Center for Social Justice and Public Interest
Serve Community Needs for Social Justice While Studying Law
Public interest and social justice lawyers give voice in the legal system to marginalized, subordinated, and underrepresented clients and causes. Santa Clara University School of Law has chosen Public Interest and Social Justice Law as an area of excellence and specialization. At the Center for Social Justice and Public Service, we are enormously proud to help facilitate, support, and celebrate the social justice work performed by our students, faculty, and alumni.
All eligible Santa Clara Law students can earn a Public Interest and Social Justice Graduation Certificate.
Law Firm Partners
The Center for Social Justice and Public Service has an initiative partnering with local law firms to establish named Public Interest Fellowships. These fellowships support Santa Clara Law students who work during the summer in unpaid social justice and public interest internships. They provide students with the opportunity to develop practical skills while providing much-needed services to underserved populations in our community. These placements include death penalty defense, fair housing, LGBTQ services, immigration work, police accountability, and numerous other positions.
Bay Area firms that employ some of our best Santa Clara Law Alumni partners with us to create these special fellowships. Those firms include Jachimowicz Law Group and Hoge Fenton.
Our Mission
The Center for Social Justice and Public Service at Santa Clara Law is dedicated to its mission of promoting and enabling a commitment to social justice and public service through law. The Center emphasizes the use of law to improve the lives of marginalized, subordinated, or underrepresented clients and causes. Community-building events increase the visibility of social justice on campus and facilitate connections within the social justice and public interest communities. The Center’s role includes:
- Facilitating and promoting the social justice and public service research, teaching, and service of faculty and administration;
- Sponsoring extracurricular events for the local community to enhance awareness and advance education about social justice and public policy issues;
- Promoting student social justice and public interest legal education and pro bono service opportunities;
- Supporting clinical and hands-on education;
- Reviewing and administering the Public Interest and Social Justice Law Certificate Program; and
- Promoting the next generation of social justice practitioners and public service leaders through the educational pipeline that leads to law school.
Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Center for Social Justice and Public Service
Director, Center for Social Justice and Public Service