Learning Opportunities
Through the Consumer Protection Clinic, students represent low-income people in cases related to predatory lending and other consumer matters, including bankruptcy and debt collection defense. The practice is primarily litigation and involves consumer, bankruptcy, banking, student loan, real estate, contract, and tort law.
In addition, as this Clinic is part of the Legal Services Center (LSC), you are encouraged to visit LSC’s Clinical Student FAQs page. There you will find helpful information about all manner of topics relevant to students, including the travel subsidy LSC provides to students and the shuttle van LSC operates for students.
Contact Information
For information about the Consumer Protection Clinic, please contact Roger Bertling, rbertlin@law.harvard.edu, (617) 390-2572.
What Students Are Saying About Their Experiences in the Clinic
“As student counsel, you’re the one actually standing up in court and making a vigorous case for your client.”
“The clinic gave me a lot of autonomy, a lot of room to try my own strategies, make mistakes, and learn. And being able to do meaningful work that you can be proud of, and actually make a difference in the community, is huge.”
“I am grateful to the Consumer Protection Clinic for the incredible opportunity and education to chip away at the systemic control that debt buyers currently leverage over defendants in civil cases.”
“From what I’ve seen, it’s uncommon for students to have the opportunity to argue in hearings where the stakes for clients are so high.”
“Before this, I hadn’t appreciated that being a lawyer also requires coaching people through these experiences. When you’re in law school, reading cases every day, sometimes it gets lost how important these issues can be for someone…It was really cool to form relationships with people and support them through their case.”
Annika Reno ’24 Faces Dilemma in Eliciting Emotional Testimony from Client in Federal Court
“The only place that I have learned these things is at LSC, and it is the thing that has reeled me back in for another semester”: LSC Students Reflect on the Value of an Advanced Clinical
