Diversity in Law School

Nondiscrimination Policy

The University of Denver strives to create and maintain a community in which people are treated with dignity, decency, and respect. The environment of the university should be characterized by mutual trust, freedom of inquiry and expression, and the absence of intimidation, oppression, and exploitation. People in this community should be able to work and learn in a safe, yet stimulating, atmosphere. The accomplishment of this goal is essential to the academic mission of the university.

It is a violation of this policy to discriminate in the provisions of educational or employment opportunities, benefits or privileges, to create discriminatory work or academic conditions, or to use discriminatory evaluative standards in employment or educational settings if the basis of that discriminatory treatment is, in whole or in part, the person's race, color, national origin, age, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, or veteran status.

Student Organization Contact Information

OUTLaws
E-mail: du.outlaws@gmail.com

Faculty Contact Information

Kevin Lynch
Assistant Professor
Phone: 303.871.6039
E-mail: klynch@law.du.edu

Kris Miccio
Associate Professor
Phone: 303.871.6361
E-mail: kmiccio@law.du.edu

Michael R. Siebecker
Professor
Phone: 303.871.6057
E-mail: msiebecker@law.du.edu

Catherine Smith
Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity and Inclusiveness
Phone: 303.871.6180
E-mail: csmith@law.du.edu

Administrator Contact Information

Catherine Smith
Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity and Inclusiveness
Phone: 303.871.6180
E-mail: csmith@law.du.edu

Course Titles and/or Descriptions

• Extremism and the Law—Racism. Sexism. Gay bashing and immigrant bashing. These are the creeds of America's domestic extremists. From the Ku Klux Klan to the Westboro Baptist Church, hate groups represent our nation's ongoing battle with domestic terrorism. In this course, students analyze the ways in which extremist groups impact the law. How should hate and extremism be defined in the domestic context? In what ways do extremist ideologies and hate groups influence mainstream ideologies and policies? How do the activities of domestic terrorists influence the development and implementation of laws? Are laws, such as hate crimes statutes, desirable? How should our nation balance the First Amendment rights of hate mongers with the rights of others and with the harms inflicted on others? When should hate speech, for example, become legally actionable? This course touches on many areas of the law, including torts, criminal law, employment discrimination, and the First Amendment. While it spotlights domestic terrorists, the course does address the impact of international groups in the wake of September 11.
• Family Law—This course is an examination of laws that involve and/or regulate families. Students learn the legal rights of families in cases incidental to marriage or without marriage. This includes child-parent relationships and the dissolution of marriage. This class also provides students with an understanding of new familial relationships.
• Gender and the Law—The course is based on sex-discrimination materials, especially those found in the Constitution and civil rights and employment laws. It emphasizes a feminist analysis relating to speech issues and theoretical approaches. It also gives a historical perspective leading into reproductive rights. Next, it addresses women's sexuality issues including rape, incest, and prostitution, and provides an analysis of the social construction of heterosexuality. Finally, it explores the impact women have in the legal profession.
• Legal and Medical Control of the Reproductive Process—Critical evaluation of the legal regulation of a wide range of areas of human reproduction, including some or all of the following: abortion, contract parenthood ("surrogacy"), cloning, embryo freezing, pregnancy-based employment discrimination, criminal prosecution for prenatal substance abuse, and court-ordered Cesarean sections. Examination of the gender, race, and class assumptions about women and human reproduction that affect, and are reflected in, legal doctrine and medical practice, with particular attention to the way that reproductive rights issues raise issues of race and class equality as well as gender equality.
• Multiculturalism, Race, and the Law Seminar—This course reviews the major approaches to the field of critical race theory (CRT) in the context of doctrine. CRT is a heterogeneous interdisciplinary field which emerged out of a basic critique of the legal academy's objectivist approach to law. CRT has sought to show not only that the law is socially constructed and therefore influenced by institutional and individual perspectives but also that race, gender, class, and sexual orientation have historically played a critical role in legal outcomes. Besides a thorough review of the major works in CRT, this course will have a strong emphasis on the relevance of the meaning of legal and cultural citizenship in our current era of globalization and its related US demographic changes.
• Sexual Orientation and the Law—This seminar offers an opportunity for students to study the relationship between law and sexual orientation. Historically, law in this country consistently and pervasively regulated the realm of human identity and behavior we call sexuality. However, questions and claims challenging traditional assumptions about sexual orientation have surfaced in the last 25 years. Our study of sexual orientation and law allows students to view the relationship between law and society through a new lens, that of sexual orientation. Specifically, students examine issues of sexual orientation arising in areas ranging from Constitutional law, criminal law, employment law, family law, health law, immigration law, to tax law. They discuss some or all of the currently controversial issues relating to sexual orientation and law. This includes such topics as the proliferation of both nondiscrimination laws and antigay initiatives like Amendment 2 in Colorado; the Constitutionality of laws prohibiting specified sexual behavior between different-sex and same-sex adults; the Constitutionality of laws limiting the right to speak about sexual identity, public and private employment; and discrimination against same-sex couples with respect to marriage, parenting, health benefits, and taxes.
• Same-Sex Equal Protection Jurisprudence—No course description available.
• Sexuality, Gender, and the Law—No course description available.

Domestic Partnership Benefits

Coors Fitness Center: Students may add their spouse or domestic partner to their gym membership.

DU Health and Counseling Center Students may add their spouse or domestic partner as a dependent on their student health insurance plan.

Additional Information

The University of Denver College of Law offers a safe environment to provide freedom of inquiry and expression for LGBTQ students as well as for all others. The Denver Law application leaves the question of sexual orientation or sexual identity up to the applicant. Under the "Gender" section, applicants are offered a blank response box where they are asked to self-identify. This has been a change from offering the choice of male or female. Transgender students have been successfully enrolled in both the day and the evening law divisions. OUTlaws, the LGBT student organization, whose primary goals are to create a safe and inclusive space for all students, has created a LGBT Speaker Week to discuss nontraditional legal issues in traditional practice areas (such as assisted repoduction technology; elder, international, and family law; domestic partnerships; immigration; asylum; medical directives; and estate planning). This event encourages professional, social, and academic development. Dignity, decency, and respect are utilized in analyzing cases, legal theories, ideologies, and policies. Sexual orientation and transgender topics are raised and discussed in classes, and there are five out LGBT faculty members (3 women, 2 men).

For additional information, please feel free to contact Yvonne Cherena-Pacheco, Associate Director of Admissions at ycherena-pacheco@law.du.edu or 303.871.6151.

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