The Civil Rights and Equality Pathway is designed as a guided curriculum that will prepare you for a career as a civil rights attorney. Civil rights attorneys work in many arenas, including private practice, criminal defense, and representing non-profit organizations and government entities that specialize in protecting the civil rights and equality of under-represented and marginalized groups. Civil rights attorneys have been a key part of the struggle for racial equality, religious freedom, women’s rights, immigrant rights, the rights of LGBTQ communities and the rights of people with disabilities. Many civil rights attorneys are litigators, but they may also be community organizers, policy makers, lobbyists or legislators. By following this Pathway, you will hone core legal analysis, research and writing and trial skills.
Faculty Advisors
Professors Ngozi Ndulue, Yvette Pappoe, and Diann Rust-Tierney
Curriculum
Stage 1: Foundational Courses
- Administrative Law
- Constitutional Law I and II REQ.
- Education Law
- Employment Discrimination Seminar
- Evidence REQ.
- Federal Courts
- Immigration Law Seminar
- International Human Rights
- International Law Seminar
- Labor & Employment Law
- Remedies
Stage 2: Electives
- Civil Rights in the 21st Century Seminar
- Critical Approaches to Law & Society
- Death Penalty & the Law
- Demonstration Law
- Gender & Sexual Orientation Under the Law Seminar
- Race and the Law Seminar
- Reproductive Rights Seminar
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- System Change: Theory & Practice
- Trial Advocacy
REQ. = Required course for all students | Course descriptions can be found in the Course Catalog
Community Service/Summer Fellowships/Externships
UDC Law has extensive connections with non-profit organizations and governmental agencies in the DC metropolitan region that provide students with the opportunity to spend a semester actually working in their chosen fields. The following are some examples of relevant placements students have obtained with outside organizations and agencies:
- ACLU of the District of Columbia
- Advancement Project
- Alliance for Justice
- Amara Legal Center
- American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
- American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
- The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth
- Coalition for Juvenile Justice
- The Constitution Project
- Council on American-Islamic Relations
- DC Mayor’s Office on African American Affairs
- DC Office of Human Rights and Commission on Human Rights
- DC Shadow Senator’s Office
- Empower DC
- Equal Justice Under Law
- Government Accountability Project
- Institute for Justice
- Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Muslim Advocates
- National African American Drug Policy Coalition
- NAACP Office of General Counsel
- National Association for the Education of Young Children
- National Association of Government Employees (NAGE)
- National Health Law Program
- Polaris Project
- Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities
- The Rural Coalition
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- Transformative Justice Coalition
- United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)
- US Commission on Civil Rights
- US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
- US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section
- US Department of Labor
- Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
- Whitman-Walker Health Legal Services Program