Harvard International Human Rights Clinic - Clinical Instructor

16 Apr 2019 10:37 AM | Lauren Bartlett (Administrator)

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL’S International Human Rights Clinic ("the Clinic"), which is part of the Human Rights Program, is inviting applications for a Clinical Instructor. The Clinical Instructor's time will be allocated 50% to supervising law students enrolled for credit in the Clinic, and 50% to liaising with and supporting Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights ("Advocates"), the student practice organization affiliated with the Clinic.

The Clinic offers 2L and 3L students, as well as LLM students, the opportunity to work for academic credit on a variety of timely and complex human rights issues in partnership with clients, civil society organizations, and affected communities around the world, including in the United States. Through supervised practice and intense in-house mentorship, clinical students develop a range of skills necessary to become thoughtful, critical, creative, strategic, and effective human rights advocates. The Clinical Instructor will design, oversee, and execute clinical projects, and supervise and manage student teams. Clinical projects deploy a variety of strategies and methodologies and may include fact-finding investigations and advocacy efforts, human rights reporting, legislative drafting, litigation in national and international fora, media advocacy, policy initiatives, coalition building, and negotiating treaty provisions.

As a student practice organization, Advocates offers law students, including 1Ls and LLMs, the opportunity to gain practical legal experience from the start of law school. Advocates operates according to an externship model in which students work on projects from Cambridge, under the supervision of licensed attorneys at various partner organizations. Advocates is run by a student board, with 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs assuming leadership and project management responsibilities. While students do not receive academic credit for their work, their hours can count towards the law school's pro bono graduation requirement. Advocates also organizes on-campus events, programming, and trainings. The Clinical Instructor will be the bridge between Advocates and the Clinic. This individual will liaise and work with Advocates around all aspects of its operations, including supporting student leaders as they build relationships with partner organizations, develop and manage projects, interact with supervising attorneys and student teams, address potential conflicts of interest and other risk management concerns, facilitate the annual transition between incoming and outgoing student leadership to offer continuity, and help maintain institutional memory.

The Clinical Instructor will be a legally-trained practitioner with at least five years of demonstrated experience in, and commitment to, human rights, including experience training, teaching, or mentoring law students. This individual will join a vibrant community of human rights practitioners and scholars at Harvard Law School.

Under the supervision of the Clinical Co-Directors, the Clinical Instructor will design and oversee clinical projects and supervise teams of clinical students enrolled in the Clinic in the fall, winter, and spring terms. The Clinical Instructor will be responsible for developing clinical projects that expose students to the essential skills, practical realities, and challenges of human rights work. This responsibility includes initiating and cultivating positive working relationships with relevant clients, communities, and civil society organizations. The Clinical Instructor will meet regularly with teams of students, will guide, review, and evaluate their work, and will advise them on legal, strategic, and ethical questions that arise during the course of their clinical projects. The Clinical Instructor may also supervise students during travel that ordinarily occurs in January and March, as well as at other times throughout the year. This travel will require the ability to be away from campus for periods between seven and twenty days.

The Clinical Instructor will also support Advocates student leaders as they build relationships with partner organizations and supervising attorneys conceive, design, and establish Advocates projects conduct conflict checks and manage associated risks review and ensure quality of student work product manage administrative tasks such as reporting requirements and interact with other parts of the law school administration. The Clinical Instructor will attend Advocates board meetings and regularly meet with the Advocates leadership to mentor and problem-solve issues as they arise. The Clinical Instructor will assist student leaders to cultivate funding opportunities at Harvard in order to expand Advocates' programming. The Clinical Instructor may also supervise and participate in Advocates' project-related travel.

Basic Qualifications
J.D. or other law degree plus five or more years of significant human rights experience, including experience training, teaching, or mentoring law students and familiarity with clinical pedagogy. Bar admission required.

Additional Qualifications

  • English fluency as well as additional language skills relevant to the Clinical Instructor's particular areas of expertise.
  • Significant, demonstrated commitment to thoughtful, innovative, rigorous, and self-reflective human rights work.
  • Outstanding legal, communication, interpersonal, analytical, writing, organizational, and time-management skills.
  • The ability and desire to work collaboratively as a member of a team, including in partnership and coalition with affected clients and communities.
  • An understanding of and sensitivity to critiques of human rights, as well as ways of responding to and integrating such critiques into practice.

Additional Information:
Applications are due on May 5, 2019 but will be considered on a rolling basis. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible to ensure full consideration. The term appointment will begin in July or August 2019 and conclude in June 2022, with the possibility for extension.

Applications are especially encouraged from human rights attorneys from the Global South practitioners with an interest in human rights in the United States people of color LGBTQI persons women and persons with disabilities.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume, law school transcript, writing sample (no more than 20 pages in length), two letters of recommendation (which may arrive separately or with the application package), and a detailed statement of interest. Due to the expected heavy volume of applications, only those applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

This is a three-year term appointment beginning in July or August 2019 and concluding in June 2022, with the possibility for extension. Over the course of the appointment, the Clinical Instructor may also have an opportunity to be appointed a Lecturer on Law and to develop and teach clinical seminars. Continuation beyond the date specified is contingent upon organizational needs, available funding, and the mutual interests of the Clinic and the Clinical Instructor.

All offers to be made by HLS Human Resources.

Location
USA - MA - Cambridge

Department
Human Rights Clinic

Time Status
Full-time

Appointment End Date
30-Jun-2022

EEO Statement
We are 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.

Apply Here: http://www.Click2Apply.net/fndrkpy6j3y3yvrd

PI109174427

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