No two people would look at the curriculum and compile the same list of "public interest" courses. All law has its public purpose and any sub-specialty of law can be used for private or public ends. Nevertheless, Duke Law School offers several courses and clinics that can be useful to those planning a career in “public interest,” or who seek to incorporate it as part of their studies. Please visit the Curriculum site for a listing of all courses.

Advice on Courses

Several faculty members have provided advice in courses selection, including advice on choosing courses in preparation for a career in legal aid.

Clinics

Duke’s status as a leading innovator in clinical legal education is well-established -- the Law School started the first clinical program in the country in 1933. In the days since, the law school has developed a host of real-world experiential learning opportunities for students to draw from in the areas of education law, business law, human rights law, and the law as it relates to the needs of HIV-positive individuals. The experiential learning available through the school’s eight clinical programs is an important part of professional and leadership training at Duke. Each program is designed to develop and strengthen leadership values and skills such as collaboration, responsibility, management, and service. For more information about the law school’s clinical program please visit the clinic site.

Courses with clinical components

Classes such as Poverty Law, Wrongful Convictions, and Ethics and the Law of Lawyering also add experiential components to traditional coursework.

Poverty Law Seminar and Clinic

The Poverty Law Seminar and provides a broad study of poverty, poverty programs, and the United States civil justice system. Class topics include the history of access to justice and the demographics of poverty,as well as substantive topics in law such as food and income programs, health law, economic development, consumer law, family law, employment, housing and education. Students also participate in a .a skills workshop on client interviewing. Taught by Associate Dean and Senior Lecturing Fellow Carol Spruill, students enrolled in the poverty law seminar and clinic supplement classroom learning with at least 20 hours of field work in legal services firms, civil legal advocacy organizations, or private practices offering pro bono representation.

Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies

Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies require students to research and write about ongoing cases with the goal of helping defendants with claims of actual innocence. Students read letters written by inmates, write memos, and present relevant information to lawyers at the NC Center on Actual Innocence, a non-profit organization created by students and faculty at Duke and UNC Law School to help vindicate wrongly convicted prisoners. The class is taught by Pete Weitzel, director of the NC Center on Actual Innocence and former managing editor of The Miami Herald; Associate Dean Theresa Newman; and James Coleman, Professor of the Practice of Law.

Ethics and the Law of Lawyering

Ethics and the Law of Lawyering explores the nature of the legal profession, with its traditions, rules, and structure, and examines some of the profession's fundamental ethical tenets, with an emphasis on those arising from the centrality of the attorney-client relationship and the bedrock principle of access to justice for all. The class offers students the opportunity to study ethics while working for the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility and the Southern Juvenile Defender Center on issues of professional ethics and access to justice. Students gain an intensive firsthand view of the professional expectations of lawyers and how these expectations are shaped through rules, commentary, opinions, and articles, and are exposed to the real world concerns the rules address and the ways in which they are played out.