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Past Project

Initiative for a Representative First Amendment

The Initiative for a Representative First Amendment (IfRFA) was a shared project between the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Cyberlaw Clinic that ran from 2019 to 2024.

IfRFA provided financial support and career opportunities for law students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in First Amendment law. The program helped law students build expertise, make connections with clinics, and see themselves as part of a broad web of practitioners dedicated to justice and free expression. This work was done primarily through a fellowship program, which funded law students to spend a summer diving into the nitty-gritty of freedom of expression work.

The Legal Clinic Fund put together a report highlighting Impact Stories, which summarized the work of both IfRFA and a number of sibling clinics at various law schools. Highlights of IfRFA's work were referenced in the following report, which you can read here.

For more information, please visit https://ifrfa.org.


Our Work 07

Event
Mar 23, 2023 @ 12:00 PM

“Weaponizing Misogyny”: Gender-Based Harassment’s Impact on Journalists and Free Expression

Join IfRFA for a discussion of how gender-based harassment online and off shapes our speech environment, leading to differing coverage and barriers to the free expression of ideas…

News
Dec 2, 2022

Summer Opportunities for Law Students — Apply Now!

The Cyberlaw Clinic and the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment are now accepting applications for exciting summer opportunities: Cyberlaw Clinic Summer…

Event
Dec 7, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

IfRFA Presents: First Amendment Careers

This event showcased the work of several friends of IfRFA who work on a range of freedom of expression issues. Panelists discussed how they came into their current roles, provided…

News
Dec 7, 2021

Summer Opportunities for Law Students — Apply Now!

The Cyberlaw Clinic and the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment are now accepting applications for exciting summer opportunities.

News
Jun 17, 2021

IfRFA presents: Black to the Future

A Conversation about Policing and the First Amendment

Video: A conversation about policing and the First Amendment

Event
Jan 6, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

A More Representative First Amendment?

Video & Podcast: A Conversation with Khaled Beydoun and Justin Hansford

Video & Podcast: Professors Khaled Beydoun and Justin Hansford join IfRFA Director Kendra Albert for a discussion of the way in which First Amendment work could better engage with…

Cyberlaw Clinic
Oct 1, 2019

Cyberlaw Clinic Announces Launch of New First Amendment Fellowship Program

Initiative for a Representative First Amendment seeks to cultivate a broader and more diverse community of freedom of expression practitioners


Community 04

Mother Jones

Why Does Every Tech Company Want to “Democratize” Something?

"Kendra Albert, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, has studied “legal talismans”—terms like “free speech” that tech companies use to give legitimacy to…

Oct 30, 2022
The New York Times

Big Tech Should Support the Iranian People, Not the Regime

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot and Kendra Albert write about Big Tech and how they should support the Iranian people. "Expanded services...are no longer hindered by sanctions…

Sep 30, 2022
Marketplace

Why the First Amendment also protects code

“The First Amendment serves as a check on government intervention into our public expression through, for example, spoken or visually signed speech, writing, protesting and coding…

Sep 14, 2022
Patterns

Sex trouble: Sex/gender slippage, sex confusion, and sex obsession in machine learning using electronic health records

Kendra Albert writes about how researchers should handle sex/gender variables in different contexts like medicine, and the different pitfalls researchers may fall into. “False…

Aug 12, 2022

People 04

Point of Contact

Team


Related Projects & Tools 01

Cyberlaw Clinic

Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic provides high-quality, pro-bono legal services to clients on issues relating to the Internet, new technology, and intellectual property.