction to statutory interpretation, and exploration of professional identity, trauma-responsive policy development, gender justice, disability justice, and racial justice. It also introduces students to lawyering skills such as storytelling, interviewing, counseling, professional responsibility, legal and policy research, media advocacy, oral advocacy, and mindfulness practices.

The field experience consists of supervised policy projects for non-profit and community organizations that are working to lift vulnerable populations out of poverty with improved economic security and access to other civil rights.