The New Clinic

TO HELP FILL THE GAP IN THE EXPEriential curriculum with the closing of the clearinghouse, the law school is set to launch a new clinic this fall. The Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic will allow students to pursue racial and economic justice through direct legal representation in housing and employment matters. Students will also develop and conduct know-your-rights workshops and engage in strategic policy advocacy and reform grounded in the needs of the community.

Carla Laroche, the clinic director, will join W&L this fall from Florida State, where she directs and teaches in the Gender and Family Justice Clinic. Before joining Florida State, Laroche served as a fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Tallahassee, where she advocated for the reformation of mass incarceration of children and adults in Florida. She also served as a pro bono fellow at Hunton & Williams LLP and as a law clerk for the Hon. Donald M. Middlebrooks, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida. Laroche received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and her law degree from Columbia University.

Laroche, a first-generation Haitian American, was named an American Bar Association On the Rise Top 40 Young Lawyer. She co-chairs the ABA Criminal Justice Section Women in Criminal Justice Task Force and has received the National Bar Association 40 Under 40 Award, Excellence in Activism Award and the Young Lawyers Division’s Humanitarian Award.

Be on the lookout for more about the work of the new clinic in the next issue of Discovery.