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.

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

Required Class Component: Race & Law Clinical Seminar (2 spring classroom credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in this clinic will automatically enroll you in the required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.

By Permission: Yes. Applications are due by October 3, 2025.

Add/Drop Deadline: December 12, 2025.

LLM Students: LLM students may apply to this clinic by the deadline.

Placement Site: HLS.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School is a research and advocacy center that seeks to reimagine civil rights and racial justice for the 21st century. The Institute’s advocacy work is anchored in its Race & Law Clinic, which offers Harvard Law students the opportunity to do hands-on litigation and advocacy in a variety of civil rights areas, including electoral reform and democracy, technology and race, and equal protection, racial equality, and anti-discrimination. The aim is to develop, teach, and practice a movement-oriented lawyering and advocacy approach that builds toward a renewed and effective civil rights regime designed to address present and future conditions.

Clinical work may include federal and state litigation projects, advocacy and technical assistance, and strategy development opportunities. Under the supervision of the Clinic Director, the Strategic Litigation and Advocacy Director, and the Houston Institute’s Faculty Director, clinic students will work on every aspect of the clinic’s litigation and advocacy strategies, which may include litigation tasks such as investigations, meeting and retaining clients, engaging in lay and expert discovery, briefing and arguing dispositive motions, pre-trial preparations and trial practice, and appellate processes; advocacy tasks such as amicus briefs, model legislation, legislative testimony, and policy advocacy; technical assistance tasks such as developing relationships with communities and community organizations, providing education, resources, and other support to communities, and attending coalition meetings; and strategy tasks such as brainstorming and designing campaign strategies, producing strategy memoranda, and developing briefing materials for strategic partners, all in service of developing innovative and pragmatic approaches for building a durable civil rights regime for the 21st century.

As an interdisciplinary clinic and center, students will also be exposed to emerging theories and methods in law, policy, social science, and community organizing, including how to communicate them to a legal audience and beyond. The work of the clinic is conducted in partnership with law firms, advocacy and community organizations, civil rights organizations, other legal clinics, and more.

Application Process: Interested students should submit the documents listed below to HLS-RJC@law.harvard.edu no later than October 3, 2025. Please send each document as a PDF, and if possible, combine the required documents into one file with your full name in the file name.

• Statement of Interest
• Why are you interested in this clinic and its work? How does your experience relate to the work of the clinic?
• Resume/CV
• Writing Sample