PUBLIC LAW & POLICY WRK GROUP

Catalog description

May be used to satisfy the Writing Requirement. PUBLIC LAW & POLICY WORK GROUP is designed for students who want to use their growing legal skills to help solve policy problems facing California's state and local governments. Each semester, the Work Group takes on three to five different policy problems suggested by the Public Law Research Institute's partners in Sacramento and in local government. Working in small teams with a faculty partner, the students analyze the problem's legal dimensions, consult with the policy-maker suggesting the problem, and collaborate to respond to the policy-maker's needs, developing a regulatory strategy, for example; or presenting a report to a legislative body; or writing a primer to guide policy implementation. Along the way, the work groups engage with a common curriculum focused on the lawyer's role in the policy process, learning the rudiments of policy analysis, advanced research skills and how to make presentations and write about law to a policy audience. The menu of projects for the fall semester is posted on the Public Law Research Institute's website just before the semester begins. Past work groups have helped draft regulations to implement the Voters FIRST Act; analyzed the constitutionality of sex offender registration laws for the Assembly and Senate Public Safety Committees; briefed the Senate Office of Research on California's authority to regulate transgenic salmon; advised local officials on state and federal language access laws, and much more.