Harvard Law Course Descriptions; Correspondences from Bartholet to LDF Capital Punishment Conference Participants; from Bartholet to Guinier; from Amerson to Porter

    HARVARD LA\\I SCHOOL
CAMBRIDGE MASS.{CHUSETTS . 02I38

Public Interest Litigation - Race and Poverty
Assistant Professor Bartholet
4-5 credits Winter/Spring
3 credits Spring

This course will deal with the use of litigation as a vehicle
for social change. Students will work on cases currently
being handled by a variety of lawyers and Iega1 organizations
involved in pubic interest and civil rights work. Students
will also analyze some major law reform efforts of recent
years, such as the nationaL campaigrn to eliminate the death
penalty. We will explore some of the central strategic and
etfricat issues involved in ttris kind of litigation: how
J.itigation goals should be determined; what the relationship
should be bitween the attorney and ttre individual or group
represented; how litigation relates to other stralegies for
solial change; what forms of relief are most likely to be
effective in changing the practices of major social institu-
tions. Litigation projects will deal. with the following
kinds of subitantive issue: capital punishment; prison
conditions; official abuse and misconduct (e.9., police and
prison g,uard brutality); employment discrimination; social
ielfare programs (e.g., availability of health care, Public.
housing tonditions; desegregation (e.9., housing, education).
Students will be assigrned at a preliminary meeting in the
faII semester to one of the litigation projects. Some
students will work on actual cases, under the supenrision of
outside attorneys; others will work on projects of a more
traditionally academic nature. A11 students will do a
sigmificant piece of written work related to their litigation
project. SuLn work may take the form of a legal memorandum,
?trait brief, or other titigation-related product. During
the winter semester students will work on their projects on
an intensive basis, and ttrose students assigmed to actual
cases will have an opportunity to spend sigmificant time
working in the offic6! of the supenrising attorneys-. During
the spiing semester the course will meet once a week for two
hours-. Attorneys involved in the litigation projects will
participate on ln occasional basis. Students will submit-clrafts bf tfreir written work for class discussion, and will
participate in the presentation of related- top_ics in class.
irrangeirents may be- made to do written work of a scope that
will iu1fill tfre Written Work Requirement. There will be no
examination. Enrollment Limited. The Winter Term droprladd
deadline will apply to this course.



HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
CAMBRIDGE MASS.{CHUSETTS . 02I38

Employment Rights Litigation
Bartholet-3 credits-Fa11

(2 classroom crs., 1 clinical cr. )

This course will explore issues of current importance in the
employment rights area, in the context of actual or antici-
pated- Iitigation. We wi]l work on litigation projects in
cooperation with a variety of outside lawyers and 1ega1
organizations specializing in employment rights work. The
course will cover discrimination based on race, sex, d9?,
and handicap, and will deal with issues ttrat arise wittr
respect to, sjg.:_, subjective decision-making, Iay-offs,
aff-irmative ffion, safety-sensitive and upper leve1 jobs.
By examining employment rights in a litigation context the
course will aLso explore a variety of issues involved in
Iega1 problem-solving, such as the relationships between:
legal theories and litigation goals; lega1 theories and the
exploration, development, and use of facts; legal and extra-
lebal methods of accomplishing change. Students will be
assigmed at a preliminary meeting at the beginning of the
FaII semester to one of the litgation projects. Some students
will work on actual cases, under the partial supervision of
outside attorneys; others will work on projects of a more
traditionally academic nature. All students will do a
sigrnificant piece of written work related to their litigation
project. Such work may take the form of a lega1 memorandum,
draft brief, or other litigation-related product- The
course will meet once a week for 2 hours, Thurs. 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Attorneys involved in litigation prglects will -palticip_ateon an occaslonal basis. Students will submit drafts of
their written work for class discussion, and will participate
in the presentation of related topics in c1ass. Arrangqr.ngr,tts
may be made to do written work of a scoPe that will fulfill
ttre Written Work Requirement for 1 additiona] credit.
Enrollment limited.



