Center for Social Justice

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What We Do

The Center for Social Justice provides strategic leadership of social justice activities at the law school and promotes a strong public interest campus culture. The Center’s goal is to help all students find meaningful ways to incorporate justice work into their professional identity and future practice.

UC Law SF has a myriad of opportunities for students to be engaged in work with and for the community—there are so many offerings it can be overwhelming! The Center consolidates, coordinates and communicates about these opportunities, so students can more easily learn about and engage in social justice work and be connected to faculty, staff and other students who engage in social justice programming and education. Key features of the Center are: a Social Justice Speaker Series, a peer mentor program, a wide range of pro bono and community service opportunities, a catalogue of related course offerings, and direction on where to seek academic & career counseling for public interest summer and post-graduate employment and funding.

What We Do

The Center for Social Justice provides strategic leadership of social justice activities at the law school and promotes a strong public interest campus culture. The Center’s goal is to help all students find meaningful ways to incorporate justice work into their professional identity and future practice.

UC Law SF has a myriad of opportunities for students to be engaged in work with and for the community—there are so many offerings it can be overwhelming! The Center consolidates, coordinates and communicates about these opportunities, so students can more easily learn about and engage in social justice work and be connected to faculty, staff and other students who engage in social justice programming and education. Key features of the Center are: a Social Justice Speaker Series, a peer mentor program, a wide range of pro bono and community service opportunities, a catalogue of related course offerings, and direction on where to seek academic & career counseling for public interest summer and post-graduate employment and funding.

What is Social Justice

Social Justice is a value; those acting to further social justice promote access to resources, equity, participation, and human rights. Social Justice lawyers advocate for these concepts in partnership with people and communities that have less structural and political power. There are many means that lawyers use to work towards social justice, including litigation, community organizing, public education and outreach and policy advocacy.

Our College’s motto is Fiat Justicia, translated as Let Justice Be Done. At the Center for Social Justice, we believe that all lawyers can and should participate in the cause of social justice and that law schools play an important role in helping students discover how to integrate this value into their professional identities. We hope to empower and support all students to seek out opportunities to aid the cause of justice. While some lawyers will choose to dedicate the whole or a substantial part of their professional lives to social justice, others will contribute to social justice in other ways, such as contributing resources and/or taking on pro bono clients.

Social Justice on Campus

Bridge Fellowships Support Recent UC Law SF Grads Doing Public Interest Work

When Aadil Muhammad graduated from UC Law San Francisco in 2020, he dreamed of working for a public defender’s office, but financial obstacles made that…

Law Students Investigate Climate Migration and Human Rights in Honduras

UC Law San Francisco students participating in the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic put their knowledge to work in Honduras – where they interviewed experts…

Law Professors from Overseas Visit UC Law SF to Learn About its Clinical Programs

Faculty visitors from foreign law schools recently flew across oceans to visit the campus of UC Law San Francisco to learn more about its robust…

UC Law SF Clinic Celebrates Legal Victory for Workers’ Rights

Two recent UC Law SF graduates played a pivotal role in a case that is expected to make it easier for laid-off workers to obtain…

UC Law SF Grad Works With Incarcerated People Through Summer Fellowship

This summer, Karissa Provenza ’22 is putting her new UC Law SF law degree to work at the nonprofit For the People. There, she works…

UC Law SF Students Provide Free Legal Assistance Through Public Interest, Pro Bono Programs

UC Law SF law students worked approximately 55,000 unpaid hours over the last year providing more than $7 million in free legal support to nonprofits,…

Social Justice on Campus

Bridge Fellowships Support Recent UC Law SF Grads Doing Public Interest Work

When Aadil Muhammad graduated from UC Law San Francisco in 2020, he dreamed of working for a public defender’s office, but financial obstacles made that…

Law Students Investigate Climate Migration and Human Rights in Honduras

UC Law San Francisco students participating in the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic put their knowledge to work in Honduras – where they interviewed experts…

Law Professors from Overseas Visit UC Law SF to Learn About its Clinical Programs

Faculty visitors from foreign law schools recently flew across oceans to visit the campus of UC Law San Francisco to learn more about its robust…

UC Law SF Clinic Celebrates Legal Victory for Workers’ Rights

Two recent UC Law SF graduates played a pivotal role in a case that is expected to make it easier for laid-off workers to obtain…

UC Law SF Grad Works With Incarcerated People Through Summer Fellowship

This summer, Karissa Provenza ’22 is putting her new UC Law SF law degree to work at the nonprofit For the People. There, she works…

UC Law SF Students Provide Free Legal Assistance Through Public Interest, Pro Bono Programs

UC Law SF law students worked approximately 55,000 unpaid hours over the last year providing more than $7 million in free legal support to nonprofits,…

Events

There are no upcoming events at this time, please check back soon.

Affiliated Faculty and Staff

Fairuz Abdullah

Deputy Director of the Career Development Office

Blaine Bookey

Adjunct Professor of Law and Legal Director, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

Kyla Burke-Lazarus

Associate Director of Public Interest Public Service Programs

Ming Chen

Professor and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Director of the Center on Race, Immigration, Citizenship and Equality

Clark Freshman

Professor of Law

Brittany Glidden

Associate Clinical Professor & Faculty Co-Director of Public Interest and the Social Justice Center

Thalia González

Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center on Racial and Economic Justice

Emily Haan

Director of Student Services

Amy Kimmel ’01

Assistant Dean for the Career Development Office

Jennifer D. Oliva

Professor of Law and Co-Director, UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy

Ascanio Piomelli

Professor of Law

Dorit Reiss

Professor of Law and the James Edgar Hervey '50 Chair of Litigation

Gail Silverstein

Associate Dean for Experiential Learning, Co-Director of Public Interest and the Social Justice Center, and Clinical Professor of Law

Miguel Zavala

Associate Director of Student Life & Inclusion