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Spring 2025 Clinic

Religious Freedom Clinic

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, Clinic Q&A and OCP Blog Highlights.

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

Required Class Component: Religious Freedom Clinic Seminar (2 spring classroom credits). The clinic and its classroom component are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in the required seminar.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.

By Permission: Yes. Application are due by May 8, 2024. Applications from LLM and transfer students are due July 19, 2024.

Add/Drop Deadline: December 13, 2024.

LLM Students: LLM students may apply to the clinic by the July 19 deadline .

Placement Site: HLS.

About the Clinic: The Religious Freedom Clinic provides students a hands-on, supervised experience representing a diverse group of clients in legal matters raising First Amendment and religious liberty issues. In the clinic, students represent religious individuals and organizations of all faiths, with a focus on helping the imprisoned, victims of workplace discrimination, and those facing obstacles in ministering to migrants, the poor, and their communities. Under the supervision of the clinic’s director and staff, clinic students engage in client counseling, policy work, pre-trial and trial litigation, appellate advocacy, and amicus work in cases of national importance.

Application Process: Admission to the Religious Freedom Clinic is by permission of the Clinic Director, Professor McDaniel. Students should submit an application to jmcdaniel@law.harvard.edu by May 8, 2024. (Applications after that date will be considered if additional seats become available.) The application should be in a combined PDF that includes a resume and a statement of interest of 250 words or less describing the student’s reasons for applying to the clinic, relevant coursework, and which semesters (fall and/or spring) the student is applying for.

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