Students who specialize in public interest law and policy pursue an innovative and rigorous curriculum that trains them to engage in sophisticated representation of traditionally under-served individuals, communities and interests while enabling them to refine their own career goals. Beyond the specialization’s formal coursework requirements, the Epstein Program provides an array of opportunities for students to hear from and engage leading public interest practitioners and scholars, work on current policy problems and become involved in public interest activities.
Admissions
The Program seeks to admit students based on their demonstrated commitment to and competence in public interest work, as well as their academic achievement, and is highly selective in its admissions process. Each year, the Program enrolls 25 first-year students (typically from more than 700 applicants). The Program also allows a select number of students to transfer into the Program after the completion of their first year of law school.
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Admission Criteria
Both when considering applicants for admission as first-year students and when considering transfer applicants, as well as when considering LL.M. applicants, the program seeks to admit those students most likely to achieve academic success who also satisfy one or more of three admission criteria related to the public interest orientation of the program, as described below:
- Commitment to public interest, which is evaluated in two ways:
- Activities in high school, college, graduate school (including the first year of law school) or career. For this purpose, "public interest" is broadly defined to encompass any and all interests underrepresented by the private market, including the interests of the poor, ethnic minorities, unpopular social causes across the political spectrum, and broad-ranging interests such as the environment, peace, and the welfare of future generations.
- Evidence that the applicant demonstrated, in the conduct of these activities, the personal qualities of tenacity, idealism, and initiative that are particularly important for public interest lawyers who may forgo material incentives in their careers.
- Activities in high school, college, graduate school (including the first year of law school) or career. For this purpose, "public interest" is broadly defined to encompass any and all interests underrepresented by the private market, including the interests of the poor, ethnic minorities, unpopular social causes across the political spectrum, and broad-ranging interests such as the environment, peace, and the welfare of future generations.
- Special abilities enabling the applicant to serve or represent groups or interests lacking adequate access to law and lawyers. While this criterion overlaps somewhat with the first one, this criterion would be evidenced by such things as language skills, cultural familiarity, insight into such groups, or other special skills.
- Intellectual strengths and acquired expertise relevant to problem solving and policy analysis. This includes expertise in quantitative methods, social science, policy analysis, ethnographic and historical research, or similar skills, acquired through formal education or work experience.
- Commitment to public interest, which is evaluated in two ways:
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If Applying for Admission as a First-Year Student
If you are interested in applying to the Program as a first-year student, you must follow the J.D. application procedures and complete and submit the specific Program application. The Epstein Program application is included in the general J.D. application.
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If Applying for Admission as a Transfer Student
If you are interested in applying to the program as a transfer student from another law school, you must follow the J.D. transfer application procedures and complete and submit the specific program application. The Epstein Program application is included in the general J.D. application.
If you are a first-year student at UCLA School of Law, you also may seek to transfer into the program. The program holds a Transfer Information Session for current first-year students during the spring semester, and the application deadline typically falls before finals during the spring semester.
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If Applying for Admission as an LL.M. Student
The School of Law’s LL.M. Program itself allows students to pursue a specialized LLM degree, including one in public interest. If you are interested in applying to the Program as an LL.M., you must follow the LL.M. application procedures and complete and submit the specific Program application.
Financial Support
UCLA School of Law public interest-minded students and graduates have access to financial support through the School and the larger university. Support is available for incoming students, students working in unpaid (or partially paid) public interest summer positions, graduating students, and graduates engaged in public interest work.
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Financial Assistance for Incoming Students
The School of Law’s Office of Financial Aid and the Office of Admissions administer financial assistance programs for incoming law students, including need-based aid and merit-based scholarships, as well as provides information on external sources of scholarships, grants, and other financial assistance.
Summer Public Service Fellowship Program
UCLA School of Law maintains one of the most generous law school programs to support students who engage in otherwise unpaid public interest work during the summer. The School of Law’s Summer Public Service Fellowship Program provides stipends to eligible students engaged in substantive, law-related public interest summer employment under the supervision of a legal professional in a nonprofit or government setting domestically or abroad. In summer 2019, more than 200 students received stipends to work with more than 100 diverse organizations and agencies. The Program is administered by the School of Law’s Office of Public Interest Programs.
