Public Interest Law

Courses

ABR-8040: Transitional Justice Kosovo& Beyond

Credits 3
Transitional justice – the emergence of a new justice-focused legal order following conflicts and massive underlying changes in political, social, and economic structures – could hardly be more timely or more important. Throughout the world, societies struggle to acknowledge historical truths, make just reparations and, through processes of reconciliation, find a way forward. This course will take our students into the heart of one such society, using Kosovo as a case study, and will examine and explore in depth the role of law in attempting to build a just society following the transition from Communism and the emergence of Kosovo as an independent republic following the Serbian-Kosovar wars of the previous decades. As a point of comparison, it will examine similar processes in the post-communist Czech Republic, post-apartheid South Africa and post-fascist Chile. It will also examine the same issues in post-Soviet Ukraine and discuss the prospects for the use of law as a means of reconciliation following the current war. We hope to use this course as a template for future courses focusing on transitional justice in other societies that have recently emerged from a conflict or period of repression of human rights. This course will have four main components: • The Theory of Transitional Justice • The Practice of Transitional Justice in Kosovo • Comparative Transitional Justice • The Prospects for Transitional Justice in Ukraine This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously.

CLI-1015: Clinic: Civil Advocacy

Credits 2 5
Students take full responsibility for representing clients under the close supervision of faculty. The course focuses on the challenges of representing real people in real matters in an ethical, reflective, and creative way. Goals include developing a critical understanding of legal process and a contextual understanding of clients’ legal problems. Students interview and counsel clients, investigate facts, negotiate disputes, prepare trial memos and motions, and conduct administrative hearings and court trials. Cases cover a variety of subject areas, including landlord-tenant, unemployment compensation, employment, and consumer matters. The current affordable housing crisis has led to some focus on housing matters, including policy research and recommendations to neighborhood organizations and the City of St. Paul. Students meet weekly in seminar and also meet individually with faculty for supervision. Some required activities (such as court appearances, investigation, and community meetings) take place during normal business hours, but most students are able to combine this clinic's work with their own employment and care-giving responsibilities. PreReq: LAW- 2015 Take 1 as additional PreReq: LAW- 2002, LAW 2002, LAW- 2003

CLI-1020: Clinic: Economic Inclusion

Credits 3

The Economic Inclusion Clinic is designed to give students experience in both transactional law and with some exposure to litigation as it pertains to preparation and evidence gathering for economic discrimination cases brought by impact litigation co-counsel. The EIC would focus various areas where there are disparities in access to opportunities, including but not limited to the following: · Financial Literacy Segment. This area would focus on the legal aspects of financial literacy. While I have found multiple organizations providing financial literacy covering what banks are looking for, I have yet to find materials that focus on the legal perspective, i.e., what banks are allowed to actually do and what many claim they are required by law to do. Students would provide financial literacy either in the form of one-on-one legal counsel, or community Know Your Rights workshops, in tandem with community-based partners who would organize workshops with grassroots partners that would recruiting the attendees and clients. Students would also draft model legislation. All deliverables would be combined and shared on the EIC’s website. Students would learn Dodd-Frank laws and regs, get client experience teaching legal workshops, and legislative experience drafting statutes and working with lobbyists and legislatures. · Mortgage Discrimination litigation. The DOJ recently announced a campaign to tackle racial discrimination in mortgage lending. The clinic could work in tandem with this campaign to counsel clients and assist in fact gathering. This would give the students experience both in litigation and transactional law. · Social Entrepreneurship counseling and support. This piece would focus on working with potential existing social enterprises in structuring deals, or those needing legal counsel who are interested in undergoing B-labs certification, state benefit corporation incorporation, or forming as another hybrid business org structures with a double bottom line. Essentially, it would provide the students transactional legal experience working for businesses or nonprofits with a double bottom line of being financially sustainable while addressing an important community-based issue. This clinic is by consent of the instructor. Contact Professor Kim Vu-Dinh kim.vu-dinh@mitchellhamline.edu for pre-approval. Students may not register for more than one clinic during the same semester without the consent of both instructors. Students may participate remotely in this clinic, except for the in-person orientation. For students who participate remotely, this clinic is considered a distance education course and credits earned will count toward distance education courses. Students may take up to 41 credits under the 83-credit requirement (43 under the 86-credit requirement) toward their J.D. degree through courses that are designated "distance education courses." For more information about this clinic, students should consult the information on the clinic webpage: https://mitchellhamline.edu/clinics/economic- inclusion-clinic/ A three-day orientation will be required for this clinic; exact details will be provided in the applicant interview. PreReq: LAW- 2015

