POLICY CLINIC: Climate, Health, Human Rights & Trade (Harrison Institute for Public Law)

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Faculty / Prof. Stumberg, Adj. Profs. Porterfield, Hoverter, and Fellow DeWeese
What do students do / Students support clients who make and shape public policy—from local to global—in one of four teams. These include climate, health, human rights and trade policy. They analyze lawmaking authority, develop options to change policy, present work to clients and seminars, and help clients plan their strategy. Seminars focus on strategy, analysis, and communication skills. See the Institute’s web page for more on policy skills and curriculum here.
Semester or year-long / Full Year or Fall only
Open to / All 2Ls and 3Ls (at least 31 credits)
Prerequisite(s) / First-year courses
Credits / 8 for Fall only; 14 for full year (8 in Fall, 6 in Spring)
Requires Student Bar Cert. / Yes
How many students / 14, at least 10 of whom will enroll for the full year
Conflicts / Handle on a case-by-case basis
Average time commitment / Average per week: Fall-semester, 28 hours – Spring-semester, 21 hours
Work on projects ends by May 15.
Seminar hours / Tues. 3:30-5:00 and Fri. 9:00-12:00
Orientation / Mandatory orientation is on Thursday and Friday afternoons, August 24 and 25.
Information session(s) / Thursday, March 30, 11:00am-12:00pm, McDonough 344
Tuesday, April 4, 1:00pm-2:00pm, McDonough 425
Thursday, April 6, 11:00am-12:00pm, Hotung 5021

ABOUT THE POLICY CLINIC – The Harrison Institute for Public Law

Policy goals and teams. Students work in four teams to advance client goals, which include:

  • Climate team –
  • Adaptation – Enable cities to preparefor hotter summers, higher seas, and heavier downpours.
  • Equity – Empower low-income communities in urban and rural areas to protect their homes and neighborhoods from climate impacts.
  • Health team –
  • School food – Reinvent a healthier foodchain for school children.
  • Health disparities – Meet urgent oral health needs of low-income children.
  • Health Justice Alliance – Develop advocacy projects for Georgetown University’s HJA.
  • Human rights team –
  • Procurement – Help governments and institutions respect human rights in their own procurement.
  • Transparency – Make transparency happen in global supply chains for apparel and other sectors.
  • Trade team –
  • Carbon pricing – Promote state collaboration with international carbon pricing programs.
  • Foreign investment – Prevent tobacco company litigation against small countries.

Clients and collaborators

The Harrison Institute supports actors who shape and make public policy. Some of our clients are nonprofit coalitions that promote policy change at various levels – local, state, federal, and international. Others are decision-makers – legislators, attorneys general, regulatory or procurement agencies, and their associations. See our web page for more on clients and collaborators here.

Student work and policy skills

Students in the Policy Clinic analyze law-making authority, identify options for changing policy, help clients plan their strategy, and draft documents based on client choices. Our students learn three skill sets that they can transfer to any job, anywhere:

  • Strategy and management – includes strategic planning, theory of change, meeting management
  • Research and analysis –interpreting statutes/treaties, analyzing legal authority, policy choices
  • Communication – presentation skills, formatting visual information, writing process, writing/drafting skills

Range of services
Our clients ask us to:

  • Identify policy gaps – or problems that policy can solve.
  • Analyze lawmaking authority and its limits – at multiple levels.
  • Analyze policy options at all levels – local, state, federal, and international.
  • Draft policy proposals – model legislation and agency rules.
  • Organize hearings or conferences and make presentations.
  • Prepare policy briefs and web pages for public education.
  • Train community leaders and build capacity of their institutions.
  • Create the legal structure for an association or network.
  • Support strategic planning.

Clinical teaching methods
Students work at least 28 hours per week in the fall semester and 21 hours in the spring. About half of this time is structured interaction that creates a blueprint for independent student work. The rest is independent student work. In a typical fall week, our expectations for student-faculty interaction are:

  • Seminars – 6.5 hours per week
  • Team meetings and peer critique – 2.5 hours per week
  • Supervisor meetings – 1.5 hours per week
  • Client or constituency meetings – 2 hours per week
  • Independent student work – 15.5 hours per week

POTENTIAL PROJECTS(likely to evolve or change over the summer)

Climate policy projects – See our web page for more on projects and clients.

