| |
The Federal Legislation & Administrative Clinic (the “Clinic”) is a 10 credit, one semester clinic designed to teach students how to become effective legislative lawyers. A legislative lawyer is a person who is trained to:
- recognize policy and legal issues in proposed legislation, regulation, or policy ideas
and understand how law, policy, process, politics, and personalities come together to shape outcomes in Congress and the Executive Branch;
- perform the legal research necessary to support or oppose legislation, regulations, or policy ideas;
- develop creative legislative or regulatory solutions to problems at the intersection of law and policy;
- present
solutions in clear, persuasive, concise, and precise oral and written forms; and
- work with
coalitions, Congress, and Executive Branch agencies to advance policy solutions.
The Clinic chooses clients and public law improvement efforts for their capacity to offer Clinic students and fellows the opportunity to be directly involved in the development and promulgation of legislation and regulations. Substantively, the Clinic’s new primary focus is national security. Projects during the 2010-11 academic year have included Senate ratification of the New START nuclear arms control treaty and cybersecurity legislation. Additionally, the Clinic is working on ongoing basis for passage of legislation creating a law clerk program in Congress analogous to the judicial law clerk program.
The FLAC’s experiential learning method teaches legislative lawyering in the following ways:
1. Classroom Instruction. The in-class portion of the Clinic includes lectures and discussions focused on learning the organization and operation of the federal legislative and executive branches; how law, policy, process, politics, and personality factors shape their decision-making; and how to advocate successfully to and within the Art. I and Art. II branches of the federal government.
2. Legislative Lawyering Field Work. Students research, write, and present on a specific issue. Students participate in meetings with clients, coalition partners, staff for Congress and agencies. They prepare a wide range of written advocacy materials, including legislative text, analytical memos, extensive reports, backgrounders, and “one-pagers.” The following is a sampling of real-world legislative lawyering done by FLAC students over the years.
-Writing Background Papers for Senate Treaty Debate – In Fall 2010, FLAC students prepared a number of background papers on key issues concerning Senate ratification of the New START nuclear arms control treaty. Several, on complicated issues including tactical nuclear weapons, were shared with key Senate staff during the ratification debate. Other legislative materials produced by students included a “scouting report” predicting the positions of Senators on the treaty, and an extensive side-by-side textual analysis of the provisions of the treaty, ratification resolutions, and proposed amendments.
-Drafting a Package of Advocacy Materials on Congressional Law Clerk Initiative – In Fall 2010 the FLAC prepared a diverse package of materials in support of the Clinic’s effort to pass H.R. 151 / S. 27, legislation that would create a law clerk program in Congress. Examples include a proposal – now adopted – for the ABA and AALS government affairs committees endorsing the iniatitive; a point paper and letters to Senators; an op-ed; a national law student petition; and a statement by “legal luminaries.”
- Analyzing International, Federal, State, and Local Laws – Working with the FLAC’s prior client, Workplace Flexibility 2010, students in prior years analyzed existing models of workplace flexibility on the international, federal, state and local levels. See Memorandum on The United Kingdom Flexible Working Act, Memorandum on The Federal Employees Flexible and Compressed Work Schedules Act, Chart on Title VII and Flexible Work Arrangements to Accommodate Religious Practice and Belief, available at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/workplaceflexibility2010/law/index.cfm.
- Analyzing Agency Regulations and Comments on Regulations – Students prepared analyses of proposed federal rules. See FMLA Comment Review Memoranda, available at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/workplaceflexibility2010/law/fmla.cfm.
- Contributing to Bi-Partisan Congressional Briefings–Students drafted materials for Senate staff at a bi-partisan briefing on the Family and Medical Leave Act. (See FMLA Comment Review Memoranda, available at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/workplaceflexibility2010/law/fmla.cfm).
|
3. Written and Oral Exercises. The FLAC trains its student legislative lawyers to be outstanding communicators through a series of exercises that require tracking and briefing legislative and policy issues over the long term; successfully leading decision-focused meetings with colleagues; and effectively advocating to congressional and administrative staff members. Each FLAC student presents at least nine times during term, and receives detailed feedback after each presentation. The FLAC trains its students to brief under real-world conditions and to actual senior leaders from the Legislative and Executive Branches. In Fall 2010, FLAC students briefed a U.S. Senator, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, the former CIA General Counsel, and former State Department Chief of Staff, among others.
4. Legislative Encounters. Through firsthand experience and frequent reflection, outstanding legislative lawyers develop a tactile sense for how law, policy, process, politics, and personalities together shape the legislative and administration options available to clients and principals. FLAC provides opportunities for its legislative lawyer students to interact with a series of distinguished guests and visit Congress and administrative agencies.
Through this four part approach, the FLAC enables students to develop their skills with regard to:
- Understanding and articulating a specific legal need of a client or principal with regard to a particular policy issue;
- Planning and implementing a timely research strategy;
- Analyzing the relevant legal and policy data;
- Drafting clear, concise, and effective legislative and policy documents; and
- Presenting legal and policy issues in an effective oral manner.
Faculty and Fellows
A critical source of learning for Clinic students comes from their interactions with the Clinic faculty and fellows. The job of the faculty and fellows is to guide the development of the students’ work in a manner that will enable the student to take responsibility for serving as the legislative lawyer, on his or her particular issue, for the client or principal. The faculty and fellows also offer a wealth of political experience that they share with students on an ongoing basis. Professor Rudesill and two fellows will teach the clinic in 2011-12.
|
