Domestic Violence Project
Faculty Supervisor: Joan S. Meier
This public interest project provides second- and third-year students with the opportunity to explore social change lawyering issues in the battered women’s movement. The project combines a field placement with attorneys and organizations involved in domestic violence policy and advocacy with a seminar. Seminar topics include the historic right of chastisement and early reform efforts, the role of lawyers in the development of the battered women’s movement in the 1970s, major legal reforms of the past three decades, and challenges facing lawyers seeking to create change in this field.
The Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics were founded in 1971, and were dedicated in 1991 to acknowledge the generous support of Jacob Burns (LL.B. '24, LL.D. '70). Burns was renowned for his philanthropy, through which he "contributed significantly to the expanding boundaries of knowledge," and left an enduring legacy that improves the lives of many today.