Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.
244.52 sec. 001 - Direct Legal Services: Creative Advocacy and Alternatives to Litigation (Spring 2024)
Instructor: Sabyl Landrum (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 1
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
W 6:25 PM - 8:15 PM
Location: Law 136
From January 10, 2024
To February 21, 2024
Course End: February 21, 2024
Class Number: 33556
This course is open to 1Ls.
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 7
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 18
As of: 04/27 11:56 PM
This seminar will advance students' research, writing and oral advocacy skills through a social justice lens. Representing clients who are impacted by systems intended to oppress them often means obtaining solutions outside the courtroom, while still needing to navigate the courtroom. And new attorneys employed in legal services often are managing independent caseloads from day one.
The course will be centered around a hypothetical legal services client where we will engage hypothetical private actors, public agencies, and municipal bodies. Students will learn how to research local agency ordinances and regulations, along with governing state and federal law. Students will also learn how to effectively communicate with non-lawyers in positions of power to advocate for their hypothetical client, combining legal argument with persuasion techniques directed at non-legal professionals with discretionary power. We will discuss the challenges of interacting with people in positions of power who carry their own implicit and explicit biases into their work. And we will explore creative problem solving when the law itself may not provide a basis of justice for your client.
Coursework will include drafting a demand letter, researching local laws and communicating research to supervisors, written and oral advocacy with public agencies, simulated negotiations, and preparing public comment for a city council meeting.
In addition to the simulation exercises, this class will include readings contextualizing the challenges faced by our hypothetical client. We will explore the impacts of housing policies that allowed white middle class families, at the expense of individuals of color, to build wealth through access to home ownership and that imposed a system of segregation, and how programs such as subsidized housing programs have further prevented individuals of color from obtaining housing stability and have subjected individuals to excessive policing. We will also explore how courts and laws were built to protect the needs of those who historically were white, male land owners, and what that means today. Lastly, the last two sessions will explore potential policy solutions and will include readings about organizations and legal organizations pursuing solutions such as private reparations, permanent real estate cooperatives, and other ways to work to rectify past harms that deprived individuals of color and indigenous peoples from accessing wealth.
Sabyl Landrum is a clinical supervisor and staff attorney at East Bay Community Law Center, joining EBCLC's Housing practice in 2019, and currently practicing in the Homelessness subunit of EBCLC's Clean Slate practice. Prior to joining EBCLC, she was a Staff Attorney at Community Legal Aid-So Cal for almost three years. Sabyl has represented clients in unlawful detainers and administrative hearings, litigated impact cases on behalf of unhoused client and public benefit recipients, and has engaged in policy advocacy at the local level. Sabyl has also successfully represented clients both as a supervised law student, and as an attorney, in appellate matters in state court, and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Immediately after law school she worked as a Junior Associate at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius where she worked on securities litigation, legal malpractice, and employment litigation matters.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
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Exam Notes: (None) Class requires a series of papers, assignments, or presentations throughout the semester
Course Category: Simulation Courses
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Litigation and Procedure
Social Justice and Public Interest
If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.
Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Instructor has indicated that no books will be assigned.