The clinic offers students experience litigating local matters that, often, have national impact. And it shines a light on the opportunities available at the state and local level as the federal landscape shifts.
For many students, that experience changed their career trajectories, and they in turn have changed their communities for the better. The project resulted in lasting regulation of crisis pregnancy centers. Through her 2L and 3L years, Caruso also helped with the Proposition 8 litigation as the case traveled through the Ninth Circuit and on to the Supreme Court.
It helped anchor this experience that sometimes felt like drinking from a firehose of heavily theoretical study and kept me engaged. She now teaches local government law with an emphasis on consumer protection at the University of Maine School of Law.
Every stage of her professional journey was influenced by her experience in the clinic, said Caruso. When Habig entered Yale Law School, most of the other highly ranked law schools did not have local government classes.
SFALP has challenged that norm. She joined the clinic as a 2L in September of By January, she said, she was assisting on the sanctuary cities case. During her time in the clinic, Lau worked on a successful lawsuit against Uber and Lyft for misclassifying their drivers as independent contractors instead of employees, as well as a groundbreaking climate change lawsuit against the five largest fossil-fuel corporations.
