Innovative Lawyering For Social Change Project
The Innovative Lawyering For Social Change project aims to describe and aid the work of lawyers, legally-trained professionals and law students with innovative strategies for creating sustainable change.
We seek to create a community of practice among these innovators, and advance understanding of the ways in which lawyers can serve as transformative leaders and social change agents, looking beyond the traditional paradigm of impact litigation.
Current initiatives include producing a podcast series featuring innovative practitioners discussing their work and career development. This series examines legal training and experience as tools for innovation and the development of effective professional niches for legally trained innovators.The podcast project is closely linked to the Diversity and Innovation seminar. The project was initially launched by students in the seminar and students continue to identify interview subjects, conduct interviews and use the project to develop their own understanding of the possibilities and utility of legal education, and learn about the concrete steps innovative lawyers have taken in shaping unique and powerful roles.
Diversity & Innovation SeminarÂ
Diversity and Innovation is a year-long trans-disciplinary seminar and research practicum, which develops innovative frameworks and strategies for addressing structural inequality and advancing new models of citizenship within social institutions.
The seminar explores the emerging role of lawyers, transformative leaders and other change agents in addressing structural inequality through institutional transformation. It offers an integrated and systemic approach to addressing structural inequality and advancing full participation in higher education. To learn more, please visit our seminar website.
The inaugural class of the 2012-2013 seminar met on September 4th, 2012. Participants reviewed the syllabus for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, considered past student projects as a model for future ideas, and broke into pairs to discuss narratives of change, concluding the session with a group review of the narratives discussed.
The Center welcomes this year's students and looks forward to following their inspiring ideas as they transform into dynamic research projects.