Top Law Schools Back New Social Justice Foundation

Five top law schools are supporting a new national legal foundation aimed at advancing social justice and equity.

Columbia Law School, Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, Stanford Law School, UCLA School of Law, and Yale Law School have each partnered with the Social Justice Legal Foundation, which seeks to identify pressing legal issues and develop the new generation of trial lawyers in the public sector. The foundation, funded and created by the partners of Southern California-based law firm Hueston Hennigan LLP, officially launched on January 28.

A NEW GENERATION

The Social Justice Legal Foundation’s mission, according to their website, is to “create a new model for advancing social justice by focusing on groundbreaking trial work and innovative collaboration across private, public and academic sectors.”

The Foundation will serve as an incubator for the new generation of trial lawyers in the public sector by sponsoring five law school graduates as Hueston Hennigan Fellows for two-year terms. Representatives from each of the five law schools will work with Foundation to select promising leaders from its graduating class to serve the two-year fellowship.

“This is an incredible opportunity for UCLA Law’s public interest graduates to receive incredible litigation training with leading national trial attorneys,” Brad Sears, UCLA Law’s associate dean of public interest programs, who will serve on the foundation’s board of advisors for UCLA, asserts in a press release.

FOCUS AREAS

The Foundation plans to rotate its areas of attention every two years to address a number of focus areas including: economic justice, housing/homeless discrimination, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant justice, Native American discrimination, and voting rights and criminal justice reform.

Additionally, the Foundation plans on collaborating with other social justice organizations and bar association in taking important cases to trial. The Foundation will begin with an executive director, two full-time staff attorneys, five Hueston Hennigan fellows, and pro bono attorney support from trial lawyers at Hueston Hennigan.

Sources: Hueston Hennigan LLP, UCLA Law, Social Justice Legal Foundation