The Access to Justice Clinic (Prisoner Civil Rights Division), directed by Professor Steve Saltzburg with the support of Professor Jonathan Gitlen, had the unique experience of going to trial in a prisoner rights case this semester.
The Prisoner Civil Rights Division of the Access to Justice Clinic, one of over 20 clinical offerings at GW Law, allows student-attorneys to work on real cases related to justice issues. In this case, the student-attorneys, led by Professors Saltzburg and Gitlen, represented a former prisoner in Abingdon, Virginia, who filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Western District of Virginia claiming that his constitutional rights were violated by the use of excessive force and deliberate indifference to his medical needs. The Court appointed Professor Saltzburg as pro bono counsel to represent the plaintiff, admitted Professor Gitlen pro hac vice, and admitted three third-year law students under the Court’s third year practice rule.
While all GW Law clinics provide students with experiential learning opportunities in which they do real work representing real clients, it is rare for those opportunities to lead to trial within the semester-long clinic. The students in the prisoner rights clinic were especially lucky to receive real trial experience before an outstanding jurist, Senior Federal District Judge Michael F. Urbanski.
Eight student-attorneys and their professors traveled to Abingdon, and used their overnight accommodations as the headquarters for trial preparation in advance of the trial which was set to begin on Wednesday, February 5th. Leading up to the trial, the student-attorneys researched the case, prepared evidence and argument, and liaised with the client. The case was especially unique because the client had already done much of the work himself, as he initially was representing himself pro se. The client also struggled with mental illness and was often difficult to reach, providing a unique challenge for the student-attorneys.
“A big part of the case was making sure we knew what he had already done and were caught up to speed,” said Deborah Jaffe (Class of '25), one of the student lawyers working on the case. “The professors were hands off. They helped us and they told us what we should be looking at and when, but they weren’t hand-holding us.”
There were hours of videotape of events within one of the prisons which the student-attorneys carefully watched and summarized. They received a list of 32 potential jurors a week before trial and used their Internet skills to research what they could about the jurors. They took on the case from beginning to end, from jury selection to closing.
On the first day of the trial, the student-attorneys were in the courtroom. All of them rooted Nina A. Bundy (Class of ’25) who did the opening for the plaintiff and made a case for prison guards abusing their authority. Judge Urbanski individually approached Bundy to commend her on her opening statement, Bundy said.
The case had a twist that made it quite unusual; the plaintiff was not present on the first day since he had been re-arrested and jailed. So the plaintiff began its case by calling one of the defendants as the first witness, and 3L Deborah Jaffe did an excellent adverse examination. The plaintiff was present during the second day of trial when he was called as the first witness and examined at length by Ori Fedida (Class of ’25). She walked him through hours of videotape as Henry Stewart-Wood (Class of ’26) worked the computer to present the videotape without a hitch.
At the conclusion of the second day of trial, the jury received the case. It deliberated for hours and decided it wanted to return the next morning for further deliberations. It did return and its verdict was in favor of the defense.
“The judge, after the trial, was incredibly impressed,” Bundy said. “He came up to us afterward, shook our hands, and expressed how taken he was with our performances and how he felt like we did much better as law school students than he would have done, which was a huge compliment.”
Both Professors Saltzburg and Gitlen were incredibly proud of the students.
“They performed better than most lawyers; were better prepared; and impressed both the judge and opposing counsel,” said Saltzburg. “Not many students try a federal case in law school, and almost no students try a case to a federal jury. But these students did and in the process established for all to see that GW law students are remarkably well prepared to take their place in the legal community and make a contribution to justice wherever it is needed -- in Abingdon VA, in D.C., in the U.S. and beyond.”
Lessons in Life and Lawyering
The student-attorneys said the trial experience was invaluable for their growth both as lawyers and as people.
“The opportunity to get to support the people who actually (go to court), to help them, to witness Professor Saltzburg, who is truly a master of his craft, was invaluable,” Sam Girioni (Class of ‘26), said. “This obviously means a lot to me because I want to do jury trials, but most people, most lawyers won’t (participate in a trial). I think it’s really important to have an opportunity to see it for no other reason than to understand the value in it.”
For Ori Fedida, the most valuable part of the case was having the opportunity to work with other student-attorneys and develop a sense of community in the clinic.
“Working as a team on this project it became more about the client, which is a transition because we’re not competing for grades, we’re really working for the interest of the client,” Fedida said. “It really brought out such an awesome collaborative environment that I had not experienced yet in the law.”
The prisoner rights division is just one of many clinics offered at GW Law that provide student-attorneys with experiential learning opportunities. Students interested in applying to participate in a Clinic are encouraged to visit the Clinic’s webpage, and are welcome to reach out to the Clinic’s Managing Attorney & Associate Program Director Andrea R. Johnson with questions.
“I highly recommend that every student do a clinical program if they have the opportunity because you get practical experience as a student attorney under the supervision of highly respected notable professors like Professor Saltzburg, who is a preeminent trial attorney,” said Nina Bundy.