Spring 2023 • Seminar
Federal Courts Clinical Seminar
Required Clinic Component: Federal Courts Clinic (2 winter clinical credits + 2-3 spring clinical credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this required course.
Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.
By Permission: No.
Add/Drop Deadline: November 11, 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 Clinical Seminar accompanies the Federal Courts Clinic. Students in the clinic will spend winter term on-site working in the Chambers of a federal judge, and then continue their work remotely in the spring semester. in the Chambers of a federal judge – usually a court of appeals or district court judge, but also potentially a bankruptcy or magistrate judge. In the Clinical Seminar, students will share and analyze their experiences in Chambers (to the extent consistent with confidentiality requirements), with the goal of gaining a fuller understanding of overall functioning of the federal courts and the different roles that judges play at different levels in the federal judicial system (as well as the different views different judges have concerning those roles). Students will also discuss the role that clerks/externs do/should play, and other topics concerning the federal judicial system that are raised by the students’ work. The Clinical Seminar will be taught (and the Clinic directed) by David Zimmer, a Partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at Goodwin Procter, who clerked at both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and who has significant experience practicing before all levels of the federal courts.