CLI-1035: Clinic: Immigration Law

Credits 1 4

Students represent indigent clients in administrative proceedings before U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, U.S. Consulates, Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Federal Court. Cases concern the immigration status of non-citizens. Students interview and counsel clients, research laws and regulations, write briefs, prepare application filings, prepare for hearings, and act as trial counsel at evidentiary hearings. Heavy emphasis is placed upon active representation of clients and cases that present novel and interesting issues of law and fact. Some required activities, such as court appearances and interviews, take place during normal business hours. This clinic may be taken for 2 or 3 credits. Registration is by consent of the instructor. Email a cover letter, resume, and unofficial law school transcript to Jennifer Dahlberg-Kowski Jennifer.Kowski@mitchellhamline.edu for preapproval. Students may not register for more than one clinic during the same semester without the consent of both instructors. Students may participate remotely in this clinic. For students who participate remotely, this clinic is considered a distance education course and credits earned will count toward distance education courses. Students may take up to 41 credits under the 83-credit requirement (43 under the 86-credit requirement) toward their J.D. degree through courses that are designated "distance education courses." For more information about this clinic, students should consult the information on the clinic webpage: https://mitchellhamline.edu/clinics/immigration-clinic/ PreReq: LAW- 2015 

LAW-1035: Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis

Credits 4
Examines basic concepts relating to ownership and possession of private property, in part through a comparative perspective. Addresses acquisition of property by find, adverse possession, and gift. Introduces possessory estates and future interests, concurrent ownership and marital interests, and the law of landlord and tenant. This course is only available to current first-year students.

LAW-3210: Fair and Affordable Housing

Credits 2 3
This course explores both fair housing law, and efforts to use law to make housing more available and affordable. Special attention will be paid to the following topics: the history of economic and racial segregation in zoning and housing, redlining, the Fair Housing Act, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and other efforts to promote affordable housing. Students will meet and interact with people working in the field. Course meets in-person.

LAW-3300: Immigration Law

Credits 3
Provides a comprehensive overview of the federal laws as well as policy affecting the ability of foreign nationals to obtain visas to enter and to lawfully remain in the U.S. Topics include the organizational structure of the different branches of government impacting on immigration laws; historical, political, and social aspects of immigration legislation; visa processing and admission requirements; removal grounds and procedures as well as waivers; relief from deportation; applications and petitions; refugees and political asylum; judicial review; and citizenship and loss thereof.

LAW-3545: Trauma Responsive Legal Advocacy

Credits 3
This course will discuss the biological, social, and emotional effects of trauma experienced by individuals and families involved in legal systems. Students will gain skills to incorporate neuroscience and social science research into legal practice to effectively address the trauma experienced by their clients within the boundaries of an attorney-client relationship. There will be discussion of the adequacy of current legal systems’ trauma response and an opportunity to consider methods of change. This course will pay special attention to the ethical responsibility lawyers have to understand and address the trauma of their clients and themselves, including the relationship between competence, zealous advocacy and trauma responsive practices. This course will offer an opportunity to implement lawyering skills through group work and case scenarios. Online asynchronous course. Students may take up to 27 credits under the 83 credit requirement (28 under the 86 credit requirement) toward their J.D. degree through courses that are designated "distance education courses." This course counts toward the distance education credit limit. A distance education course is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously. Source: ABA Standard 306(a).

SEM-6030: Election Law

Credits 2

Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6031.

This course will examine constitutional and statutory regulation of the electoral process. We will explore topics including the right to vote and the right to an equally-weighted vote; representation, districting, and partisan gerrymandering; minority vote dilution, the Voting Rights Act, and racial gerrymandering; election administration, vote-counting, voting technology, and voter identification; and campaign finance laws and reform. The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor. With the professor's prior approval, students may prepare a "long paper" to satisfy the Advanced Research and Writing requirement. You will get three credits if you write a long paper (which you may do even if you’ve already satisfied the long paper requirement) and two credits if you write a shorter paper. This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously. 

SEM-6075: Media Law

Credits 2

Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6076.

This class is about the First Amendment and the Free Press. We will discuss a selection of the legal issues generated by the activities of the mass media. We will consider regulations of print, broadcast, and electronic media, including laws that govern obscenity and pornography, laws aimed at balancing free press and fair trial rights, and laws meant to preserve multiple voices in a market. We will explore publication-related issues such as libel and invasion of privacy, and newsgathering-related issues such as the extent of the reporter's privilege and restrictions on access to information. We will examine common law, regulatory law including Federal Communications Commission regulations, and statutory law including the Freedom of Information Act, but the primary focus of the course will be on how the First Amendment limits governmental control over the media.

The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor.

This is a seminar course with limited enrollment.
 

SEM-6100: Race,Health Equity & the Law

Credits 2 3
The Institute of Medicine defines public health as "what we, as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy." Unlike health care, which focuses on medical interventions to improve the health of individual patients, public health takes a broader look at the wide-ranging determinants of population health. Although various interventions have been devised to protect health at the population level, disparities in health outcomes persist, with marginalized communities--racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, low socioeconomic status people--bearing a disproportionate amount of negative health outcomes. These inequitable health outcomes are largely products of structural and institutional factors that are grounded in the law. This course will adopt a critical approach to law--along the axes of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity, and class--to examine how the law creates, sustains, and legitimizes inequitable health outcomes. This critical approach will be used to analyze the legal dimensions of current public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the obesity epidemic, tobacco control, healthcare access, natural disasters & climate change, and socio-political determinants of health to challenge students think beyond the traditional paradigms of legal reasoning. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits. This is a HyFlex course.