Public Interest
Feature Story
Helping improve Haiti's infrastructure
Seminar combines scholarship, research, and field work in post-earthquake Haiti
Students participating in a seminar on legal challenges facing post-earthquake Haiti traveled with Professor Guy-Uriel Charles to Port-au-Prince. There they conducted research on housing and land rights, gender violence, and reform.
News Highlights
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Duke Law launches clinic headed by prominent international human rights advocate Jayne HuckerbyDuke Law School will launch an international human rights law clinic in the next academic year, Dean David F. Levi has announced. Jayne Huckerby, a prominent human rights lawyer, advocate, and teacher, will join the faculty July 1 as an associate clinical professor of law and director of the new clinic, the Law School’s ninth.
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Duke Law students offer free tax assistance to low-income clients through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programThe Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) is a student organization dedicated to providing income tax assistance to low-income clients, with a focus on under-served minority groups in the Durham community.
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Students assist veterans at Bull City Stand DownDuke Law student members of the Veterans Disability Assistance Project (VDAP) spent Sept. 14 at the National Guard Armory in Durham, N.C., serving area veterans as part of the 2012 Bull City Stand Down.
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Gilbertson '12 is awarded two-year Appleseed fellowshipTheresa Gilbertson ’12 has been awarded a two-year postgraduate fellowship with New Mexico Appleseed. The Albuquerque-based organization advocates for policy changes concerning hunger and education to benefit poor and underserved communities.
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Custom and law collide in Ghanaian law reformStudents and faculty participate in seminar, field work examining proposed legislation on spousal property rights and intestate succession in Ghana.
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Students honored for serviceGraduating JD and LLM students cited for extraordinary dedication to community and pro bono service.
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Caitlin Swain ’12 and Joanna Darcus ’12 land prestigious public interest fellowshipsSwain receives Skadden Foundation Fellowship to work towards educational equity; Darcus receives Independence Foundation Fellowship to combat abusive debt collection practices.
Pro Bono Pledge
Most Duke Law students participate in some form of community service, through a student organization, through a pro bono placement, or through volunteerism. Typically, about two-thirds of each class signs on and fulfills the Pro Bono Pledge, committing to 50 hours of public service during their three years of law school. The 50-hour goal is inspired by the ABA’s Model Rule of Professional Conduct 6.1 that states, in part: “Every lawyer has a professional responsibility to provide legal services to those unable to pay. A lawyer should aspire to render at least (50) hours of pro bono public legal service per year.”
From the Clinic
Duke Law offers a variety of clinical programs that allow students to build an experiential bridge between law school and practice. Housed in its own wing of the Law School, Duke Law's Clinical Program is organized and operates as a public interest law firm, providing students challenging opportunities to deepen their substantive legal knowledge, strengthen their lawyering skills, and build their professional identities.
AIDS Legal Project | Appellate Litigation Clinic | Children’s Law Clinic | Community Enterprise Clinic | Environmental Law and Policy Clinic | Guantanamo Defense Clinic | Start-Up Ventures Clinic | Wrongful Convictions Clinic
Learn more about the clinical programs
Faculty
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Featured FacultyClinical Professor of Law, Director, Children's Law ClinicProfessor Wettach joined the Duke Law faculty in 1994. She is the first director of the Law School's Children's Law Clinic and teaches Education Law. She previously served as supervising attorney in the AIDS Legal Project and as an instructor in the Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Program. She is a frequent speaker on issues involving the educational rights of children, especially children with disabilities.
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Senior Lecturing Fellow, Co-director, Appellate Litigation Clinic -
Senior Lecturing Fellow, Supervising Attorney, Children's Law Clinic -
John S. Bradway Professor of Law, Co-director, Wrongful Convictions Clinic, Co-director, Appellate Litigation Clinic -
Lecturing Fellow -
Professor of Law and Public Policy Sciences -
Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Community Enterprise Clinic -
Clinical Professor of Law, Director, Environmental Law and Policy Clinic -
Clinical Professor of Law, Director, AIDS Legal Project -
Professor of Law -
Clinical Professor of Law -
Senior Lecturing Fellow, Supervising Attorney, Environmental Law and Policy Clinic -
Senior Lecturing Fellow, Supervising Attorney, AIDS Legal Project -
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Professor of Law -
Senior Lecturing Fellow -
Senior Lecturing Fellow -
Lecturing Fellow, Director, Start-Up Ventures Clinic
Courses
- 301: AIDS and the Law
- 314: Community Economic Development Law
- 366: Advanced Issues in Wrongful Convictions
- 400: AIDS Legal Assistance Project
- 401: Advanced AIDS Legal Assistance Project
- 407: Appellate Litigation Clinic (Fall)
- 408: Appellate Litigation Clinic (Spring)
- 416: Children's Law Clinic
- 417: Advanced Children's Law Clinic
- 427: Community Enterprise Law Clinic
- 428: Advanced Community Enterprise Clinic
- 435: Death Penalty Clinic
- 470: Poverty Law
- 493: Wrongful Convictions Clinic
Programs & Resources
- Office of Public Interest & Pro Bono
- Coalition Against Gendered Violence
- Government and Public Service Society
- Haiti Legal Advocacy Project (HLAP)
- Health Law Society
- Hispanic Law Students Association
- Human Rights Law Society
- Immigrant Education Project
- Innocence Project
- Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project
- Public Interest Law Foundation
- Refugee Asylum Support Project
- Southern Justice Spring Break
- Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Student Organization for Legal Issues in the Middle East and North Africa (SOLIMENA)
- Veterans Disability Assistance Project
- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
Speaker Series
Careers in Government and Public Interest Speaker Series
Co-sponsored by the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono, the Government and Public Service Society, and the Career and Professional Development Center, the Careers in Government and Public Interest Speaker Series is a panel discussion of career paths taken by government attorneys, as well as attorneys in education law and policy, health care law and policy, human rights and immigration law, and environmental law and policy.
Recent Scholarship
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Altruism Exchanges and the Kidney Shortage
Mitu Gulati (with Stephen J. Choi, Eric A. Posner) -
Getting Juvenile Life Without Parole “Right” After Miller v. Alabama
Doriane L. Coleman, James E. Coleman Jr. -
Don't I Know You?: The Effect of Prior Acquaintance/Familiarity on Witness Identification
James E. Coleman Jr., Theresa A. Newman, Neil Vidmar (with Elizabeth Zoeller) -
Can Wrongful Death Damages Recovered by a Married Person Be Separate Property Under California Law?
William A. Reppy Jr. -
The North Carolina Racial Justice Act: An Essay on Substantive and Procedural Fairness in Death Penalty Litigation
Neil Vidmar -
Valuing Health Care: Improving Productivity and Quality
Barak D. Richman, Arti K. Rai -
Concentration in Health Care Markets: Chronic Problems and Better Solutions
Barak D. Richman -
Brief of Amici Curiae, Neil Vidmar et al., Connecticut v. Guilbert
Neil Vidmar, Theresa A. Newman -
Brief of Professors of Law as Amici Curiae in Support of Appellants
Neil Vidmar (with David Zevan)