Students and attorneys in the law school's Collaborative Family Law Clinic have helped under-represented families in Los Angeles via collaborative divorce mediation for a decade. Now, thanks to an interdisciplinary partnership with Loyola Marymount University’s art therapy program, they are making new breakthroughs via art therapy.

Beginning this semester, spouses meet with an art therapist and student prior to their initial mediation session with the clinic.

As a student advocate, I was tasked with eliciting details from the client about what they wanted to accomplish in that session," said Jake Carlis '24. "The art therapy worked in conjunction with our questions aimed at building an agenda. The art seemed to calm everything down and made asking these tough questions a little easier." More>>

Youth Justice Education Clinic (YJEC) student advocate Sarah Lucero '23 recently had the opportunity to advocate at a Southern California school district board meeting on behalf of disabled students.

Lucero was protesting the use of sheriff’s deputies for school security, citing evidence of racial disparities and possible discrimination by law enforcement in the district. She noted that students with disabilities are more likely to be referred to police than their peers. The local newspaper took note, and she was quick to credit her training in the YJEC policy practicum, a companion course to the clinic that trains students to engage in policy advocacy on issues raised by the clinic’s legal cases. Lucero was recently awarded a post-graduate Skadden Fellowship to continue her advocacy for youth with disabilities. More>>

The Loyola Genocide Justice Clinic (LGJC) has hosted multiple panels over the last year to examine the factual, legal, and humanitarian concerns at the heart of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia's claims of genocide targeting ethnic Russians in Ukraine are one of Putin's asserted rationales for invading Ukraine.

Following the invasion, Ukraine filed an application against Russia at the International Court of Justice under the U.N. Genocide Convention alleging its right to be free from such false claims and not to be subjected to military operations on its territory based on such claims.

Most recently, the center hosted "Genocide and Human Rights Atrocities in Ukraine: What Lawyers and Law Students Can Do" featuring Olena Protsenko, a Ukrainian human rights attorney. Protsenko is co-teaching as an adjunct professor in the LGJC this year as the clinic joins nationwide efforts to represent clients with claims relating to the conflict. The panel also included Loyola Professors David Glazier, Stan Goldman, and Clinic Director Rajika Shah, as well as Chapman Law Professor Michael Bazyler.