Additional School of Law Affiliated Funding Programs
The Office of Public Interest Programs also administers a number of additional funding sources supported by donors. An example is the Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship, which honors United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and supports two students engaged in otherwise unpaid summer work that promotes the public interest and social justice values that have characterized the work and career of Justice Stevens.
Independently or in coordination with the Office of Public Interest Programs, various School of Law Centers, Institutes and Programs also provide financial support to students engaged in summer public interest work in a substantive area of practice aligned with the mission of the specific Center, Institute or Program.
External Fellowships and Grants
There also exists an array of external fellowships and grants to support students working in a public interest capacity during the summer. The Office of Public Interest Programs provides guidance on how to research and apply for these external opportunities.
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Funding for Graduating Students
Post-Graduate Public Service Fellowships
The School of Law’s Post-Graduate Public Service Fellowships provide one-year stipends for graduating students who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to public service, enabling them to work with a variety of nonprofit organizations and government agencies, both domestically and abroad.
Community Economic Development Fellowship
The School of Law’s Community Economic Development Fellowship provides an opportunity for a graduate to pursue transactional legal work that advances the goals of community economic development in Los Angeles. The fellowship term is one year.
Gideon Fellowship
The School of Law’s Gideon Fellowship, the first fellowship of its kind in the country, is a partnership between the School of Law, Gideon’s Promise – a trailblazing organization that trains and places new law graduates and law students in southern public defender offices, and six public defender offices in the South. Beginning with the graduating class of 2014, one School of Law graduate has been selected as the Gideon Fellow, serving as a public defender with one of the School’s many public defender partner organizations and receiving training and mentorship from Gideon’s Promise. At the end of the one-year Fellowship term, the Fellow will move into a full-time permanent position as a staff public defender with the partner public defender office and continue to receive training and mentorship from Gideon’s Promise.
School of Law New Graduate Opportunity Fellowships
Administered by the Office of Career Services, the New Graduate Opportunity Fellowship funds part-time, temporary work with nonprofit organizations and government agencies after recent graduates have taken the bar exam. Participating graduates have a unique opportunity to further build their resume and to enhance their legal skills while awaiting Bar results.
External Fellowships
Working closely with the Office of Public Interest Programs, UCLA Law students have successfully developed innovative post-graduate projects addressing the legal needs of underrepresented and impoverished communities, and a number of UCLA Law graduates have secured competitive public interest fellowships including those awarded by the Skadden Foundation, Justice Catalyst, and Equal Justice Works. Students also consult with OPIP to compete for public service opportunities, including government honors programs.
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Funding for Alumni in Public Interest
The School of Law maintains a competitive Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for graduates working in the public interest. Under the School’s LRAP, administered by the Office of Financial Aid, graduates can apply to have a portion – and in some cases all – of the debt service on loans they incurred while at the School of Law subject to a forgivable loan from the School.
The School’s LRAP is coordinated with the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and the Direct Loan Program’s income driven repayment options, enabling the School to enhance its LRAP benefits.
Curriculum
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Overview
The Program strives to provide an innovative and intellectually ambitious curriculum that trains students to engage in sophisticated representation of traditionally underrepresented individuals, communities and interests while utilizing a range of problem-solving tools. Thus, Program students are required to satisfy the general requirements for a J.D. degree while also satisfying the Program’s specific curricular requirements.
The Program curriculum is intended both to address fundamental questions about public interest lawyering that affect all areas of practice and to allow students to pursue a curricular path tailored to their individual interests and career goals. The Program curricular requirements include a first-year seminar, a special section of the first-year Lawyering Skills course, a second-year “problem solving” seminar, an additional four advanced courses from a designated menu of courses, and a writing requirement.
Program students also have ample opportunity to select from the general School of Law curriculum courses that relate to their public interest orientation and goals, as well as to enroll in other academic specializations and pursue joint degrees.
