To learn more about the Clinical Curriculum and Registration, please visit our Clinical Registration Center. You can also find more information on How to Register for Clinics and How Clinical Credits Work.

For more information about this clinic, please visit the Clinic Website and OCP Blog Highlights.

Enrollment in this clinic will fulfill the HLS JD pro bono requirement.

Required Class Component: Advanced Clinical Practice (1 fall classroom credit + 1 spring classroom credit). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in this clinic will automatically enroll you in the required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: Harvard Legal Aid Bureau 2L.

By Permission: Yes. This clinic is open only to students who have completed HLAB in their 2L year.

Add/Drop Deadline: N/A.

LLM Students: LLM students are not eligible to enroll.

Multi-Semester: This is a full-year clinic (4 fall clinical credits + 4 spring clinical credits).

Placement Site: HLS.

The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run civil legal aid organization committed to providing free representation to low-income and marginalized communities in the Greater Boston area. Students and staff aim to provide these services in a way that responds to the systemic racial, social, and economic inequalities that are the causes and consequences of poverty. To that end, the Bureau trains its student attorneys to advocate vigorously for their clients, create enduring community partnerships, and become socially conscious leaders. The Bureau currently has three primary practice areas, all led by student-members with guidance and support from experienced clinical instructors: housing (including eviction defense and movement lawyering in support of tenant power); family (including divorce, child custody, paternity, visitation, support, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status); and wage-and-hour (including nonpayment of wages and overtime, denial of earned sick time, and retaliation for assertion of workplace rights). Because the Bureau is student-run, students take the lead on cases and in setting organizational policy and exploring potential new areas or modes of practice. Enrollment is by application during the spring of the student’s 1L year; participants commit to at least 20 hours per week of clinic work for the following two academic years.

Successful completion of appropriate written work in this offering satisfies the professional writing requirement for matriculants to the J.D. program from 2023 onward.