Disruptive Lawyering: Strategic Litigation for Systemic Impact Short Course

1 credits · Law School

Can the law really be used as a tool for social change? How do individual cases become lightning rods for wider impact? What role can and should lawyers play in disrupting the very system they participate in? This course will explore how strategic litigation can be used to maximize social impact and move us towards the ideal of “equal justice under law.” Students will learn about historic examples of strategic and creative advocacy that have come to shape the modern legal landscape, and will learn the power of “objecting anyway,” even when faced with a problem to which there is no obvious legal solution. Students will then apply what they have learned through a final presentation or paper in which they will: (1) identify a legal practice or issue that needs reform, ideally one they have personally observed through past internship/clinical work and one that impacts more than one client or case; (2) consider the various barriers that have precluded the resolution of this problem through traditional litigation; and (3) craft a legal argument challenging the practice or issue through strategic and creative advocacy. Enrollment limited. Pass/Fail. [1]