Lawyering for Children

Lawyering for Children provides students with the foundational lawyering skills, substantive legal knowledge, and best practices to become excellent attorneys for children.

Classroom Component: The weekly Seminar teaches substantive areas of law where children need legal representation in California, as well as best practices for working with children and young people, particularly those who have survived personal, interfamily, and systemic trauma.  The Seminar covers the basics of children’s immigration defense and relief, expulsion defense, guardianship, and dependency.  It also teaches best practices in representing children, including the ethics of representing children directly; how to communicate and lawyer in a client-centered, trauma-informed, and developmentally appropriate manner; cultural humility in lawyering; and self-care.

Fieldwork Component: The Practicum is spent at Legal Services for Children (LSC), an organization that provides free representation and social work services to children and youth in the San Francisco area.  Students will work with children and youth under the supervision of attorneys at Legal Services for Children (LSC), through the warmline (a free and confidential help line) and on LSC cases such as school expulsion hearings, guardianship proceedings, and immigration matters. Students may also assist with LSC policy and advocacy projects. Students will improve their skills in interviewing, issue spotting, case presentation, and litigation, as well as gain familiarity with administrative hearings, state court hearings, and federal immigration proceedings 

Clinical Instructor: The course is taught by Adjunct Professors Cynthia Henning and David White.

Open to: All upper division students, with enrollment preference given to third years and to Spanish-speaking students able to converse with clients without an interpreter. It is not possible to concurrently enroll in the same semester in both this course and another live-client clinic, legal or judicial externship, or the Startup Legal Garage.

6 units: 2 class units and 4 fieldwork units graded pass-fail. Fieldwork units count against the 20-unit limit for non-classroom work. All units count as Experiential.

Prerequisites: Recommended, but not required, for prior or concurrent enrollment: Family Law, Education Law, Public Schools and the Constitution, Immigration Law.