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.
C= Clinic E= Externship SP= Student Practice Organization
1913
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (Clinic)
The nation’s oldest student-run legal services organization, it focuses on areas from family law to special immigrant juvenile status matters.
1949
Harvard Defenders (Student Practice Organization)
Students represent clients in criminal show-cause hearings before clerk-magistrates. It’s the only legal services organization in Massachusetts that represents low-income defendants in these hearings.
1970
Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (Student Practice Organization)
Students represent inmates in Massachusetts prisons at disciplinary hearings, parole rescission and revocation hearings, second-degree life sentence hearings, and more.
1975
Judicial Process in Trial Courts Clinic (Externship)
Students work alongside judges in Massachusetts state and federal courts doing research and writing related to cases, sentences, and opinions.
1979
Legal Services Center
HLS’s first in-house clinic, housed in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston. The LSC includes the two clinics listed directly below as well as the more recent Federal Tax Clinic, the Predatory Lending and Consumer Protection Clinic, and the Veterans Law and Disability Benefits Clinic.
Domestic Violence and Family Law Clinic (Clinic)
Students manage all aspects of a family law case, from the initial client intake to representing clients, in both family and district courts.
Housing Law Clinic (Clinic)
Students represent tenants who are facing evictions by private-market and subsidized landlords. In the Housing Justice for Survivors Project, they represent tenants facing housing instability as a result of domestic or sexual violence.
1980
Government Lawyer: U.S. Attorney Clinic (Externship)
Students are placed in the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, where they handle work in such areas as anti-terrorism, organized crime and computer crimes
1981
Harvard Mediation Program (Student Practice Organization)
Students are trained in mediation and mediate court cases in Boston as well as conflicts outside of the legal system.
Tenant Advocacy Project (Student Practice Organization)
Students represent tenants of and applicants to public and subsidized housing at Housing Authority hearings throughout Greater Boston. The organization started as Students for Public Interest Law.
1984
Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (Clinic/Externship)
Students represent international clients who are seeking protection from being returned to human rights abuses in their country of origin.
1987
Health Law and Policy Clinic (Clinic)
Originally the AIDS Law Clinic, it focuses on legislative and regulatory reforms to improve access to healthcare for low-income clients, in particular those living with chronic conditions.
1990
Criminial Justice Institute (Clinic)
Students represent indigent clients charged in Massachusetts courts with crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies.
1995
Criminal Prosecution Clinic (Externship)
Students in district attorneys’ offices represent the commonwealth of Massachusetts in prosecuting nonjury criminal cases.
Transactional Law Clinics (Clinics)
Students in district attorneys’ offices represent the commonwealth of Massachusetts in prosecuting nonjury criminal cases.
1998
Recording Artists Project (Student Practice Organization)
Students do sophisticated, hands-on legal work for musicians and other entertainment clients throughout the Boston area.
1999
Cyberlaw Clinic (Clinic)
It provides legal services to clients on issues relating to the internet, new technology and intellectual property.
2001
Making Rights Real: The Ghana Project Clinic (Clinic)
Students work with Ghanaian organizations that focus on the human rights dimensions of Ghana’s health policies and practices.
2002
HLS Advocates for Human Rights (Student Practice Organization)
Students engage in legal projects with partner organizations around the world that advance human rights.
2003
International Human Rights Clinic (Clinic)
Students work to protect the human rights of clients and communities around the world while learning the responsibilities and skills of human rights lawyering.
2004
Child Advocacy Program (Externship)
Students are placed with organizations and agencies that work to advance children’s interests through direct services, impact litigation, and policy reform.
Education Law Clinic of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (Externship/Clinic)
A collaboration between HLS and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, it helps children impacted by family violence and other adverse experiences succeed in school.
Employment Law Clinic (Externship)
Originally an in-house clinic, it focuses on workplace rights, with a particular emphasis on state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on protected characteristics.
2005
Predatory Lending and Consumer Protection Clinic (Clinic)
Students represent low-income people in cases related to predatory lending and other consumer matters including bankruptcy and debt collection defense.
2006
Capital Punishment Clinic (Externship)
At capital punishment resource centers, primarily in the southern United States, students represent clients with capital sentences.
Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (Clinic)
Students focus on dispute systems design, negotiation, mediation, and facilitation for U.S.-based and international clients.Clinic
2007
Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (Clinic)
Students work on local, national and international projects covering the spectrum of environmental issues.
HLS Negotiators (Student Practice Organization)
Working closely with the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, it offers students the chance to represent clients in the fields of negotiation, dispute resolution, and conflict management.Student Practice Organization
Sports Law Clinic (Externship)
Students are placed in legal departments of major leagues or sports franchises and with law firms that represent individual players.
Supreme Court Litigation Clinic (Externship)
Students gain experience in Supreme Court- and appellate-level litigation through involvement in pending cases.
2008
Project No One Leaves (Student Practice Organization)
A student-run, Boston-based canvassing group, it partners with local organizers to connect low-income communities to resources to protect and assert residents’ rights.
2009
Government Lawyer: Semester in Washington (Externship)
Students work as legal interns in Washington, D.C., in a variety of federal offices—with a focus on policy, legislative or regulatory matters—while taking a government lawyering course.
HLS Mississippi Delta Project (Student Practice Organization)
Students provide policy and legal services to clients in the Mississippi Delta region, one of the poorest regions in the U.S.
| 2009 | GOVERNMENT LAWYER: SEMESTER IN WASHINGTON Students work as legal interns in Washington, D.C., in a variety of federal offices—with a focus on policy, legislative or regulatory matters—while taking a government lawyering course. Externship |
| HLS MISSISSIPPI DELTA PROJECT Students provide policy and legal services to clients in the Mississippi Delta region, one of the poorest regions in the U.S. Student Practice Organization | |
| 2010 | FOOD LAW AND POLICY CLINIC Students learn to use law and policy to impact the food system, and provide advice to nonprofits and government agencies and sustainable food producers. Clinic |
| GOVERNMENT LAWYER: ATTORNEY GENERAL CLINIC Students work in the offices of state attorneys general in Massachusetts or around the country in such areas as environmental crimes, public integrity, and major crimes. Externship | |
| 2011 | HARVARD IMMIGRATION PROJECT Students provide direct representation to asylum seekers, refugees and individuals in deportation proceedings. Student Practice Organization |
| 2012 | HARVARD LAW ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT Students provide pro bono legal research and analysis to entrepreneurs at Harvard and MIT. Student Practice Organization |
| VETERANS LAW AND DISABILITY BENEFITS CLINIC Students work in a variety of settings to protect the rights of military veterans and their families and people with disabilities. Clinic | |
| 2013 | CRIMMIGRATION CLINIC Students work at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. Clinic |
| 2015 | FEDERAL TAX CLINIC Students represent low-income taxpayers in conflicts with the Internal Revenue Service. Clinic |
| 2016 | DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW CLINIC Students participate in an externship with the Protect Democracy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to holding the executive branch accountable to the laws and practices that protect democracy. Externship |