Civil Litigation Center
At Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Civil Litigation Center, students litigate a wide variety of civil cases. The Center is comprised of the:
The emphasis of this Center is poverty law cases in which students advocate for clients at court in trials or in motions. Students take depositions, draft written discovery, prepare and argue motions and try cases. They regularly interview clients at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago's Loop office and make presentations at case acceptance meetings. Weekly class sessions focus on developing students' pre-trial litigation skills - interviewing, counseling, case planning, negotiation, discovery, and motion practice - brainstorming alternative strategies for litigating cases and exploring various social and legal issues affecting the poor.
Cases handled by students and faculty in the Center encompass a wide variety of legal subjects, but in recent years have concentrated on the defense of public housing tenants from eviction, advocacy for students denied appropriate educational services, representation of victims of predatory lending and consumer fraud and representation of journalists seeking government documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
Through the Center's weekly class sessions and hands-on client representation, students become versed in developing "theories of the case" or how to develop factual and legal strategies that will achieve their clients' goals. Most often, implementation of the students' case theories results from their interviewing clients, drafting interrogatories and document production requests, taking depositions, drafting and arguing motions and on occasion trying the full case to a jury or judge.
