Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic | Columbia Law School

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Our Students

Simrin Parmar ’08: “The clinic is the first and only of its kind in the country and it’s doing such innovative work. Professor Goldberg is such a trailblazer in the field that I can't think of working with anyone better.”

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Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic

Columbia Law School's Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic, founded in the fall of 2006, is the first law school clinic anywhere in the U.S. directed by a full-time law school faculty member and dedicated to legal and public policy issues related to gender and sexuality.

In the Issues section of this website, you will find resources for the general public, as well as for lawyers and law students, on a wide array of gender and sexuality issues.  

These resources, and more, are all produced by Columbia Law Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic students who spend a semester or more in the clinic's intensive learning and working environment.  Here, they hone lawyering and advocacy skills while working directly on cutting-edge sexuality and gender law issues and providing vital assistance to lawyers and organizations throughout the country and the world that advocate for the equality and safety of women and lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender individuals.

The clinic emphasizes multidimensional lawyering, which is the practice of being strategic, smart, and creative in identifying and deploying resources to advocate for social change. Our projects encompass all forms of advocacy. This includes:

  • Litigation
  • Public policy development
  • Legislative drafting
  • Training
  • Organizing
  • Public education
  • Media outreach

“It’s rare for a law student to be able to ask a state’s high court to adopt a different method of constitutional interpretation. That’s what we did in submitting our amicus brief to the Iowa Supreme Court in the case of Varnum v. Brien. The experience has been invaluable and has reminded me that I chose to become a lawyer so that I could help to provide all individuals with equal access to the law.”

– Keren Zwick ’09

Faculty Highlight: Director Suzanne Goldberg

Suzanne B. Goldberg is a leading national expert in sexuality and gender law. Goldberg is Clinical Law Professor and Director of the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic at Columbia Law School, where she also teaches civil procedure and seminars in lawyering and social change.

To read Goldberg’s full biography and to find her contact information, visit the Faculty Contacts page.

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