PILC Launches Human Rights Clinic

This semester, our Public Interest Law Center launched an International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic. Directed by Clinical Professor Darby Kerrigan Scott (pictured), the new clinic offers students hands-on experience representing individual human rights survivors and partnering with international non-governmental organizations on human rights advocacy. Participating students are gaining experience in areas including fact-finding, evidence collection, research, reports, advisory memoranda, viability assessments, litigation, amicus briefs, UN standard setting, and norm development. Students enrolled in the clinic are also developing important skills in interviewing, persuasive writing, collaboration, leadership, professional identity, and trauma-informed lawyering. In addition, students are discussing current events in human rights and the role lawyers play in the human rights movement.

According to Darby, “In this new clinic, students engage in international human rights advocacy that involves a variety of methods, regions, and issues. This is a fascinating area of law that affords students the opportunity to hone important lawyering skills while contemplating the most critical—and complex—issues of our time.”

Published on February 18, 2022