HARVARD LA\\'SCHOOL
CA}{BRIDGE MASSAC.HUSETTS 02I3R

TO:

July 13, L982

Participants in the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund's Capital Punishment
Conference, June L982

FROM: Elizabeth Barthole, ?f

As I told some of you at the conference, I plan to assign
five to six students in the Pub1ic Interest f,itigation course
described in the attached materials, to work on death penalty
issues and cases. Please let me know of any projects that you
think would be especially suitable for students to work on. I
will need to make final decisions on projects for the winter and
spring semesters by sometime in November, so if you are interested,
you should let me know as early as possible in the faII.



HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS . 02I38

July 15, L982

Lonnie Guinere, Esq.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
10 Columbus CircLe
Suite 2O3O
New York, NY 10019

Dear Ms. Guin L"auo''{
I am writing to 1et you know about two new clinical

courses that r will be offering at Harvard this coming year.rt is my.hope that students taking these courses will prove
a.sigrnificant resource for you, and for other lawyers workingwith you.

The courses are ttEmployment Rights Litigatiorr,', to be
taught in the fa]I, and "Public rnterest Litigation--Race
and Poverty, t' to be taught in the winter and spring.

Each student in these courses wilr be assigmed to work
on some aspect of a major litigation project, under thedirection of a lawyer such as yourself.

The goal will be to select projects which will both
enable students to be of maximum usefulness to the lawyers
involved, and provide students with a valuable educational
experience. Examples of the kinds of projects that have
worked out particularly well in the past are the following:(1) research memoranda desigrned to help lawyers decide
whether to pursue litigation in a particurai case or areai(2) research memoranda on major issues in a pending case; or(3) draft pleadings, discovery papers, ot briefs. In some
cases students have also been abre to work productively onprojects invoLving sigrnificant factual investigation.

Last yearrs experience with the "public Interest titi-gation" course proved to us that the cooperative relation-
ship between law school and practitioner envj-sioned by this
kind of course can be very exciting and mutuarry beneficial.
students ]ast year produced a tremendous amount of work for
a wide variety of lawyers and legal organizations aL1 overthe country. They did everything from desigring law reformprojects to writing a petition for certiorari in tne U.S.
Supreme Court. Some worked on the factual investigation
aspects of a complex 51983 police abuse case; others produced
memoranda analyzir:g complex legal issues for the federal
habeas stage of a death penalty case.



Page Two

I would appreciate it if you would give some thought to
whether you would like to have one or more of our students
work with you this coming year and, if so, what litigationproject(s) would make the most sense.

I have enclosed brief course descriptions for the twocourses. students will be taking these courses for a minimumof 3 credits. This means that they should spend a minimum
of 120 hours (or 1 day a week for 15 weeks) on their litiqa-tion project. Many students wi1] be taking these courses
for additional credit, to satisfy Harvard's Third year
written work Reguirement; these students should spend 160-2oo
hours on their litigation project. Five of the public
rnterest Litigation students will be available fuLl-time for
3 l/2 weeks during our j-ntens j-ve January semester. Theywill then continue work on their project during the spring
semester. These five students could spend some of the
January semester working in your offices, if that wouLd
facilitate project work, and if appropriate arranglements
could be made.

The course schedule will be approximately as follows:
Emplolmrent Rights Litigation - September 9 through

December (29 students)

Public Interest Litigation--Race and poverty
5 students January (full-time)

February through May

29 students February through May

I need to make decisions as to litigation projects fort!. Fall Employment Rights course by the week of Aucrust 9 at
the l-atest, ds I will be away from
unEllEfUeginning of school. I will neei to decide on
litigation projects for the Public Interest Litigation
course by November.

Please give me a call (6L7-495-3128) if you are inter-
ested in discussing the possibility of our students working
with you, or send me a copy of any proposed projects.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

/K/1
Elizabetl/ Bartholet
assiscdc Professor of Lawry;;rfqft*

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