Given the range of meanings of public interest lawyering and the variety of practice settings the Epstein Program expects its graduates to encounter, no single curriculum would be appropriate for all students in the Program.  The Epstein Program fully expects students with interests in environmental law, for example, to take a sequence of both clinical and doctrinal courses quite different from that pursued by someone whose interests focus on issues of immigrants rights.  The Epstein Program offers its students individualized counseling and mentoring about a sensible curriculum, including courses outside the School of Law.  But, in addition, the Epstein Program believes there are a core set of topics, analytic frameworks, issues, and ongoing discussions with which any public interest lawyer should be acquainted.  Indeed, in developing the Epstein Program, Program faculty thought about how students would best acquire at least the rudiments of all the abilities they would be required to utilize in practice, including:  

  • conducting careful doctrinal research and preparing effective oral and written argumentation
  • collecting and analyzing large quantities of evidence in all forms, from client narratives to statistical data
  • working collaboratively with colleagues and people in communities and professions
  • analyzing and forecasting political currents, from a local city council committee to the Congress or European Union
  • working with others to forge new social and political movements and organizations
  • evaluating critically and making use of conceptual and empirical work across a wide range of disciplines and professions
  • understanding and knowing how to use the media of communication
  • understanding in a pragmatic way the political and legislative processes that produce law and redistribute wealth and power

The Epstein Program has four core curricular components:  (i) the first-year Program Lawyering Skills section, (ii) the first-year workshop, (iii) the second-year problem-solving seminar, and (iv) the upper-class writing requirement.  All of these are requirements for Program students.  Enrollment in the required courses is limited to Epstein Program students.  Epstein Program students are generally able to satisfy the writing requirement by taking any one of a number of seminars or an independent study.