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Core Curriculum Requirements
LAW 150 - FIRST YEAR EPSTEIN PROGRAM WORKSHOP
The First Year Epstein Program Workshop is designed to provide students with an overview of public interest practice. Through readings, guest speakers, and class discussion, students gain familiarity with the different substantive areas of public interest law, organizational settings for public interest practice, and modes of public interest advocacy. In addition, students are introduced to the faculty of the Epstein Program as well as influential public interest practitioners, many of whom are Epstein Program alumni. Students participate in group activities to foster and build a strong sense of community and further strengthen our Epstein Program public interest network.
LAW 108 A/B, Section P: LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING
The Legal Research and Writing course teaches students enrolled in the Epstein Program foundational lawyering skills necessary for success as a lawyer in a public interest setting. During this year-long course, students are introduced to the client-centered approach to lawyering, which teaches that the client’s perspective is front and center in the lawyering project. Students learn legal reasoning, basic legal research methods, the structure of persuasive arguments, the fundamentals of written analysis, and oral advocacy, all in the context of public interest practice. The course also supports the development of public interest leadership by fostering a safe and collaborative environment within the first-year curriculum to learn practice-oriented skills that will anchor and strengthen the public service careers of Epstein Program students. The class is taught by a Legal Research and Writing professor with training and background in public interest and social justice lawyering.
LAW 541: PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
This seminar focuses on public interest lawyering through a close analysis of case studies and the discussion of recurring issues in public interest practice. In this course, students explore social problems from a number of different perspectives, highlighting the many different ways of solving problems of the sort public interest lawyers confront. The seminar covers questions of how public interest problems come to be framed; how clients, lawyers and their allies think about problem-solving strategies; and how public interest lawyers use different modes of advocacy to address problems. Students in this seminar complete an individual paper project that addresses a real world problem and incorporates the modes of advocacy studied in the course.
Upper Division Curriculum Requirements
In addition to the core Epstein Program courses, Upper-Division Epstein Program students are required to (1) take four additional upper-division courses and (2) complete the Epstein Program Writing Requirement.
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Upper-Division Coursework
Epstein Program students must take one course from each of four different categories: (1) substantive law; (2) advocacy sites; (3) inequality; and (4) applied advocacy (for a total of four additional courses). These curricular requirements are intended to systematically address fundamental questions about public interest lawyering. In order to qualify, each course must be a minimum of two credits.
This guide provides examples of courses that qualify in each category. This guide is not intended as an exhaustive list of all courses that could satisfy each category.
Although some courses could qualify for more than one category, courses are listed in only one category. For example, a substantive law specialization course such as Immigration Law could qualify in the inequality category; just as a course such as Criminal Procedure could qualify in the advocacy sites category.
Not all courses contained in this guide are offered every year, so students should plan out their schedules in advance. Clinical courses that satisfy the Category 4 requirement have a separate and earlier application process. Epstein Program students will be reminded to participate in the clinic application process.
Students may seek advanced approval from Epstein Program faculty to substitute courses for each category, including by taking courses offered outside the law school, new courses, and independent studies, provided that the proposed educational plan satisfies the course requirement categories and advances the student’s chosen public interest career path.
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Category 1: Substantive Law
(The substantive law specialization requirement is designed to familiarize Epstein Program students with a doctrinal area of law relevant to their chosen public interest career goals. For example, a student interested in pursuing a career in prison reform could choose Prison Law & Policy; a student who desires to become a legal services attorney specializing in domestic relations would take Family Law; and a student interested in food justice should take Food Law & Policy.)