Topic/ goal / status / Clients and collaborators / Student work
Sea level rise
  • Adapt coastal cities to rising seas
  • Committed project, student role not yet defined
/
  • Georgetown Climate Center
  • City of Virginia Beach
  • Potentially other cities
/
  • Analyze state and local authority
  • Help city choose land-use, building, and infrastructure policies

Equity in adaptation
  • Help communities protect vulnerable people and neighborhoods from heat and flooding
  • Committed project, student role defined
/
  • Washington, DC, Department of Energy and Environment
  • Community-based stakeholders
  • Potentially other cities
/
  • Analyze local authority
  • Develop model policies to link environment and social needs
  • Present analysis in webinars and community forums

Health policy projects– See our web page for more on projects and clients.

Topic/goal /status / Clients and collaborators / Student work
School food
  • Expand purchase of fresh, local, and sustainable food by schools, etc.
  • Committed project, student role defined
/
  • School Food FOCUS
  • Health Care Without Harm
  • California collaborative of school districts (Oakland, San Diego and others)
  • Potentially other large urban school districts from all regions of the United States
/
  • Develop model contracts for suppliers to buy fresh food from local farmers
  • Analyze authority of school districts to prefer local sources
  • Analyze ability of school districts to purchase collaboratively, as well as with hospitals
  • Present analysis in webinars and at regional, national conferences

Health disparities
  • Expand access to oral health care for low-income children
  • Develop new policy projects for the Health Justice Alliance
  • Committed project, student role not yet defined
/
  • Georgetown University’s Health Justice Alliance (Medical School and Law Center)
  • O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
  • Other community stakeholders
/
  • Interview local experts to determine scope and severity of problems
  • Analyze best practices from around the country to provide potential solutions
  • Analyze DC legal and regulatory framework to determine which solutions might work here

Human rights projects– See our web page for more on projects and clients.

Topic/ goal / status / Clients and collaborators / Student work
Procurement & human rights
  • Protect human rights of workers in government supply chains
  • Committed project, student role defined
/
  • International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)
  • Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council
  • International Learning Lab on Procurement & Human Rights
  • University purchasing consortia and potentially some state governments
/
  • Develop model policies to require supply-chain transparency
  • Investigate and map supply chains of gov’t contractors, US & Europe
  • Analyze authority of agencies to protect human rights under treaty commitments & national law
  • Present analysis in webinars for international audience

Trade and environment policy projects – See our web page for more on projects and clients.

Topic/ goal / status / Clients and collaborators / Student work
Sustainable fisheries
  • Develop strategies for promoting transparency in global seafood supply chains
  • Create tools for assessing risk of human rights abuses in seafood supply chains
Developmental project, depends on student interest /
  • Seaweb
  • Potentially other environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
/
  • Analyze existing laws promoting seafood supply chain transparency (e.g., COOL labeling regulations, and the Seafood Import Management Program)
  • Analyze risk of violations of international human rights standards (e.g., prohibition on forced labor) in seafood supply chains)

Carbon pricing & trade rules
  • Promote implementation of carbon pricing
Developmental project, depends on student interest /
  • Pardee Center (Boston University) Trade and Climate Working Group
  • Congressional offices
  • Potentially, environmental NGOs
  • Potentially, state and local governments in the United States
/
  • Analyze consistency of carbon-pricing proposals with WTO rules
  • Identify options for state governments to collaborate with international carbon pricing programs

US-China Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)
  • Protect environmental and other public interest regulatory authority
  • Protect ability of governments to own, subsidize, and operate public utilities
Developmental project, depends on student interest /
  • Pardee Center (Boston University)
  • Congressional offices
  • Potentially, environmental NGOs
  • Potentially, state and local governments in the United States
/
  • Analyze role of House of Reps in approval and implementation of Article II treaties
  • Analyze health and security safeguards in the U.S. and China model BITs
  • Analyze impact of BIT on state-owned utilities (electricity, gas, water, transportation)
  • Evaluate options for incorporating investment treaty reforms into U.S.-China BIT

