San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project

The San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project (SFALP) is a clinical partnership between Yale Law School and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. Students work directly with deputy city attorneys to conceive, develop, and litigate some of the most innovative public interest lawsuits in the country—lawsuits that tackle problems with local dimensions but national effects. The clinic has worked on litigation dealing with myriad issues of consumer protection, civil rights, and public health. In 2017, SFALP helped win a nationwide injunction against the President’s sanctuary city order. During the last few years, it helped win a $1.1 billion victory against the lead paint industry, litigate the California same-sex marriage trial (dubbed the “trial of the century”), and file a consumer-protection case that made the cover of Businessweek. It is now working on one of the most innovative climate-change suits in the United States. The clinic serves as a national model for law schools across the country.

Learn more about SFALP’s decade-long history.