Civil Litigation Program
The two-semester Civil Litigation Program gives you the opportunity to use your lawyering skills in all courtroom levels — from local trial and housing courts, to the state's Supreme Judicial Court, to the federal court. In fact, several landmark decisions by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court began as student-represented cases in the Civil Litigation Program.
Working out of the offices of Greater Boston Legal Services in downtown Boston, students are assigned cases concerning such issues as divorce and child custody, housing and eviction, disability and Social Security benefits, unemployment and immigration.
You will engage in all phases of legal work including:
- Interviewing clients and witnesses
- Drafting pleadings and other legal documents
- Negotiating with attorneys
- Conducting research
- Drafting legal memoranda
- Representing clients before courts and administrative tribunals
The clinical faculty works closely with students at every stage of the process. Classroom components of the program include interviewing, counseling and negotiating in the first semester, and trial advocacy and professional responsibility in the second. Videotaped class simulations provide additional opportunities to study the advocacy process.