Past Events

All returning members are expected to attend one returning member training. One-hour trainings will review Time Matters, 1L training changes, and other information relevant to PLAP. Prior to training, please download VDI Clinics on your laptop, so that you will be able to follow along with Time Matters training. Instructions for downloading VDI clinics can be found here and here. If you have trouble downloading, go to IT, and they should be able to quickly help you. Please email Kaitlyn & Regina (plapdirectors@gmail.com) if you have questions or concerns about returning member training.

Join us for our first PLAPpy Hour of the fall semester at the HLS Pub. This is a great opportunity to get to know your fellow PLAPpers over free snacks and drinks. See you there!

Join ACS, HLS ACLU, the Harvard Women’s Law Association, the Criminal Justice Policy Program, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, and PLAP for a screening of the documentary The Great Fear on October 1. As the #MeToo movement empowers those targeted by sexual harassment and assault to share their stories, one often-overlooked element of this national conversation is how we treat people who are accused of sex-related crimes in the criminal justice system. Rebecca Richman Cohen, producer of Untouchable,…

Cross-examination training is mandatory for new PLAPpers if you want to be able to take a case this semester, so it is important that you attend. The next cross-examination training will not be until next semester, so please join us if you can!

Our first speaker panel of the year will be on Friday, October 19 at noon in Hauser 102. The panel will feature Professor Aya Gruber, who specializes in the intersection of feminism and criminal law, and is critical of carceral feminism. Carceral feminism refers to feminist embrace of the criminal justice system to solve/curtail gender-based violence. The panel will also feature Beth Schwartzapfel and Emily Kassie, who wrote an enlightening piece, Banished, for the Marshall Project, on the homelessness problem in Miami-Dade County among…

American prisons censor books for millions of prisoners. James Tager, Deputy Director of Free Expression Research and Policy at the literary and human rights organization PEN America, will discuss the status of the law and policy that currently underlie these bans and consider opportunities for reform. Co-sponsored by Defenders, ACLU, and the HLS Library.

PLAP presents Brad Brockmann, civil rights attorney and Assistant Professor at Brown University School of Public Health, in conversation with Dr. Dan Bannish, a psychologist for the intensive mental health unit of the Maine State Prison. Mr. Brockmann and Dr. Bannish will present a new wellness paradigm for correctional facilities, highlighting misguided beliefs at the heart of corrections that need to be reconsidered.