The Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC), launched in 2009, is the first clinical law program solely dedicated to the issue of human trafficking. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor, and servitude.
The HTC offers students the opportunity to work on both domestic and international human trafficking issues and cases. The HTC provides a range of services, including direct representation of both domestic trafficking victims and foreign nationals trafficked into the United States, advocacy for trafficking victims, and community education and training. The HTC also provides students with the opportunity to learn, practice, and improve essential advocacy skills. Students working in the HTC obtain real-world experience by working on behalf of victims of human trafficking. They also collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, including survivors of human trafficking, law enforcement, government officials, and nongovernmental organizations, to identify solutions to combat human trafficking. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC.
The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. The 4 credit clinic and 3 credit seminar are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”).
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic fulfills the International or Comparative Law Distribution Requirement for graduation.