Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Judith Appelbaum

J.D. Clinic 530 | 10 credit hours

The Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic teaches legislative lawyering. Legislative lawyers work for Congress, Executive Branch agencies, and in the advocacy community. Often, they work in informal practice settings for busy senior leaders who may or may not be lawyers. They are trained to:

• recognize the legal, policy, process, political, and personality elements of a problem with a legislative aspect or solution;
• perform the legal and policy research necessary to support or oppose legislative change; • develop creative solutions to problems at the intersection of law and policy;
• present solutions in clear, persuasive, concise, and precise oral and written forms; and,
• work with advocacy coalitions, Congress, and Executive Branch agencies to advance solutions favored by their client or public law improvement effort.

Ten students, organized in teams, participate in the Clinic each semester.

Students learn by doing legislative lawyering work on behalf of a client during the semester. The work produced by a student can span the spectrum of documents used by lawmakers, administrators, and advocates. In addition, students participate in meetings with principals and clients, coalition members, and congressional or administrative agency staff. Depending on the project, students prepare briefing papers, letters, talking points, colloquies, hearing testimony, floor statements for Senators and Representatives, legislative text, regulatory comments and language, and committee and conference report language.

Clinic students are also required to prepare for and attend Clinic seminar sessions. These sessions cover substantive areas (e.g., the constitutional roles and powers of Congress and the Executive Branch, House and Senate procedure, the federal budget process, Executive Branch interagency process, and lobbying), as well as introduce the students to distinguished guest speakers from practice. Clinic seminar sessions are interactive and require students to think critically and broadly about the intersection of law and policy, the structure and processes of the Congress and Executive Branch, and the roles of principals, lawyers, and non-lawyers within these branches of the federal government. The sessions are sometimes combined with visits to Capitol Hill and Executive Branch offices.

Additionally, the Clinic has developed a set of simulations and exercises to hone oral and written advocacy and briefing skills and legislative drafting skills. Students receive extensive direct guidance and feedback.

These various components – in the field, classroom, and skill exercises – together create a thoughtful, holistic, experiential approach to teaching students legislative lawyering.

This Clinic is open to students who will have completed 28 credits by the time Clinic classes begin. There is a general preference given to students who are in their final year of law school, but second year full-time student may apply. Before enrolling or concurrently with the Clinic, students must complete either Lawmaking, Legislation, or Government Processes. Students may not concurrently enroll in this clinic and an externship or one of the following experiential learning courses: Animal Protection Litigation Seminar; Community Lawyering Seminar: Dismantling Structural Racism and Creating Social Change; Cosmetic Safety Regulation: Lawyering in the Public Interest; Death Penalty Litigation Seminar; Dietary Supplements Regulation: Lawyering in the Public Interest; Human Rights Advocacy Seminar: U.S. Resettlement Policy and the Iraqi Refugee Crisis; Human Rights Fact-Finding Seminar: Access to Essential Medicines in the Dominican Republic; Human Rights Fact-Finding Seminar: Repatriation of Persons with Mental Disabilities; Local Dynamics of Immigration Law and Policy; Motherhood and Criminality; Rule of Law Promotion and Civil Society in China: Implications for Women and Girls or State and Local Government Lawyering; or U.S. Voting Rights: A Practical Perspective (spring semester). Students may concurrently enroll in this clinic and U.S. Voting Rights: A Practical Perspective during the fall semester.

See clinic course description in the online Curriculum Guide or the "Clinic Enrollment Policies" in the Bulletin.

Students may not receive credit for this clinic and the practicum course, How to Work the Hill: A Guide to Lawyering in the Congress.

Students may not concurrently enroll in this clinic and an externship or a practicum course.