STREET LAW IN LAW SCHOOLS

The presidents of the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools are calling on every law school in America to make a commitment to helping their law students and law faculty understand the importance of educating the public and identifying ways of encouraging future lawyers to participate in public legal education programs.

-- Joint Resolution made by ABA and AALS presidents William Paul and Elliott Milstein, Spring 2000

How can your law school encourage future lawyers to participate in public legal education?

Start a Street Law Program today. Street Law is practical, participatory education about law, democracy, and human rights. By supporting Street Law programs, law schools empower people to transform democratic ideals into citizen action, support legal literacy, and foster positive youth development. By participating in Street Law, law students increase legal knowledge and lawyering skills, develop new perspectives, and enrich their law school experience.

Public legal education programs - where law students teach the public practical law - exist in over 30% of all law schools. Street Law's goal is to help law schools strengthen and develop programs, so that every law school nationally and internationally is offering its students this vital, professional development opportunity. To that end, Street Law is providing you with web site support for law school-based Street Law programs.

Street Law law student Gayle Williams in action.

The goal of this web site is to help law professors, program directors, pro bono directors, public interest directors, law student groups, and law students conduct a successful Street Law program - a program in which law student instructors teach a practical law course to people who are not enrolled in law school.

A majority of these programs stem from the Georgetown University Law Center D.C. Street Law model fostered by Street Law, Inc. (formerly known as the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law). Most of these programs use the text,

Street Law: A Course in Practical Law (now in its 6th edition). The term "Street Law" is used throughout this web site to refer to public legal education programs. Many of these law school programs are called "Street Law;" some go by other names.

If you are interested in developing or strengthening a Street Law School-based program, please make sure to contact:

• Street Law, Inc. and complete the informational form at clearinghouse@streetlaw.org (Street Law hopes you will find this web site useful. By providing us with your name, address, etc., we can continue to support you through network contacts, newsletters, training opportunities, and updated information.).
  
  
• Your state law-related education coordinator (Each state has a law-related education center to help implement a variety of programs, provide state specific materials, and promote local conferences.)

Click on the following links for more information:

Overview of Street Law Programs in Law Schools
Rationale for Street Law Programs in Law Schools
Street Law Materials to Help Get Your Program Started
Implementing a Street Law Program
Catalogue of U.S. Law Schools with Street Law Programs
Training Law Students to Teach Street Law
Sample Syllabi for Law Student Seminars
Sample Lessons for Use by Law Students in Schools
Best Practices in Law-Related Education
Street Law as a Diversity Pipeline
Street Law Voices
International Law School-Based Programs

Street Law wishes to acknowledge the following law school faculty who authored some of the materials on this site: Margaret Fisher, Washington State Law-Related Education Coordinator, Paul Bergman, University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Beth Farnbach, International Program Director for Center for Civic Education, Steven Friedland, Nova University Law School, Grayfred Gray, University of Tennessee College of Law, David Nadvorney, City University of New York, and Richard Roe, D.C. Street Law Project of Georgetown University Law Center.