Investment treaties & tobacco
  • Prevent tobacco litigation against small countries with progressive laws
  • Committed project, student role defined
/
  • Action on Smoking & Health
  • S.E. Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)
/
  • Analyze investment treaties of selected countries
  • Develop model language to carve out right to litigate against tobacco control measures
  • Present analysis in webinars for international audience

Trade in Services Agreement
  • Preserve policy space for governments to regulate service industries, provide public services, and experiment without locking in to permanent privatization
  • Developmental project, depends on student interest
/
  • Public Services International
  • Third World Network
  • Potentially, state, regional, and local governments in the United States, Europe and developing countries
/
  • Analyze the impact of TiSA on public services in developing countries
  • Analyze TiSA status under U.S. law for negotiation of new agreements and implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act

CLINIC WORK AT END OF SEMESTER

The Harrison Institute depends on its students to complete the work commitments they make to their clients or project teams. This requires careful planning throughout the year in order to create reasonable expectations. Yearlong students must complete work by May 15th; fall-semester-only students must complete work by January 15th.

SELECTION CRITERIA/APPLICATION PROCESS

Application Process

•Information session. Sign up for an information session to learn about the Policy Clinic by sending an email to . These sessions are scheduled in advance with other times by request:

  • Thursday, March 30, 11:00am-12:00pm, McDonough 344
  • Tuesday, April 4, 1:00pm-2:00pm, McDonough 425
  • Thursday, April 6, 11:00am-12:00pm, Hotung 5021

•Application deadlines. Submit your online clinic application by 12:00pm(noon) on Monday, April 10, 2017.

  • The general application asks you to rank up to three clinics.
  • If you rank the Policy Clinic, indicate “full-year” or “fall-semester only”
  • As part of your application, upload your resume, transcript, a general statement of interest, and up to three statements of interest for specific clinics.

•Supplemental preference form. When you submit your statement of interest for the Policy Clinic, please cut and paste the project preference form (page 8 below) as page two of that same document. Type preference rating into the blanks on that form.

Criteria for Selecting Students

•Matching interests. Students often have strong preferences for working on certain projects and low interest in others. As part of your clinic application, we ask you to cut-and-paste a supplemental preference form as page two of your statement of interest in the Policy Clinic. The form asks you to rate your interest in potential (not guaranteed) projects on a scale of 10.

•Personal commitment. We look for evidence of the personal commitment that is necessary to sustain the effort and specific kind of activities that our practice requires. We look for this in the experience shown on your resume, your project preference ratings (see page 8), and our conversation at an information session or interview.

•Personal preparation. Many of our projects require competency in a particular legal subject such as coastal land use controls, public procurement, international trade law, or international human rights. We usually show a preference for students who have prepared themselves by learning a language or taking relevant courses prior to starting the clinic – in law school or before. Advance preparation accelerates a student’s capacity to serve our clients and enables the clinic to function as a capstone experience that integrates and applies knowledge gained through classroom courses.

•Student diversity. Diversity strengthens our seminar, teamwork, and client relations. The Harrison Institute affirmatively recruits students with language abilities, minorities, women, and students with diverse political backgrounds. We also value graduate training or work experience in non-legal disciplines.

STUDENTS – 2016-17

Climate team
Jennifer Afflu
Monica Kreymer
Ryan Reed
Katherine Swartz
Food and health team
Andrew Lu
Gina Pickerrell
Sunny Sikka
Trade team
Igor Herbey
Xiushan Sun
Human rights team
Tanya Abrahamian
Richard Flannery
Nicole Russell
Lizet Steele

CLINIC STAFF

Offices are located on the first floor of McDonough Hall, suite 120

Robert Stumberg – Director, 202-662-9603,

Matthew Porterfield – Deputy Director, works on trade policyhuman rights

Sara Hoverter – Staff Attorney, works on health & climate policy

James DeWeese – Fellow, works on climate policy (a new fellow will begin next summer)

Robert Stumberg

Director and Professor of Law,

BA, with honors, Macalester College; JD, Georgetown University; LLM Georgetown University. His past positions include policy director at the Center for Policy Alternatives and legislative counsel for Montgomery County, MD. He has 40 years of experience in policy topics that include international trade and investment, climate adaptation, community food systems, economic development, and housing policy. His recent publications include Turning a Blind Eye? Respecting Human Rights in Government Purchasing (International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, 2015), Safeguards for Tobacco Control, 39 Am. J. Law & Med. 382 (2013); and The WTO, Services and the Environment, in Handbook on Trade and the Environment (2008).

