HARVARD LAW SCHOOL is hiring a Clinic Faculty Position for its WilmerHale Legal Services Center

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL invites applications for a full-time clinical faculty member to join its WilmerHale Legal Services Center, a community-based legal services program that is home to six in-house Harvard Law School clinics. The faculty appointment may be a Clinical Professor of Law, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Visiting Clinical Professor, or Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, depending on the extent and type of the candidate’s experience.

The WilmerHale Legal Services Center

Founded in 1979 by the trailblazing clinicians Gary Bellow and Jeanne Charn, the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (LSC) of Harvard Law School is located at the crossroads of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury in the City of Boston.  LSC’s longstanding twin mission is to pursue justice for community members of limited means while educating Harvard Law Students for practice and professional service.  Through six clinics—Consumer Protection, Family Law/Domestic Violence, Low-Income Taxpayer, Housing, LGBTQ+ Advocacy, and Veterans Law and Disability Benefits—and numerous projects and pro bono initiatives, LSC advocates and student attorneys provide essential legal services to community members from nearby neighborhoods in Boston, to residents of Greater Boston and Massachusetts, and in some instances, where cases present unique law reform opportunities, to clients from across the country.  

Across its many practice areas, LSC works to improve the lives of individual clients, to seek systemic change for the communities it serves, and to provide clinical law students with a singular opportunity to develop fundamental lawyering skills within an immersive and community-based, legal services practice setting. LSC’s clinics use a variety of advocacy tools—including high-volume civil legal services, cutting-edge litigation and policy advocacy, and innovative outreach and community legal education strategies.  Central to LSC’s model of legal advocacy and clinical education is an understanding that legal crises do not arise in isolation, that many clients face multiple and intersecting legal and non-legal needs, and that a holistic approach to lawyering best serves client and community interests.  LSC actively partners with a diverse array of community groups, prioritizes cooperation and inter-disciplinary work, including through two medical-legal partnerships, and regularly adapts its practice areas to meet the changing legal needs of client communities. To learn more about LSC and its individual clinics, projects, and initiatives, please visit here.

Role and Responsibilities

Harvard Law School welcomes applicants who have an interest in any one of LSC’s six clinical areas of practice. We also welcome applicants who may have an interest in building new practice areas that are connected to one or more of LSC’s existing clinics, projects, or initiatives.

The clinical faculty member will teach or co-teach a clinical seminar, supervise law students, maintain and manage a docket, facilitate community outreach and engagement, and foster organizational partnerships as needed. The clinical faculty member will also collaborate as appropriate across LSC clinics and projects, serve as a member of LSC’s leadership team, and contribute to LSC-wide initiatives. In addition, the clinical faculty member will provide leadership and direction for the clinic and, as applicable, supervise clinic team members.  

Beyond LSC, the clinical faculty member will have access to the many opportunities for engagement, collaboration, and community through the wider clinical program and intellectual life of Harvard Law School.  As a faculty member, the successful candidate will have opportunities to participate in various faculty programs, initiatives, and (unless the appointment is to a visiting position) governance.  The clinical faculty member may also have opportunities to teach additional courses as proposed and approved through regular curricular planning and approval processes. 

Qualifications

All applicants must have:

·       A minimum of five years of practice experience in the area(s) of law relevant to one or more of LSC’s clinics

·       A J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school.

·       Admission to the Massachusetts bar, OR

·       Eligibility to practice and supervise students under Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:04 while pursuing admission.

Qualified candidates will have:

Legal Qualifications

·       Expertise and substantial public interest lawyering experience in the practice area or areas upon which they propose to focus their clinical work and teaching at LSC.  This includes a minimum of five years of practice experience in the area(s) of law relevant to one or more of LSC’s clinics.

·       A commitment to community-based legal advocacy. This commitment can take many forms but requires a demonstrated record of public interest lawyering that is responsive, adaptive, and creative. 

Teaching Qualifications

·       A track record of successful clinical teaching as demonstrated by student engagement, learning and evaluation, or

·       Significant experience teaching and mentoring law students or junior lawyers in non-clinical education contexts. 

·       A record of contributing to scholarship, and/or legal training programming and materials, and/or other types of writing in service of the profession. 

Management and Strategy Skills

·       Ability to set vision and direction for clinical law practice and pedagogy

·       A record of effective supervision of team members and support for individual practitioner growth and development

·       Meaningful experience in program or project leadership

·       Demonstrated practice and commitment to building an inclusive working and learning environment.   

Other Skillsets and Values

·       Superior oral and written communication skills

·       Superior interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. 

·       Collaboration and teamwork ability

·       A demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and racial justice

Apply via https://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/11429

Please include a letter of interest, a resume, and a list of three or more references. If applicable, please feel free to submit teaching evaluations for the last three years and/or up to three publications. The letter of interest should specify in which LSC clinic(s) the applicant proposes to teach and work. The letter of interest should also explain the extent to which the applicant proposes to contribute to an existing practice area within an LSC clinic or to build a new practice area that is connected to one or more of LSC’s practice areas.

The application period will remain open until September 6, 2022. The Law School will consider candidates who seek a July 2023 start date, as well as those who would prefer or are open to a January 2023 start date.  Only those candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. 

Harvard Law School is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.