YLS Partners with San Francisco City Attorney and Boalt Law School in Affirmative Litigation Working Group

Yale Law School students will get an opportunity to explore innovative public policy litigation strategies as the result of a unique collaboration with the San Francisco Attorney’s Office and the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced the formation of an affirmative litigation working group on December 14, partnering students and faculty from the two law schools with his office, which has won national recognition for its pioneering public interest litigation involving such issues as tobacco, lead paint, reproductive rights, and marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.

Students from the schools will participate in lectures and work with law school faculty and deputies from the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office as they research and prepare litigation proposals for consideration by the San Francisco City Attorney.  The Yale students will focus on the areas of consumer protections for the working poor, affordable housing, voting rights, the environment, and health care.  If their proposals develop into litigation, the students will assist in drafting and working on public interest civil actions. 

"Yale Law School's mission has never been to accept the law as it is, but rather, to advance a better vision of what the law might be,” said Dean Harold Hongju Koh. “We are proud to join San Francisco and Boalt Hall in this innovative endeavor, which will educate our students, inform our scholarship, and creatively promote the public good."

“I expect great results from this partnership of lawyers and law students who recognize the vital role that public law offices have to play in making the world a better place,” said Herrera.