LAW 201Constitutional Law II
LAW 202Criminal Procedure: Investigations
LAW 211Evidence
LAW 212Federal Courts
LAW 216Administrative Law
LAW 220Introduction to Federal Income Taxation
LAW 230Business Associations
LAW 240Antitrust Law I
LAW 260Labor Law & Collective Action
LAW 261Employment Law
LAW 267Federal Indian Law
LAW 270Public International Law
LAW 273International Human Rights Law
LAW 282Education Law & Policy
LAW 285Local Government Law
LAW 286Land Use
LAW 287Federal Indian Law II
LAW 290Environmental Law and Policy
LAW 293Public Natural Resources Law and Policy
LAW 295Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
LAW 298International Criminal Law
LAW 316Disability Law
LAW 317Family Law
LAW 319Election Law
LAW 322Legislation and Statutory Interpretation
LAW 325Public Benefits Law and Anti-Poverty Policy
LAW 326Health Law and Policy
LAW 331Immigration Law
LAW 350Energy Law and Regulation
LAW 383Political Asylum and Refugee Law
LAW 389Prison Law and Policy
LAW 429Capital Punishment in America
LAW 442Public Health Law
LAW 449Business Crime
LAW 508Food Law and Policy
LAW 519Health Care Access
LAW 527Natural Resources Law
LAW 547Psychology and Criminal Law
LAW 552Food and Drug Law
LAW 635Topics in Animal Law
LAW 636Chinese Law & Legal Institutions
LAW 692Water Law
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Category 2: Advocacy Sites
(The advocacy sites requirement is designed to expose Epstein Program students to the decision-making institutions where advocacy takes place. For example, a student interested in becoming an environmental justice lawyer might take Climate & Energy Law & Policy; or a student pursuing a criminal law career could take Habeas Corpus or Sentencing Law & Policy.)
LAW 269National Security Law
LAW 296Criminal Procedure: Habeas Corpus
LAW 301Art and Cultural Property Law
LAW 350Energy Law and Regulation
LAW 363Tax - Exempt Organizations
LAW 376Law and Dissent
LAW 380State and Local Taxation
LAW 438International Environmental Law and Policy
LAW 443Comparative Environmental Law
LAW 444Indigenous Peoples in International Law
LAW 452Class Actions in Practice
LAW 463Regional Human Rights Protection: The Inter-American System
LAW 465Prospects for International Justice
LAW 467Human Rights Law Beyond Borders
LAW 468China and the International Legal Order
LAW 485Consumer Financial Protection
LAW 493Housing Law and Policy
LAW 497Critical Issues in Human Rights
LAW 503Current Topics in Criminal Law
LAW 509Rights, Secrecy, and the Limits of Public Interest Litigation
LAW 511A/BSocial Media and the Future of Democracy
LAW 513Topics in California Environmental Law
LAW 515The Entrepreneurial State
LAW 534Sentencing Law and Policy
LAW 556Power, Knowledge, and Procedure
LAW 564The Court of Today: Administration, Authority, and the Stuff of Adjudication
LAW 567Direct Democracy
LAW 584Human Rights and Sexual Politics
LAW 589Successful Strategies for Human Rights Advocacy
LAW 591Climate Change Law and Policy
LAW 601Connecting Art and Law for Liberation
LAW 617Special Topics in Family Law
LAW 623Topics in Non-Profit Law
LAW 630International Queer Rights
LAW 639Political Asylum
LAW 643The Regulation of the Automobile
LAW 657Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court
LAW 658Human Rights and War Crimes Digital Investigations
LAW 660Cities in Distress
LAW 671Comparative Education: Law and Policy
LAW 674The Trafficking in Human Beings: Law and Policy
LAW 688Philosophy of Migration Law
LAW 693Food Litigation: Consumer Protection, Regulation, and Class Actions
LAW 696The Legal & Political Importance of State Attorneys General
LAW 697Gun Rights and Regulation
LAW 716International Climate Change Law and Policy Clinic
LAW 742Regulatory Lawyering
LAW 766Information Policy Lab
LAW 784Administrative Hearings Simulation Course
LAW 788Advanced Trial Preparation
LAW 790Advanced Evidence Objections and Arguments
LAW 832Voting Rights Policy and Practice
LAW 837Domestic Violence Prevention Practicum
LAW 838Civil Rights Litigation Practicum
LAW 908Suing the Police
LAW 926Rebellious Lawyering
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Category 3: Inequality
(The inequality course requirement is designed to expose Epstein Program students to the relationship between law and systems of power. This set of courses aim to explore the fundamental social, political, and economic issues that public interest lawyers confront and seek to change. Some courses in this category address a specific form or forms of group differentiation (such as race, gender, disability, sexuality, or tribal membership), while others address issues of economic inequality that are implicated in most all areas of public interest practice. Finally, some courses address multiple forms of inequality in a single context (such as employment or criminal punishment). As indicated below, all of the core or comparative analysis courses for the Critical Race Studies Specialization satisfy the Epstein Program’s inequality requirement. Finally, although only one course in the inequality category is required for graduation, Epstein Program students are strongly encouraged to take more than one course in this category.)
