Georgetown Law Clinical Programs

Come join our Health Justice Alliance Law Clinic as a clinical teaching fellow!

Since 1960, Georgetown Law’s Prettyman Fellowship Program has provided rigorous training in criminal trial advocacy and clinical teaching to recent law school graduates and provided high quality representation to adults and adolescents in the District of Columbia. This Black History Month, we recognize two Prettyman fellows and their efforts to break barriers and expand the fight for justice. Shellie F. Bowers, L'62, L’63, the first Black Prettyman Fellow, defended civil rights demonstrators in Danville, VA and other cities in the South alongside Professor Chet Antieau and leading attorneys. He later built a distinguished career in private practice, served 24 years as a Superior Court judge, and taught trial advocacy at Howard University and Harvard Law School. Kristin N. Henning, L’97, a former Prettyman Fellow who became Georgetown Law’s first Black tenured clinical faculty member, directs the Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative. Through her leadership, the clinic has expanded its racial justice focus, trained law students to challenge systemic inequities, and led national efforts to reform youth defense. Having marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, the clinic continues to empower students to challenge systemic injustices and reimagine a more just delinquency system. These leaders embody the Prettyman Fellowship’s 65-year legacy of advancing justice and indigent defense, illustrating the impact of #Georgetown’s Black community on law and society. #BlackHistoryMonth ?? : (1): Photos published in Res Ipsa Loquitur in 1962, then Georgetown Law's alumni magazine, during Bowers' time as a Prettyman Fellow; (2) A headshot of Professor Kristin Henning, the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law.

Proud to share the Georgetown University Law Center's Environmental Law & Justice Clinic's recent public comment on behalf of RISE St. James, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Earth Island Institute on EPA's Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts. Our students this semester dove willingly and with enthusiasm into drafting this comment in just the first half of their semester. Our submission describes the Commenters' strong support of the Framework based on their decades of lived experiences and work in support of communities who face the severe effects of compounding environmental burdens. In line with EPA’s “place matters” approach in the Framework, the Comment centers the majority-Black Districts 4 and 5 of St. James Parish, Louisiana, which typify the urgent need to incorporate cumulative impacts analysis into environmental decision-making. We include a rich description of the conditions in Cancer Alley to evidence the need to consider cumulative impacts and to highlight specific features of the Framework that are particularly important to the Commenters. And the Comment concludes by offering recommendations for further strengthening the Framework. Thank you to our students Aidan Bassett, Stirling Haig, Chloe Olsen, Chantal R. and Bill Shultz, to our supervising Fellow Sarah Dorman, and to our fantastic clients and partners Sharon Lavigne, Shamyra Lavigne-Davey, Leslie G. Fields, Scott Hochberg, Sumona Majumdar! CC: Georgetown Law Clinical Programs Caitlion O'Neill Hunter #environmentaljustice #cumulativeimpacts #canceralley #RISEStJames #climatejustice

Please join us in congratulating second-year fellow Shweta K., who will be joining the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law this fall as an Assistant Professor of Law! Shweta reflects on her experience as a clinical teaching fellow in the Intellectual Property and Information Policy (iPIP) Clinic and navigating the teaching market below: "I was fascinated by how clinical professors get the best of many worlds. They get to practice law, but also write scholarship, teach law classes, and mentor law students." Q: Why Georgetown and clinical teaching? A: While I did come into law school with an interest in healthcare reform, my mentor Christopher Morten helped me refine that interest into a passion for access to medicine through clinical work and scholarship. Georgetown has the best clinical fellowship program, and I’m from the DMV area. It was kind of a no-brainer. Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your role? A: I've seen how clinicians can help fill skills gaps before students begin practicing. Clinic is the first time for many students to get exposure to real world skills, manage deadlines, and do actual legal work. Clinicians play an important role in helping students get a rounded-out experience with those skills and work with clients. Amanda Levendowski, the director of the iPIP Clinic, has put a lot of trust in me and allowed me to bring in my own clients that work on issues that I'm passionate about—like UAEM (Universities Allied for Essential Medicines) . It's been amazing. Q: How did you navigate the teaching market? A: Coming into this fellowship, I had no idea what the process really looked like. As I progressed through the fellowship, I learned more about it. Sessions that Professor Deborah Epstein led, panels at the AALS Clinical Conference, and conversations with peers and mentors really helped demystify what the process was. I'm very excited for my role at the University of Kentucky, but I'm also sad to be leaving the clinical world. Shweta will be teaching Property, Patent Law, and Professional Responsibility. #GeorgetownLaw #ClinicalTeaching #Mentorship #LawClinics

We love seeing the collaboration and learning between our clinics and community partners!

Professor Aderson Francois, whose scholarship focuses on voting rights, education law, and the history of slavery and Reconstruction, discusses why recreating the lives of “ordinary people” is key to understanding the Reconstruction Era. He also shares how his clinical work shapes his legal research and why Reconstruction history remains relevant today. #BlackHistoryMonth Watch the clip, then explore more in our feature, including a written Q&A and the full-length video: https://bit.ly/4148FpU

It was a pleasure to attend a hearing on Capitol Hill along with Racial Equity in Education Law & Policy Clinic student attorneys to hear NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. Janai Nelson emphasize the importance of the federal role in public education.

I am hiring an attorney to be a clinical teaching fellow with the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center The two-year fellowship confers a LL.M degree on successful participants. Details about the position and how to apply are?at https://lnkd.in/eYVx9qFJ

We are starting off our Fellow Spotlight Series with Alexander Afnán, a first-year fellow in the Civil Rights Clinic. We asked Alexander to reflect on his first semester of the fellowship: "I did my J.D. here and was an alum of the?Civil Rights Clinic.?I yearned to return to a space where?I could begin to have the role my supervisors had for me and to work with the next generation of law students.?I?was basically counting down the moments until?I felt ready to apply." Q: Why Clinical Teaching? A: What I have really wanted to do is implement a form of mentorship or supervising where I am not trying to make individuals who speak with my voice or see things the way I see them, but to see them as each possessing their own qualities that they are able to unearth. My role is to push them and to guide them when they need a bit more support. Q: What has been the most challenging aspect of your role? A: Working as a junior associate for a few years, there was always a safety net if something I was doing wasn’t necessarily the right plan or way of thinking about something, and now I am that safety net for the students. One of the challenges within that is to embrace the uncertainty of the situation and to lean on other forms of expertise and experience when I need to. I have had a lot of help from the other supervisor, my director, and the faculty at Georgetown. Q: What has been the most rewarding? A: When students push themselves way beyond their comfort zones. What is so rewarding about that isn't necessarily just seeing their growth, as wonderful as that is—it’s seeing them develop the resilience to pick themselves back up when they find that they’ve pushed themselves beyond their capacity and nonetheless show the courage to want to challenge themselves again. #GeorgetownLaw #LawClinics #Fellowship #ClinicalTeaching #Supervision #LawFellows

I'm pleased to announce that the Georgetown Law Office of Public Interest and Community Service is launching the 2025?Blume Public Interest Leaders in Residence Program! Each Leader will complete a three-day residency at Georgetown Law during the Fall 2025 semester. Leaders receive a $1000 honorarium and funding support for lodging, meals, travel, and transportation. I invite you to share the announcement below with your networks. The deadline to apply is?February 21, 2025. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].