LGBT Rights Clinic
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LW.11130 / LW.11483 |
Spring semester 5 credits* No prerequisites or co-requisites. |
Course Description
The LGBT Rights Clinic will be offered in Spring 2013. The clinic is open to a maximum of 8 students. The clinic will combine fieldwork at local non-profit organizations with a weekly seminar on cutting edge legal issues that LGBT people face.
The clinic and seminar will be taught by adjunct professor Victoria Neilson, who is the legal director of Immigration Equality, one of the host fieldwork organizations for clinic students.
Fieldwork
Students placed with Immigration Equality will represent LGBT asylum seekers and work on policy/advocacy issues on behalf of LGBT immigrants and their U.S. partners. Current clinic students are also placed with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, working on legal issues that affect transgender individuals, such as employment discrimination; marriage recognition; and/or obtaining the appropriate gender marker on identity documents. Additionally, students are currently placed with Housing Conservation Coordinators working on a housing succession rights case in which a surviving partner is attempting to establish a familial relationship to the deceased tenant so that he can remain in the apartment. Other students are placed with the LGBT Project of New York Legal Assistance Group where they are working on family law issues, orders of protection, and estate planning. Students are also currently placed with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project where they are working with low-income transgender people on issues including prisoners' rights, name changes and changes to identity documentation, immigration, court support in criminal cases, Medicaid advocacy, and more.
Before the next clinic, we will evaluate whether these placements will remain the same or whether different organizations that work with LGBT clients will partner with the Clinic. In addition to these fieldwork placements, each clinic student will attend at least one legal clinic held at the LGBT Community Center by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Law Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) of New York. The LeGal clinics round out the students’ experiences and expose them to a variety of legal issues faced by the LGBT community, in addition to the area in which the student specializes for the semester
Seminar
The seminar meets once a week and explores the leading legal issues that LGBT people face, but with an emphasis on the relationship of these issues to clinical issues. We will discuss DOMA, marriage, other forms of couples’ recognition and why these issues have become central to the LGBT rights movement. The seminar will also cover issues unique to transgender individuals, such as marriage recognition, detention issues, and where transgender rights fit within the LGBT rubric. We will also have classes that relate to the substantive areas of the clinical placements, including: immigration law, discrimination law, and housing law. Materials and exercises on important practice concepts and skills will fill out the remaining seminar curriculum for the semester. These will be chosen based upon what is needed to prepare students to function professionally on fieldwork assignments. Students will be expected to participate actively in class and make occasional presentations on readings and/or fieldwork.
The seminar course credits will be 2 credits for the seminar, which meets weekly for 2 hours, and 3 credits for fieldwork for a total of 5 credits. The seminar meets Wednesdays from 6-8 pm. The LeGal clinics meet on Tuesdays from 6-8 pm.
Application Procedure
Interested students should submit an application, resume and grade transcript through CAMS. Applicants should sign up in CAMS for an interview. If you have any questions about the clinic, please contact Professor Victoria Neilson.
Student Contacts
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Spring 2011
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Spring 2012 Brian Chelcun Jared Davidson Scott Grossman Jerilyn Laskie Jonathan Lozano Benjamin Mishkin Christopher Ramos Mathew Schutzer Maxine Sharavsky Maud Zimmerman |
* 5 credits consists of 2 credits for the seminar and 3 credits for fieldwork.