Matthew Porterfield
Deputy Director and Adjunct Professor,
BA, University of Vermont; JD, Magna Cum Laude, Vermont Law School; LLM, Georgetown University. Matt’s recent publications includeExhaustion of Local Remedies in Investor-State Dispute Settlement: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?, Yale Journal of International Law Online (2015); TTIP and Climate Change: Low Economic Benefits, Real Climate Risks, Investment Treaty News(with Kevin P. Gallagher, December 2015);Investment Provisions in Trade and Investment Treaties: The Need for Reform, Boston University – Global Economic Governance Initiative Policy Brief (with Gus Van Harten and Kevin P. Gallagher, 2015); andAron Broches and the Withdrawal of Unilateral Offers of Consent to Investor-State Arbitration, Investment Treaty NewsQuarterly (2014).

Sara Pollock Hoverter
Staff Attorney (health & climate) and Adjunct Professor,

BA, Yale University; JD, Cum Laude, Georgetown University; LLM, Advocacy, Georgetown University. Her area of concentration is health policy, including climate change and public health, Medicaid, state and federal health reform, improving school nutrition, and the use of community health workers to reach vulnerable populations. Past positions include: law clerk at the National Partnership for Women and Families, research assistant for the Center for Law and the Public’s Health, and program associate at the DC Appleseed Center. Recent publications include Human Health Impacts of Climate Change: Implications for the Practice and Law of Public Health,J. Law, Med. & Ethics, with Jill Krueger and Paul Biedrzycki (2015), Adapting to Urban Heat: A Tool Kit for Local Governments (2012), Compendium of Federal Programs with Potential for Use in Urban Heat Adaptation (Georgetown Climate Center, 2013), and guest editor, Legal Solutions in Health Reform, J. Law, Med. & Ethics, Symposium issue (Fall 2009).

James DeWeese

Fellow (climate),

BA, Magna Cum Laude, University of Pittsburgh; JD, Cum Laude, Duke University School of Law. His past positions include: associate attorney at Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP (Burlington, VT);

Law Clerk to the Hon. Chief Justice Paul Reiber, Vermont Supreme Court; Assistant News Editor at

Dow Jones Newswires; Reporter at The Press of Atlantic City; Reporter and Photographer at the TimesLedger Newspapers of New York; Translator/Coordinator for Conde Nast Spain’s Spanorama; Editor-in-Chief at The Nutshell/Vaughan Review (Madrid).

Jessica Grannis
Adjunct Professor,

BA, University of Chicago; JD, Cum Laude, University of California Hastings; LLM, with distinction, Georgetown University. Prior to the Harrison Institute, she was staff counsel for two California state agencies, the State Coastal Conservancy and the Ocean Protection Council. Prior to her work in state government, she worked as an associate for a civil litigation firm focusing on real property disputes. Recent publications include: Coastal Retreat Measures, in The Law Of Adaptation To Climate Change: U.S. And International Aspects (2012) (with Prof. J. Peter Byrne); Coastal Management in the Face of Rising Seas: Legal Strategies for Connecticut, Sea Grant Law and Policy J. (2012); and contributing author to the Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment on Coastal Impacts, Adaptations, and Vulnerabilities, which was used to draft the 2014 National Climate Assessment.

Jason Newman
Adjunct Professor,

BA, Boston University; JD Georgetown University. Jason Newman founded the Harrison Institute, and after he retired, continues to serve as adjunct professor. Before coming to Georgetown in 1971, he served as Counsel to the D.C. City Council and the Montgomery County Council, as well as Special Counsel in the Office of Economic Opportunity. He also was a member of the congressionally appointed commission that established Home Rule for the District of Columbia in 1973. He is also the founder of an international citizen education project, Street Law Inc., which operates in 47 states and many other countries. Since retiring from Georgetown, Professor Newman has served as Executive Director of the Cayman Brac University Medical School.