Nadine Nasser Donovan

2 credits

The Health Justice Practicum is a new one-semester, two-credit course enrolling a maximum of six students. Students will collaborate with frontline health care providers who serve marginalized populations on projects that require legal and problem-solving skills and where providers and/or patients have identified a systemic problem affecting patients' health and wellbeing. In Spring 2022, we will be collaborating with Project RESPECT, an integrated obstetrics, addiction medicine, and behavioral health clinic at Boston Medical Center that serves low-income pregnant and parenting people in recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs), especially opioid use disorders (OUDs). Project RESPECT providers have identified a problem in Massachusetts law that significantly harms low-income parents in recovery from SUDs and their children, disproportionately harming Black, Indigenous, or other people of color (BIPOC) families. Children born to women in evidence-based medication-assisted recovery (e.g., methadone treatment) must be reported at birth to the Department of Children and Families as if the mother were actively using drugs. Children born to BIPOC mothers are more likely than children born to white mothers both to be reported to child protection authorities and to be separated from their families as a result. The trauma of custody disruption has demonstrated serious effects on both recovering parents and child health and development. We will explore and advocate for possible legal and policy advocacy solutions to these issues--for example, changes in mandatory reporting laws and reformed child protection agency practices to eliminate discriminatory decisionmaking. Students will attend group meetings as well as work on research and advocacy. The project work will allow students to hone their research, analytical, writing, presentation, and problem-solving skills. Regular group meetings will deepen students' understanding of their projects by providing a broader context. Students will also meet individually or in teams with the faculty supervisor to discuss their project work. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option.

3 credits

This class is designed to give students experience in legal writing for civil litigation. Over the course of the semester, students will work on the various stages of a federal court litigation from pre-complaint investigation through dispositive motions. There will be opportunities to draft a variety of litigation documents, including complaints, discovery, motions, and research memos. Students will complete multiple drafts of key documents and will meet individually with the instructor to discuss the drafts. Students will focus on using the facts to tell their clients' story and making persuasive, winning arguments. In class, students will discuss a range of strategic questions including developing viable causes of action, identifying critical facts, and using written discovery to obtain information. Additionally, students will participate in several in-class exercises designed to improve the students' skills in writing, fact-gathering and argument. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This Dedicated Writing Class may be used to satisfy the requirement. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in both Legal Writing for Civil Litigation and Persuasive Writing: Trial Level (JD 713). ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

2 credits

This two-credit Legal Research and Writing seminar is required for LL.M. students in the American Law program and optional for students in the LL.M. programs in Banking and Financial Law and Taxation. It is specifically designed to introduce foreign lawyers to the basic principles of American legal writing. In small class settings and individual conferences, students receive guidance on drafting and editing memoranda and agreements. Their work is critiqued and rewritten. The research component of the seminar trains students to locate cases, statutes and secondary material through indexing systems and the latest computer technology. Research assignments are integrated into writing assignments -- exposing students to the methods of US legal analyses -- so that by the end of the term, students obtain the skills needed to write memoranda appropriate for submission to US law firms.