The University of Alabama School of Law offers a specialized Certificate in Public Interest Law that allows students to focus their academic work in the field of public interest. To earn the Certificate, students must complete: Public Interest Lawyering (LAW 821); Poverty Law (LAW 769); a three- or four-hour Law School clinic; 50 hours of (legal or non-legal) community service; and at least 12 hours of coursework from the courses listed below:
- Academic Year Externship (LAW 795) (Limited to Non-Profit and (non-judicial) Government Office placements. Students who believe that a particular judicial externship will relate to the kind of public interest practice the student wishes to pursue may petition the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for approval. No more than a total of five credits of externships may count toward the 12-hour elective requirement for the Certificate.)
- Administrative Law (LAW 683)
- Adoption Law (LAW 838)
- Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection (LAW 630)
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (LAW 705)
- Capital Litigation (LAW 774)
- Children’s Rights (LAW 635)
- Civil Rights Legislation (LAW 726)
- Clinics (LAW 665) (No more than a total of four hours of clinical work may count toward the 12-hour elective requirement for the Certificate — in addition to the existing requirement that students complete a four-hour clinic to obtain the Certificate.)
- Consumer Protection (LAW 628)
- Criminal Procedure – Post-Conviction Proceedings (LAW 751)
- Criminal Procedure – Pre-Trial (LAW 735)
- Criminal Procedure – Trial (LAW 790)
- Disability Law (LAW 607)
- Education Law (Law 792)
- Elder Law (LAW 695)
- Election Law (LAW 613)
- Employment Discrimination (LAW 721)
- Environmental Law I & II (LAW 702 & Law 771)
- Family Law I (LAW 674)
- Family Law II (Law 756)
- Gender and the Law (LAW 633)
- Housing Law (LAW 606)
- Higher Education and the Law (LAW 711)
- Immigration Law and Policy (LAW 655)
- International Environmental Law Seminar (LAW 763)
- International Human Rights Law (LAW 819)
- Juvenile Justice (LAW 791)
- Labor Law I (LAW 676)
- Law & Economics (LAW 723)
- Law & Public Policy (LAW 731)
- Law and Religion (LAW 719)
- Lawyers and Social Change Practicum (LAW 843)
- Legislation (LAW 693)
- Major Race Trials (LAW 736)
- Mediation Law (LAW 779)
- Mental Health Law Seminar (LAW 834)
- Perspectives on Citizenship (LAW 731)
- Public Health Law (LAW 757)
- Public International Law (LAW 710)
- Race and the Law (LAW 652)
- Select Problems in Criminal Law: Punishment (LAW 624)
- Sentencing Seminar (LAW 793)
- Sexuality and the Law (LAW 632)
- Sex Discrimination (LAW 794)
- Spanish for Lawyers (LAW 822)
- Special Problems in Constitutional Law: First Amendment Seminar (LAW 764)
- Special Problems in Constitutional Law: First Amendment Survey (LAW 764)
- Special Problems in Constitutional Law: Race and the Law (LAW 764)
- Summer Externship (LAW 634) (Limited to Non-Profit and (non-judicial) Government Office placements. Students who believe that a particular judicial externship will relate to the kind of public interest practice the student wishes to pursue may petition the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for approval. No more than a total of five credits of externships may count toward the 12-hour elective requirement for the Certificate.)
- Employment Law (LAW 631)
Please note that only externship placements in Non-Profit and (non-judicial) Government Offices will count toward the 12-hour elective requirement for the Certificate. Students who believe that a particular judicial externship will relate to the kind of public interest practice the student wishes to pursue may petition the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for approval. In addition, no more than a total of five credit hours of externships may count toward the 12-hour elective requirement for the Certificate.
Please also note that one three- or four-hour clinic is required to obtain the Certificate. For students who take additional clinics, up to four additional clinical hours may be counted toward the Certificate elective requirement.
Students who wish to count courses not designated toward satisfying the elective coursework requirement for the Certificate may petition the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The petition shall explain how the particular course relates to the public interest law practice the student wishes to pursue.