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Required Clinic Component: LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic (3-5 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: No.

By Permission: No.

Add/Drop Deadline: December 12, 2025.

LLM Students: LLM students may enroll in this clinic through Helios.

This clinical seminar is designed to complement students’ clinical work while fostering their intellectual growth, ethical development, and professional identity as lawyers in training. It offers a dynamic learning environment that combines structured lectures, collaborative group activities, and participatory seminar-style discussions. The seminar will cultivate a shared foundation in legal ethics, professionalism, and client-centered lawyering.

Central to the seminar is the exploration of the ethical responsibilities of lawyers and the development of an individualized moral compass. Students will engage with real-world ethical dilemmas through their cases and examine their implications through the lens of law, rules, and personal values.

Weekly case rounds will provide a dedicated space for students to present and reflect on their client matters, receive peer and instructor feedback, and collaboratively examine questions that arise in their practice. The purpose of these case rounds will be to freely discuss challenges, deepen strategic thinking, and expose students to diverse lawyering approaches, ultimately helping them develop stronger problem-solving skills, judgement, and a sense of community.

The seminar situates students’ client representation within a broader context. They will gain knowledge about the legal systems that have historically criminalized LGBTQ+ people and continue to do so. Topics will include disproportionate impact of the criminal legal system on LGBTQ+ people, with attention to every stage of the process. Students will critically analyze these issues through multiple frameworks, including abolitionist and reformist perspectives, allowing students to consider a spectrum of strategies for systemic change.

This seminar also provides a dedicated space for skill-building and reflective practice. Students will strengthen core lawyering skills, such as client interviewing, trauma-informed advocacy, narrative framing, and legal strategy. Students will be encouraged to identify patterns of injustice arising in their direct service practice, reflect on the structural forces behind these patterns, and develop innovative approaches to address them using legal, policy, and community-based tools.

Seminar readings and materials will be drawn from a wide range of interdisciplinary sources including case law, legislative materials, reports, academic scholarship, and media accounts. This diverse set of resources is intended to support rigorous legal analysis while inviting students to think expansively and empathetically about the lived experiences of the communities they serve through the clinic.

This seminar will be integrated into the “LSC Joint Seminar.”