Election Law Practicum at Georgetown University Law Center Will Aid Campaign Legal Center Litigation

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Paul Smith of Jenner & Block & J. Gerald Hebert of Legal Center to Lead Course

Beginning today, Georgetown University law students will have the opportunity to undertake hands-on legal work in pending election law and voting rights cases through a semester-long practicum course for credit.  The election law class will be co-taught by Paul M. Smith, the Chair of Jenner & Block’s Appellate and Supreme Court Practice, and J. Gerald Hebert, the Campaign Legal Center’s Executive Director and Director of Litigation.

The course will review campaign finance and voting rights cases, and will provide students opportunities to prepare legal memoranda and briefs in pending cases.  Students may also review proposed legislative materials, at a time when voting rights and campaign finance reforms are facing new challenges across the country.

“Voting rights and campaign finance litigation is highly specialized but vitally important work for the health of our democracy, and this course allows students to get under the hood and get their hands dirty in pending cases,” said J. Gerald Hebert of the Legal Center.  “Our goal is to help prepare students to make an impact in these fields at a watershed moment.  The U.S. Supreme Court has drastically altered voting rights and campaign finance law under Chief Justice John Roberts, making the coming years a critical period in the courts for both fields.  I know from experience that Georgetown University law students are exceptional and motivated students who will produce excellent work product to aid our effort to uphold existing campaign finance laws and safeguard the right to vote.”   

The semester-long course consists of a weekly two-hour seminar and ten-hours of supervised work per week.