Clinics

Director

Tom Carey

Overview

The Amicus Curiae brief provides a formal avenue for interested non-parties to offer new information and unique insights to a court. The amicus brief procedure allows the court to take advantage of expertise with respect to a matter or policy that is before the court and to consider implications of the court's ruling beyond those raised by the parties to the litigation. Amicus briefs are accepted under certain conditions by a wide variety of courts, including the US Supreme Court, federal and state appellate courts, as well as international tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, among many others. 

Director

Alan Minuskin

Overview

Students plan and conduct every phase of civil litigation, including:

• Initial client interviews
• Legal strategy
• Counseling clients
• Pretrial discovery and motion hearings
• Settlement negotiations
• Pleadings
• Courtroom advocacy, including trials and administrative hearings
• Drafting and arguing appeals

Clinical faculty guide students, attending hearings and trials and giving feedback at every stage.

Director

Reena Parikh

Overview

As they engage in different modes of lawyering, students in this clinic are encouraged to think critically about the role of the lawyer, client, and community in advancing racial justice movements. Each student in the clinic will be assigned at least one litigation matter and one community or policy advocacy matter. On the litigation side, representative matters may include civil rights cases on behalf of low-wage workers, immigrants, prisoners and communities of color. On the community advocacy side, representative matters may include supporting grassroots organizations with their organizing campaigns, legislative advocacy or other research and outreach projects.

Director

Paul Tremblay

Jordan Engelhart

Counseling a high-tech incubator for minority entrepreneurs, representing a restaurant workers’ advocacy organization, helping a small business navigate import law—these are just some of the opportunities available through our Community Enterprise Clinic (CEC).

The CEC puts students at the center of transactional legal matters as they assist emerging businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits with intellectual property issues, commercial leases, and 501(c)(3) exemptions.

BC Law is one of the only schools in the nation to have a formal collaboration with an established major law firm—Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP—and CEC Director Paul Tremblay wrote the textbook for transactional clinics: Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice.

Directors

Lumina Sato (Defenders)

Overview

Almost 2 million people are currently incarcerated in the US. Students explore the problem of mass incarceration and the role of race and poverty in the criminal legal system through the representation of indigent clients charged with crimes and probation violations. 

Director

Sandy Tarrant

Overview

Students in the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Clinic navigate the rapidly evolving field of entrepreneurship law, which includes intellectual property, licensing, regulation, and corporate formation. Working under the supervision of the Clinic director, students will learn to work with organizational clients and learn to represent clients in transactions.

Students may have the opportunity to advise clients on a variety of legal issues, related to new and emerging businesses including:

• Entity choice and corporate formation
• Employment law
• Trademark and copyright registration and protection
• Strategizing, negotiating, drafting and reviewing agreements
• Ongoing corporate matters

Director

Mary Holper

Overview

Students gain vital practice skills in interviewing, drafting affidavits, preparing clients for interviews, researching and writing as they do this critical—and sometimes life-saving—work.

The types of cases students assist with include:

• Asylum and other relief based on fear of persecution
• Deportation waivers for long-term U.S. residents
• Adjustment of status for noncitizens with family members who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
• Visas and relief for victims of violent crimes
• Seeking release from detention in bond hearings and petitions for habeas corpus in federal courts
  

Directors

Sharon Beckman

Charlotte Whitmore

Overview

Clinic focuses on cases involving complex factual investigation as well as work with scientific and forensic experts. We co-counsel with the Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence program and with other attorneys and we also accept cases even where no other counsel is appointed and even if no DNA evidence is available to prove factual innocence.

As part of the Innocence Program, students:

• Evaluate cases of individuals who maintain they did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted and punished
• Represent individuals seeking relief from wrongful conviction or access to scientific testing of physical evidence to prove their innocence
• Plan and conduct factual investigations, including witness interviews
• Work with scientific experts, forensic witnesses, and crime labs
• Draft motions, supporting affidavits, and memoranda in support of motions for forensic testing and post-conviction relief
• Prepare for and participate in judicial proceedings
• Write amicus briefs on issues relating to wrongful convictions
• Engage with faculty and graduate students from Psychology and Social Work on breaking edge on multidisciplinary research to inform public policy

Director

Daniela Urosa

Overview

The International Human Rights Practicum focuses on appellate submissions to regional and international courts and other legal organizations that address international human rights issues. For example, students have worked on submissions to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The Inter-American System for the protection of human rights (IASHR) is the regional system responsible for monitoring, promoting, and protecting human rights in the countries that are members of the Organization of American States (OAS). Currently, it is one of the strongest regional human rights protection systems in the world.

Director

Frank Herrmann, S.J.

Overview

Students will assess the client’s criminal history, institutional record, physical and mental health, and risk of re-offending. Then they will advocate with the Massachusetts Department of Correction for release and, if not successful, possibly in the Superior Court on appeal.

Director

Tom Barnico

Jim Sweeney

Overview

Students work directly with Bureau attorneys in the representation of state agencies and officials in state and federal courts. Students assigned to the Constitutional and Administrative Law Division will work on a variety of court cases involving administrative and constitutional law, federal courts, and statutory construction. Students assigned to the Trial Division will work on a variety of cases involving  employment, tort, civil rights, contracts, and eminent domain and land use law.

Director

Larry Gennari

The mission of Project Entrepreneur is to equip the entrepreneurs with the tools necessary to be successful through networking and mentorship and the completion of an important student-facilitated “entrepreneurial fundamentals” class focused on legal aspects of operations, sales and marketing, and strategy.

Directors

 

Evangeline Sarda (Prosecution)

Overview

Our Criminal Justice Clinic comprises the Defenders Program, the Prosecution Program, and the Criminal Justice Clinic Class.