Democracy and Rule of Law Clinic

On the eve of the presidential election and faced with heightened threats of voter suppression, new laws governing election officials' powers, and the rampant spread of rhetoric around election integrity, Professors Lawrence Lessig and Larry Schwartztol discuss the various legal frameworks that the loser of an election in the U.S. could use to assume office despite election results and the possible courses of action a losing candidate/party could take in the aftermath of a contested election.

Larry Schwartztol, White House lawyer focused on voting rights and democracy reform, has been named a professor of practice. He will serve as the faculty director of the Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic.

More than 100 years after students started the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, there are now 40 clinics and Student Practice Organizations at HLS, focused on everything from cyberlaw to veterans’ rights.