Public Interest

Required Courses
Students must complete the following three courses:

  1. Administrative Law
  2. Federal Jurisdiction
  3. Perspective Elective

Distribution Requirement
Students must complete at least four courses (12 credits), including at least one course in two of the following curricular areas:

Individual Rights

  • Animal Subjects, Human Regulators
  • Civil Rights Litigation
  • Constitutional Criminal Procedure
  • Constitutional Interpretation, Problems in
  • Constitutional Law, State
  • Critical Race Theory
  • Disability Law
  • Employment Discrimination
  • Enforcement of Morals
  • First Amendment
  • Fourteenth Amendment
  • Fourth Amendment
  • Free Speech and the McCarthy Era
  • Human Rights Advocacy: Analysis and Legal Writing
  • Ideas of the First Amendment
  • Law and Social Change
  • Pro Bono: Theory and Practice
  • Prisoners' Rights
  • Race, Racism, and the Law
  • Religion and the Law
  • Religion, Law, and Politics
  • Sexual Orientation and the Law
  • Women, Children and Human Rights
  • Women and their Bodies

Public and Non-profit Management

  • The Not for Profit Institution: Issues in Law and Governance
  • The Strategic and Financial Management of Non-profit Organizations (Kellogg)
  • Power in Organizations (Kellogg)
  • Reinventing Government (Kellogg)
  • Dynamics of Leadership (Kellogg)

Specialized Practice Areas

  • Advanced Problems in Criminal Procedure and Evidence
  • Child Welfare Policy
  • Children in Conflict with the Law
  • Constitutional Criminal Procedure
  • Criminal Law Theory
  • Criminal Law Theory, Advanced
  • Criminal Law, Advanced
  • Criminal Law, Topics
  • Criminal Process
  • Criminal Trial Practice
  • Education, Law and
  • Environmental Law
  • Family Law
  • Hazardous Waste
  • Health Care Delivery, Issues in
  • Housing Law
  • Immigration Law
  • Juvenile Law
  • Native American Law
  • Natural Resources
  • Psychiatry and the Law
  • Public Housing Redevelopment
  • Refugee and Asylum
  • Torts II: Perspectives on Injury Law
  • Torture: Paradigms and Practice in International and Domestic Law

Clinical Requirement
Students must complete a minimum of six credits of clinical work through the following Legal Clinic or Practicum courses.

  • Civil Government Practicum
  • Clinic: MacArthur Justice Center: Criminal Justice Reform
  • Clinic Practice: Center for International Human Rights
  • Clinic Practice: Center on Wrongful Convictions
  • Clinic Practice: Complex Civil Litigation
  • Clinic Practice: Criminal Defense and Appeals
  • Clinic Practice: Federal Criminal Appellate Practice
  • Clinic Practice: Human Rights Advocacy in U.S. Courts and International Tribunals
  • Clinic Practice: Investor Protection
  • Clinic Practice: Juvenile Delinquency and School Law
  • Clinic Practice: Juvenile Justice and Death Penalty Trials and Appeals
  • Clinic Practice: Juvenile Justice and Reform, Delinquency/Criminal Trials and Appeals
  • Clinic Practice: Juvenile Justice: Courtroom and Legislative Advocacy
  • Clinic Practice: Mental Health Issues in Juvenile Court—Cook County JCC
  • Clinic Practice: Program on Civil Litigation
  • Clinical Practice I: Public Interest
  • Clinic Practice II: Public Interest
  • Clinic Practice: Small Business Opportunity Center
  • Clinic Practice: The United States Supreme Court
  • Clinic Practice: Wrongful Convictions, Juvenile Justice and Clemency and Parole
  • Clinic Practice: Youth and Women Asylum Law Clinic
  • Criminal Law Practicum
  • Judicial Practicum
  • Public Interest Practicum

Research Requirement
Students must complete a substantial research and writing project within the concentration. This requirement may be satisfied by one of the following:

  • completing an approved Senior Research Project on a public interest topic
  • completing a 2- or 3- draft paper, or equivalent research project, in a seminar or course approved as part of the Concentration, or
  • completing an approved Directed Reading and Research project on a public interest topic