Spring 2023 • Seminar
Employment Law Workshop: Strategies for Social Change
Required Clinic Component: Employment Law Clinic (3-5 spring clinical credits). This clinic and course are bundled; enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this course.
Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.
By Permission: No.
Add/Drop Deadline: December 2, 2022.
LLM Students: International students on F-1 student visas are required to have Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization; LL.M. students are not eligible for CPT.
This course will examine how lawyers can use different strategies to effect social change, with a special emphasis on advancing the right to be free from workplace discrimination based on protected characteristics such as race and sex. After surveying the relevant law and reviewing empirical information about the nature of civil rights violations, we will evaluate possible strategies for social change, including government action, individual and class action litigation, self regulation, alternative dispute resolution, organizing, and social entrepreneuring. All students will have a clinical placement through the Employment Law Clinic. All clinical placements will include exposure to some aspect of employment rights and will play an important role in bringing diverse perspectives to the workshop. The workshop will require completion of an individual or group project. Projects may include some combination of empirical research, legal analysis, program evaluation, or other approaches to examining and improving the effectiveness of existing workplace protections.