RISE Clinic, Loyola Law School

Description

The Rights in Systems Enforced (RISE) Clinic, a new addition to the Loyola Social Justice Law Clinic, engages students in the direct representation of survivors of violent crime who seek to assert their rights in state and/or federal criminal enforcement systems, and require legal assistance with collateral civil matters. The RISE Clinic approaches survivor representation through a critical race and gender justice lens, which calls for culturally competent and trauma-informed legal counseling to center the interests of its clients. Through this work, the RISE Clinic joins a progressive intersectional anti-violence movement focused on survivor empowerment against private and state perpetrated harms. By foregrounding survivor voices, whose victimization is often complicated by their own criminality, the RISE Clinic opposes punitive legal regimes that overcriminalize and overincarcerate people of color and other groups disproportionately harmed by carceral
approaches to public safety.