Public Interest Concentration
The Public Interest Concentration (the “Concentration”) expands faculty advising and support for students who plan to pursue public interest legal careers at Boston University School of Law (“BU Law”). BU Law has significantly expanded opportunities and advising around public interest in recent years. In addition to a wealth of courses, we offer such sponsored activities as the Public Interest Scholars Program, the Public Interest Retreat, the Post Graduate Public Service Fellowships, the Loan Repayment Assistance Program and the Pro Bono Program. The Concentration advances this effort by providing individualized academic advising and support to students pursuing public interest careers. Questions can be addressed to Claire Abely or Sean Kealy.
Submit an Intent to Concentrate Form
Total Credit Requirements: 24 Credits
Public Interest Concentration Plan
Students will submit an Intent to Concentrate Form and a Public Interest Plan (maximum of 350 words) to the Faculty Advisor explaining how the courses and paper requirement will support the student’s anticipated public interest career path.
Upper Level Course Requirement (minimum of three credits)
Students will complete at least one upper-level doctrinal course of at least three credits related to the student’s anticipated substantive area of advocacy or practice.
A seminar or course can only satisfy one requirement for the Concentration. For example, if a student elects to have an experiential offering meet the upper-level course requirement, it cannot also meet the experiential offering requirement.
Upper Level Advocacy Seminar or Course (minimum of three credits)
Students will complete at least one upper level seminar or course of at least three credits that will assist with knowledge in the student’s anticipated area of advocacy or practice. This may include: Advanced Legal Research, Advanced Legal Writing, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Advanced Trial Practice, Contract Drafting, Civil Rights Litigation, Effective and Ethical Depositions, Judicial Writing, Legal Writing for Civil Litigation, Mediation: Theory and Practice, Negotiation, Persuasive Writing, Trial Advocacy, Writing for Legal Change, Writing for Tax Practice, Spanish for Lawyers, or relevant experiential offering set forth in the list of Experiential learning courses.
Experiential Learning Requirement (minimum of six credits)
Students will complete at least six credits of experiential seminars, courses, or fieldwork. This includes any of following clinics, practicum, externship, and semester-in-practice offerings.
Experiential Offerings
- Civil Litigation and Justice Clinic: Access to Justice Clinic
- Civil Litigation and Justice Clinic: Individual Rights Litigation Clinic
- Civil Litigation and Justice Clinic: Employment Rights Clinic
- Compassionate Release Practicum
- Compliance Policy Clinic
- Consumer Debt Practicum
- Corporate Counsel Externship Program
- Criminal Law Clinical Program (Prosecutors and Defenders)
- Environmental Law Practicum
- Externship Program
- Legislative Policy & Drafting Clinic
- New York Pro Bono Scholars Program
- Immigrants’ Rights & Human Trafficking Program
- International Human Rights Clinic
- Semester-in-Practice Program
- Sex Crimes Practicum
- Startup Law Clinic
- Technology Law Clinic
This list includes the names of the experiential programs rather than the seminar and fieldwork names. See a complete list of the seminars required for each experiential program.
Research Project
Students must complete a substantial research and writing project on a public interest topic, approved by the Faculty Advisor. This requirement can be satisfied by the same written work that satisfies the School of Law’s upper-class writing (certification) requirement or by written work that satisfies the requirements of a course or seminar for which credit is given towards the Concentration. With the approval of one of the Faculty Advisors to the Concentration, this requirement may also be satisfied by written work completed in a context other than a course or seminar for which credit is given towards the Concentration. If the candidate student wrote the paper for a course or seminar other than the foregoing, or for another purpose, or if the supervising professor is an adjunct (part-time) faculty member, then a Faculty Advisor must review the paper and confirm that it satisfies the concentration paper requirement.
Public Interest Electives (minimum of 12 credits)
Students must take a minimum of 12 additional credits of public interest electives. It is recommended that students choose electives in consultation with the Faculty Advisor to ensure that they contribute to the student’s stated learning objectives and career trajectory. Please see a list of courses and seminars that meet this elective requirement below. Additional elective offerings may be added in consultation with the Faculty Advisors.
Public Interest Electives
Please find below a list of offerings that may satisfy the public interest elective requirement. Additional elective offerings may be added to this list in consultation with the Faculty Advisors. Please note that the below list does not include experiential offerings, as these offerings meet the experiential credit requirements, not the public interest elective requirement. No course used to satisfy any prior requirement may be used to satisfy the elective requirement as well.
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Constitutional Law
- Advanced Evidence and Advocacy
- Advanced Privacy Law
- Affordable Housing Law
- American Indian Law
- American Legal History
- Capital Punishment in the United States
- Challenging Carceral Feminism: Criminalization of Violence Against Women
- Civil Rights Litigation
- Comparative Income Tax
- Criminal Procedure: Adjudicatory Process
- Criminal Procedure: Comprehensive
- Criminal Procedure: Investigatory
- Crimmigration
- Critical Race Theory
- Consumer Financial Services (BK)
- Corporations
- Current Issues in Employment Law
- Digital Civil Liberties
- Digital Evidence Use in Law Enforcement
- Disability Law
- Education Law and Policy
- Energy Law & Policy
- Elder Law (TX)
- Election Law
- Employment Law
- Environmental Law
- Ethical Issues in Medicine and Public Health (SPH LW)
- Evidence
- Family Law
- Federal Courts
- Feminist Jurisprudence
- First Amendment
- Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law
- Foreign Relations Law
- Free Speech and the Internet
- Gender, Violence and the Law
- Gender, Law & Policy
- Governance, Compliance, Sanctions and Risk (BK)
- Health Care Decisions
- Health Care Fraud and Abuse
- Health and Human Rights (SPH)
- Health Law
- Historical Perspectives on Law
- Housing Law
- Immigration Law
- Information Privacy Law
- International Criminal Law
- International Economic Law and Climate Change
- International Human Rights
- International Law
- Islamic Law
- Jurisprudence
- Juvenile Delinquency
- Labor Law
- Land Use
- Language of Law
- LatinX and the Law
- Local Government Law
- Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics (SPH)
- Professional Responsibility for Criminal Practice
- Prosecutorial Ethics
- Public Health Law
- Public Interest Law
- Queerness and the Law
- Reproductive Rights
- Securities Regulation
- State and Local Tax
- Supreme Court Decisionmaking
- Tax Policy
- Tax Practice and Procedure
- Taxation & Racial Capitalism
- Whistleblower Law
- White Collar Crime
The School of Law may not offer all of the enumerated courses every academic year, although it offers most regularly.
In order for an Independent Study to qualify as one of the required courses, the Independent Study topic must be approved in advance in consultation with one of the Faculty Advisors.
Students who wish to receive concentration credit for course offerings not listed above in satisfaction of any of the above requirements may do so with the approval of one of the Faculty Advisors. Approval for course offerings taken outside of the Law School is limited to one graduate-level course related to public interest or social justice.
Students who receive at least a 3.5 grade point average in School of Law course offerings taken to satisfy the requirements of the concentration will be awarded Honors in the Public Interest Concentration. To be eligible for Honors, a minimum of five concentration courses comprising at least 15 credit hours must be in Law School course offerings. In accordance with the Law School’s regulations, only Law School courses will be included in calculating a student’s grade point average, and only such courses will be used to determine whether a student has earned Honors.
Faculty Advisors
