Students are calling on Harvard Law to offer “right-of-center” legal clinics, as they argue the school lacks intellectually diverse offerings for conservative law students.
“We, the undergraduate Harvard Law students, write to request an expansion of HLS’s clinical offerings to accommodate the wide range of goals and career interests reflected in the student body,” states the petition addressed to the School’s dean and assistant dean.
“The practical skill development and real-world impact available through clinics offer an integral component of a high-quality and community-focused legal education,” elaborate the students in their petition. “At present, however, the clinical offerings available to students with right-of-center viewpoints are lacking, particularly as compared to other law schools.”
More than 80 students have signed the petition calling on Harvard Law School (HLS) to offer legal clinics covering right-of-center political viewpoints.
A few of the topics that students suggest would make for beneficial legal clinics include: pro-life, First Amendment, Second Amendment, school choice, and conservative appellate advocacy.
In their petition, the students also noted that legal clinics “play an important role in offering pro bono legal support to communities and individuals whose needs might otherwise go unmet because they lack the resources to obtain paid private counsel.”
“By expanding the scope of its clinical programs, HLS can have an even broader impact,” affirm the law students.
“Addressing these neglected areas of student interest would ensure that HLS graduates are competitive with students at peer institutions which have already recognized the value of clinical offerings like those proposed [in the petition],” said the law students.
Harvard student Jacob Richards — who drafted the petition — told the College Fix that the school’s administration “seemed open to working with us.”
“Dozens of other students were there to express various concerns about the curriculum,” said Richards, adding that Dean Manning had “confirmed that efforts are still ongoing to launch” a religious liberty clinic — after what has been years of advocacy.
Harvard Law student Eli Nachmany, who organized the petition, told Breitbart News that “the left has used clinical legal education for decades to source free labor for cause lawyering on every issue from immigration to the environment.”
“It is time for Harvard Law to expand its clinical offerings to also afford right-of-center opportunities, like a Free Speech Clinic or a Civil Asset Forfeiture Clinic, to its students,” added Nachmany. “The petition is gaining traction and I look forward to the next steps.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.