civil litigation

From Biomedical Engineering to Litigation: Meet Ruchita Jain

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 5 Comments

There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Our first four entries were with Sara Womble, a 2L from Winston Salem, NC, Elias Massion, who comes from Nashville, TN and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Samina Gagné from London and Columbia University, and Alvin Synarong from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Princeton.

Name: Ruchita Jain

Hometown: Edina, Minnesota 

Educational Background: B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University

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The Most Important Thing I Learned from Taking the Civil Litigation: Housing Justice Clinic

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post was written by Melanie Barber, a second-year student at BC Law.

In the fall, I participated in BC Law’s Civil Litigation: Housing Justice Clinic. I enrolled in the clinic because I was personally motivated by the work. I (like many Boston-area students) have collected my fair share of landlord horror stories and I relished the opportunity of holding landlords accountable. I also wanted to strengthen my understanding of civil procedure, which was not my strong suit when I took it as part of the 1L curriculum. Most importantly, I felt a growing obligation to use my legal education to critically consider access to justice issues.

Before our first seminar, my professor asked us to read an essay from Atul Gawande’s Complications. In this essay, titled Education of a Knife, Gawande reflects on his experience as a surgical resident learning to place a central line. He writes of his self-doubt and mistakes. It was an interesting read, but I remember thinking: what is my professor trying to suggest here? I am only a 2L trying to navigate the first few weeks of Evidence and Professional Responsibility. My professor isn’t going to throw me into a trial, right?

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Law School in Action: Massachusetts Attorney General Civil Litigation Program

/ Tess Halpern / 1 Comment

Boston College Law School gives its students a wide range of classes to take that are taught by some of the best scholars in the field. Yet, while learning about the law in a classroom is crucial to becoming a successful attorney, nothing prepares you for day-to-day practice more than getting hands-on experience before graduating. That’s where BC Law’s clinics come in.

Law students in their second and third years of study can apply for coveted spots in any of the school’s fifteen clinics. No matter what someone’s legal interest is, there’s a clinic for them! To help students better understand the opportunities available to them, the BC Law Impact Blog is highlighting each of these clinics this semester. Here is our interview with a co-director of the Massachusetts Attorney General Civil Litigation Program, Tom Barnico.

Tell us about your clinic!

The Massachusetts Attorney General Civil Litigation Program provides a full-year clinical experience in civil litigation in the Government Bureau of the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General (AGO). Students in the Program get to work directly with Bureau assistant attorneys general in the representation of state agencies and officials in state and federal courts. This is also the only clinic offered at BC Law where students get to conduct civil litigation in a public law office.

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The Covid Relief Housing Clinic

/ Devon Sanders / Leave a comment

The one year-mark of the Covid-19 shutdown that forced BC Law to fundamentally change its operations came and went last week. This pandemic-focused world has created realities that none of us could have ever predicted, simultaneously shutting doors and forcing new opportunities to emerge in their wake. The only thing that has remained constant over the past year is the uncertainty of what the near-future will bring.

BC Law has done its best to adapt. A unique example of this is the emergence of the Covid Relief Housing Clinic earlier this semester. What began as a Summer 2020 effort to help people in the greater Boston area receive unemployment benefits has transformed to a semester-long clinic opportunity, addressing urgent legal issues regarding housing and upholding the original goal to meet the timely legal needs of those within our community. 

I spoke with Professor Ana Rivera, who runs the clinic, to discuss the creation and utilization of this new addition to BC Law’s Experiential Learning Center.

1. When and how did the idea emerge for this clinic?

The idea for a clinic focused exclusively on housing came to me in the fall 2020, when the federal and local moratoria on evictions were scheduled to expire.  There was a great concern that the number of eviction matters would spike exponentially, as workers in the retail, hotel, and restaurant industries continued to struggle either to find new work or to receive unemployment insurance benefits. It seemed right from a social justice perspective to divert resources to this particular problem.  I contacted WATCH CDC, a family, housing, and adult education advocacy organization in Waltham, MA, with which our Civil Litigation Clinic has collaborated in the past, and proposed a partnership with BC Law to identify and provide legal assistance to Waltham tenants facing housing insecurity as a result of Covid-19.  Having such an intimate relationship with tenants in Waltham, WATCH, through its executive director Daria Gere, was acutely aware of the need and embraced the opportunity.  With the support of Professors Judy McMorrow and Renee Jones, the idea was realized.

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