GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER'S Racial Equity in Education Law & Policy Clinic (“REEL Policy Clinic”), opened its doors in the Spring of 2022. The REEL Policy Clinic engages law students in legislative and policy advocacy on behalf of clients to promote racial equity within the public education system. This work entails leveraging policy advocacy to address issues that disproportionately impact the educational experiences and outcomes of students of color, including discriminatory school discipline practices, school segregation, and school finance and resource inequities, among others.

Clinic students engage in legislative lawyering on behalf of clients and participate in a twice-weekly seminar that examines substantive issues of education, civil rights, legislation, and administrative law. The Clinic employs a client-centered approach to lawyering and students collaborate with clients to develop policy solutions. Clinic clients include non-profit educational advocacy organizations, student-led groups, parent-led groups, coalitions, and governmental entities, among others.

The Clinic employs a Critical Race Theory (CRT) approach to interrogate the role of the law and public policy in the endurance of racial inequities in education. Students explore the promise of law to help eliminate them. Students explore innovative legislative, policy, and practice solutions to address racial inequities in public education.

Students learn the art of legislative lawyering by employing a range of legislative and administrative tools to further clients’ goals, including oral and written advocacy (such as delivering testimony before a policymaking body or drafting comment letters in response to a proposed administrative change), interfacing with policymakers and legislative staff, legal research and writing, analyzing and drafting legislative language, and building relationships through partnerships and coalition participation.

Through legislative advocacy, students strengthen core lawyering competencies, including creative problem-solving, statutory interpretation, interdisciplinary research, self-reflective lawyering, teamwork and collaboration, prioritization, and culturally responsive lawyering.

In this 10-credit clinic, students can expect to spend an average of 35 hours per week on Clinic matters, including client work and related events, seminar, and other Clinic responsibilities.

Description of the Fellowship

The REEL Policy Clinic is hiring a lawyer to serve as a Clinical Teaching Fellow and Supervising Attorney for a two-year term, beginning in the Summer of 2023. The two-year fellowship is an ideal position for former educators, organizers, policy advocates, and legislative lawyers interested in transitioning into legal academia and developing their supervisory skills. The Fellow will have several areas of responsibility, with an increasing role in the Clinic as the fellowship progresses. The Fellow will: 

●      Supervise students in day-to-day work related to Clinic projects, work closely with students on improving their legislative lawyering skills, including written and oral advocacy, management of responsibilities, and legal and legislative analysis.

●      Provide students with formal and informal feedback in timely, constructive, and respectful ways. The fellow’s understanding of and appreciation for giving and receiving constructive and informative feedback is a vital aspect of this position.

●      Share responsibility for designing and developing one seminar and for teaching a selected seminar in the first semester with additional teaching opportunities as the fellowship advances..

●      Take a proactive role in project development and assist with the administrative and project oversight responsibilities of the Clinic.

●      Participate in a clinical pedagogy seminar to strengthen clinical teaching skills and other activities designed to support an interest in clinical teaching and legal education.

●      At the end of the fellowship, be awarded an LL.M. in Advocacy from the Law Center. 

This fellowship offers an opportunity to work on timely issues of racial justice and education law. Fellows assume substantial responsibility for projects at an early stage of their careers and generally play a more important role in the decision-making process than do their contemporaries in other types of law practice. They also have an opportunity to work on a variety of client matters at different stages of development, so they gain a broader understanding of how laws and public policies are developed and how the legislative process works.

Fellows work closely with a broad range of clients and client partners, meeting others who are involved in public interest law and seeing how the entities function. For those with an interest in clinical teaching, fellows get first-hand experience in clinical supervision, opportunities to develop scholarship and participate in conferences, and to develop as legal educators, including support in  developing and refining a teaching philosophy and gaining experience in planning and delivering lectures.  

Qualifications:

A demonstrated commitment to addressing issues of racial justice and educational equity, including an understanding of how the social consequences of actual or perceived identities may impact educational experiences or outcomes.

●      Preferred:

o   At least two to three years of post-graduate legal experience (preferably in a public interest, civil rights, or social justice setting);

o   Interest and experience in education law and public policy;

o   Interest in pursuing a career in legal academia;

o   An understanding of the legislative landscape of the District of Columbia or other local or federal legislative landscape;

o   An understanding of how to facilitate intentional conversations about racism and racial inequality;

o   A willingness to and understanding of how to support students in developing as culturally competent lawyers; and

o   Admission to or willingness to seek admission to or waive into the District of Columbia Bar.

​​Applicants need not demonstrate all of the preferred qualifications, but priority is given to applicants who demonstrate the preferred qualification. The Clinic encourages applications from candidates who are women, disabled, LGBTQIA2S+, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), as these groups are historically minoritized and underrepresented  in legal academia.

Pay and Other Benefits:

The annual stipend for the position is $70,000 the first year and $75,000 the second year, an LL.M. in Advocacy, plus group health insurance and other benefits. The fellowship will start in the summer of 2023 and end in the summer of 2025. 

Application Instructions:

Please submit a cover letter describing your experience and interest in the position, a, résumé/CV, two professional references, a writing sample (no longer than 5 pages), and transcript to Daniella Blake-Aranbayeva at db1571@georgetown.edu. Interviews will be conducted in late March and early April.