Nondiscrimination Policy
Northeastern University is committed to providing equal opportunity to its students and employees and to eliminating discrimination when it occurs. Northeastern University does not condone discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, religious creed, genetics, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, veteran or disability status; all such forms of discrimination or harassment within the university community are unacceptable and will not be ignored. Nor is it acceptable for any member of the Northeastern community to engage in any form of retaliatory activity against any person who brings a complaint of discrimination or harassment, or who cooperates in a complaint investigation.
Student Organization Contact Information
The Queer Caucus (QC) is comprised of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, staff, and their allies. It is one of the school's most visible and active student groups. Through its many activities, including hosting dinner discussion groups, sending students to regional events sponsored by organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and organizing educational programs about queer issues, the group provides support and resources for the entire community.
Faculty Advisors
Lucy Williams
Professor
E-mail: lu.williams@neu.edu
Libby Adler
Professor
E-mail: l.adler@neu.edu
Faculty Contact Information
Libby Adler
Professor
E-mail: l.adler@neu.edu
Lucy Williams
Professor
E-mail: lu.williams@neu.edu
Administrator Contact Information
Emily Almas
Assistant Director of Admissions
E-mail: e.almas@neu.edu
Course Titles and/or Descriptions
Northeastern University School of Law integrates LGBT issues into many of the courses offered at the law school. LGBT issues historically have been discussed in constitutional law, contracts, trusts and estates, and family law courses. For example, students might engage in a discussion of governing intestacy (distribution of property for people who die without leaving a will) and how it disadvantages same-sex couples.
We also offer courses and co-ops that specifically focus on LGBT issues, some of which are detailed below.
Sexuality, Gender, and the Law
This course uses case law and theory to address doctrinal problems and justice concerns associated with gender and sexuality. The syllabus is organized around notions such as privacy, identity, and consent, all of which are conceptual pillars upon which arguments in the domain of sexuality and gender typically rely. Doctrinal topics include same-sex marriage, sodomy, sexual harassment, discrimination, among others, but the course is not a doctrinal survey; it is a critical inquiry into key concepts that cut across doctrinal areas. Students should expect to write a paper and share some of what they have learned with the class.
Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights
This course examines how sexual and reproductive health laws impede or increase access to sexual and reproductive health care and shape how we understand what constitutes sexual and reproductive health. Attention will be paid to understanding legal doctrine, public health research, and critically assessing issues arising from sexual and reproductive health law. The course draws on various tools of analysis including critical race theory, critical legal theory, human rights, and a range of public health methods.
Poverty Law Clinic
This clinic represents community-based organizations that seek to give poor people a powerful voice for self-determination. These poor people's organizations empower their members on issues of housing, work, and welfare. Organizational goals are pursued through community education, individual, and group advocacy. Clinic students are assigned to represent organizations, their members, and individual clients who seek assistance. In addition to community education, students appear before administrative, legislative, and judicial decision makers on behalf of their clients. Students focus on particular substantive legal areas such as employment, housing and welfare, and learn to make that knowledge available to community organizations. One of the community-based organizations includes an LGBT youth center.
Co-op
Northeastern University School of Law offers the nation's premier co-op program. Each NUSL student participates in four varied work experiences (co-ops) during law school. We have several participating co-op employers that focus on LGBT issues, including Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (Boston, MA); Human Rights Campaign (Washington, DC); Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund (Atlanta, GA); National Center for Lesbian Rights (San Francisco, CA); Sylvia Rivera Law Project (New York, NY); Transgender Law Center (San Francisco, CA); Make the Road New York (Brooklyn, NY); Law Office of Joyce Kauffman (Cambridge, MA); San Francisco Human Rights Commission, LGBT and HIV Division (San Francisco, CA); and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (New York, NY).
Domestic Partnership Benefits
Same-sex spousal equivalent benefits:
- Medical
- Dental
- Reimbursement
- Disability
- Life
- Retirement
- Tuition Waiver
Additional Information
Northeastern University School of Law is well known as a community that warmly welcomes LGBT students and produces
graduates who are leaders in the LGBT movement. Among our path-breaking graduates are Mary Bonauto '87, the lead GLAD
attorney responsible for establishing gay marriage in Massachusetts; Kevin Cathcart '82, executive director of Lambda Legal;
Richard Burns '83, former executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in New York;
and Urvashi Vaid '83, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation. Our graduates are on the
front lines in organizations across the country, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Human Rights Campaign,
legal services offices, and in public interest groups and private practices dedicated to protecting the rights of LGBT individuals
and their families.
At NUSL, you will find an active student organization called the Queer Caucus, whose members consist of LGBT students, staff,
and faculty, as well as their allies. The Queer Caucus provides support and resources for the law school community and hosts
and participates in events and programs relating to queer issues. NUSL also has had a Transgender Task Force composed of
faculty, staff, and students designed to address institutional obstacles facing transgender law students.
Our application for admission includes an optional question allowing applicants to self-identify as a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgender person; those who identify as transgender have the option of indicating which gender they prefer for our records as
well as preferred name. NUSL has successfully enrolled and graduated transgender students, and provides unisex facilities
available to all students. Our commitment to supporting LGBT issues, the significant LGBT community at the law school, and
the openness of our community make us stand apart from many law schools.
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