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Clinics in a Minute featuring Annika Reno ’24

What is the Consumer Protection Clinic?

Through the Consumer Protection Clinic, students represent low-income people in cases related to predatory lending and other consumer matters, including bankruptcy and debt collection defense.

This clinic is part of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC), a general practice community law office in Jamaica Plain. LSC’s diverse clinics provide clinical instruction to second- and third-year law students and serve as a laboratory for the innovative delivery of legal services. Students are taught and mentored under the supervision and guidance of clinical instructors and fellows in one of LSC’s litigation clinical practices. For more information about the LSC, please visit their website.

How do I register?

This clinic is offered in the Fall and Spring semesters. You can learn about the required clinical course component, clinical credits and the clinical registration process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section.

Sample Schedule

MorningAfternoonEvening
8:30 – 9:15 am: Take red line/orange line to LSC
9:15 – 10:00 am: Talked with Instructor about new case and reviewed documentation related to case
10:00 11:00 am: Conducted client 2 intake for new case based on prior documentation
11:00 – 12:30 pm: Researched and Drafted a motion to compel discovery  
12:30 – 1:15 pm: Go get lunch at the Mexican restaurant by LSC
1:15 – 2:30 pm: Spoke with client 2 to complete intake, discuss a potential settlement, and discuss Client 1’s questions about the process
2:30 – 3:15 pm: Conducted preliminary research on judgement-proof status for client 1.
3:15 – 3:45 pm: Conducted research for a motion to file a late answer
3:45-4:15 pm Prepared a retainer agreement, a uniform notice of appearance for small claims court, and a 3:03 notice of appearance
4:15 – 4:30 pm: Drafted correspondence for opposing counsel regarding new case
4:30 – 5:00 pm: Spoke with client 2  
5:00 – 5:15 pm: Meeting with Instructor to update status of cases
5:15-6:00 pm  Take orange line/red line to HLS

Meet the Instructors

headshot of Alexa Rosenbloom

Alexa Rosenbloom

Director, Clinical Instructor, Lecturer on Law

Alexa joined the Legal Services Center as a clinical instructor in the Consumer Protection Clinic in 2022. Prior to coming to LSC, she represented low-income clients at Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) for over nine years. She began her career at GBLS as a Skadden Fellow practicing disability rights law in the Elder, Health, and Disability Unit. In 2015, Alexa transferred to the Consumer Rights Unit at GBLS; for the next six years she represented low-income consumers in state and federal court in a wide variety of matters, including debt collection and foreclosure defense. Alexa was an Arthur Garfield Hays fellow as a student at NYU Law School, and clerked for a federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York before starting her career as a legal services attorney.

headshot of Sean Ahern

Sean Ahern

Clinical Instructor

Sean Ahern is an attorney and clinical instructor in the Consumer Protection Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School (LSC). Sean supervises and trains law students in representing low-income clients in a wide range of consumer cases in state and federal court. He works with students to learn all of the different civil litigation strategies involved in the defense of debt collection lawsuits and the bringing of affirmative fair debt collection and consumer protection lawsuits.

Before joining LSC, Sean was a senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and a part-time lecturer at BU Law. Sean also comes to LSC with full-time clinical teaching experience. During the spring and summer 2023 semesters, Sean held a temporary appointment as a full-time lecturer in the Civil Litigation & Justice clinic at Boston University School of Law, where he supervised JD students and co-taught a course in trial advocacy. Sean is experienced as a litigator in a range of legal aid practice areas, including in class action litigation. Sean’s experience and research interest is largely in the intersection between consumer rights and housing. He has also provided civil legal assistance in employment, immigration, and government benefits cases as well.

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