LAW 214Civil Rights
LAW 263Employment Discrimination Law
LAW 266Critical Race Theory
LAW 318Law, Gender, and Sexuality
LAW 325Public Benefits Law and Anti-Poverty Policy
LAW 382Food as Commons or Commodity? The Case for Agroecology
LAW 429Capital Punishment in America
LAW 466Public Health, Migration, & Human Rights
LAW 496Race, Racism, and Law
LAW 505A/BMajor Problems in Environment & Sustainability
LAW M526Housing Segregation, Housing Discrimination, and the Evolution of Public Policy
LAW 533The Philosophy of Prisons and Punishment
LAW 542Race, Sexuality, and the Law
LAW 566Laws of War (International Humanitarian Law)
LAW 568Reparations for Black Americans: Legal Issues and Strategies
LAW 593Preventive Detention
LAW 609The American Civil Justice Crisis
LAW 612Reproductive Rights and Justice
LAW 613The Criminal (In)Justice System
LAW 614Global Perspectives on Criminal Procedure
LAW 618Your Professional Identity and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Law
LAW 619Environmental Justice Law
LAW 622Data, Policy & Legal Responses to the Attacks on Critical Race Theory
LAW 625Community Lawyering and Low Wage Worker Organizing
LAW 632Immigrants' Rights
LAW 653Critical Race Studies Scholarship Workshop
LAW 655Feminist Legal Theory
LAW 656Race, Law and Curriculum
LAW 661Latinos and the Law
LAW 668The 8th Amendment Punishments Clause
LAW 674The Trafficking in Human Beings: Law and Policy
LAW 677Muslims, Race and Law
LAW 810Practicum
LAW 834Law, Organizing, and Low-Wage Workers
LAW 952Re-envisioning the Lawyer’s Role: Trauma Informed Lawyering and Restorative/ Transformative Justice
LAW 964Comparative Sex Equality
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Category 4: Applied Advocacy
(The applied advocacy requirement is intended to provide Epstein Program students with hands-on clinical training in public interest advocacy under the close supervision of law school faculty. In these clinical advanced courses, students are exposed to law practice and clinical pedagogy that integrates their knowledge of law, procedure, and advocacy techniques. For example, a student interested in a career in human rights could take the International Human Rights Clinic; a student interested in economic development could take the Community Economic Development Clinic, and a future public defender or prosecutor might decide to take the Criminal Defense Clinic. Students are also encouraged to take clinics across subject matter interests, as all UCLA Law clinics teach transferable skills)
LAW 701Prisoners' Rights Clinic
LAW 712Street Law--Youth & Education
LAW 717International Human Rights Clinic
LAW 719Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic
LAW 724First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic
LAW 725Supreme Court Clinic
LAW 728Tribal Legal Development Clinic
LAW 730Veterans Justice Clinic: Poverty, Homelessness & Criminalization
LAW 731Community Lawyering in Education Clinic
LAW 738California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic
LAW 769Documentary Film Legal Clinic
LAW 773Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic
LAW 775Food Law and Policy Clinic
LAW 786Pretrial Justice Clinic
LAW 792Immigrant Family Legal Clinic
LAW 794Human Rights Litigation Clinic
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WRITING REQUIREMENT
Students may satisfy the upper-division writing requirement for the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law & Policy by completing a faculty-supervised, graded paper undertaken for a minimum of two units that is certified by the supervising faculty member as (1) satisfying the ABA requirement of a rigorous writing experience and (2) is relevant to advancing the student’s course of study in the Epstein Program. Usually, the ABA writing requirement may be satisfied by an Individual Research paper (340 or 341), a seminar paper, or a paper for other advanced courses. This writing requirement may be written as part of a course that also is used to satisfy one of the Epstein Program’s upper-division curricular requirements.