Prisoner & Reentry Clinic

Information for Students

Additional Information

Students work in teams of two and represent several clients during the semester.  Students take full responsibility for their cases and will experience many different aspects of client-centered advocacy and litigation, including interviewing and counseling clients, fact investigation and witness interviews, negotiating with prosecutors, drafting, and (depending on how cases progress through the course of a semester) presenting a case in court.  Students will learn to think independently, synthesize facts and legal principles, and empower clients in their own decision-making.  Students will be responsible for communicating (at least) weekly with their incarcerated clients to provide updates and conduct fact investigation. Students also become familiar with the procedures and cultural norms of state and federal prisons. Students in the Clinic will learn to effectively undertake the responsibilities of lawyers; to provide the vital holistic assistance outside of the courtroom necessary to ensure successful case outcomes; and to consider the possibilities and limits of the lawyer’s role.  Students may not enroll in this course and in Law 6668 (Field Placement) unless they have the written permission of the Clinic Director and the Assistant Dean of Field Placement.

Seminar and Faculty Supervision

In the seminar, students will receive training in professional responsibility, problem-solving, and core lawyering skills, all of which will be contextual in nature and will draw on the substantive law students are learning and the actual cases they are handling. The seminar will also focus on systemic issues related to law, poverty, race, and class and the professional obligations of a criminal defense attorney. Students will be encouraged to examine the effectiveness of the criminal and civil legal systems in delivering justice across the three jurisdictions in which we work and to explore creative ways that legal knowledge can be deployed to attack the social problems attendant to concentration of poverty, mass incarceration, reentry from prison, and unequal access to justice. Clinic faculty provide close supervision on all Clinic work. Faculty prepare students to communicate directly with clients, witnesses, and government actors and to make the key strategic and ethical decisions in their cases. Students should expect to meet weekly with Clinic faculty and their teammate outside of the classroom and will be challenged to think through all levels of analysis when considering any course of action in their work.

Time Commitment

We hope this Clinic will be one of the most challenging, exciting, and rewarding experiences of our students’ academic careers. By the time students complete the Clinic, they are likely to have had more client contact, more time navigating state & federal prisons, and more time drafting case materials than most attorneys several years out of law school. Enrollment in this Clinic requires that students commit to fulfilling extensive demands on their time. Students will be expected to devote an average of 24 hours per week to their Clinic work, although the actual hours will ebb and flow considerably depending on the scheduling and posture of cases. Because our clients’ liberty is at stake in many of our cases, we expect that Clinic work will take priority over most other activities when necessary. Personal travel during the semester is sometimes limited and must be pre-approved by Clinic faculty. In order to take advantage of all the opportunities to learn that the Clinic has to offer students should also be prepared for some overnight travel, and day-trips. We ask that students be prepared to be as flexible as possible and that they understand that court schedules are often driven by factors outside of our control.

Student Application Information

Students will be selected based on their potential to provide high quality, client-centered legal services to our client population. Faculty will consider students’ interest in and commitment to indigent criminal defense and/or a career in litigation. In addition, faculty will consider past experiences personally, or through working directly with people and clients impacted by the criminal legal system. Students who have not yet had those experiences should not be deterred from applying but should explain in their applications their interest in and enthusiasm about working on these issues.

Interested students must fill out the Uniform Clinic Application from the Law School's student portal website under "Clinics," where a complete set of application instructions are posted at least a few weeks prior to registration. Students may contact Professor Hagos at any time to discuss the Clinic or to ask specific questions. Permission of the instructor is required prior to registration. If enrolled, students must complete forms to obtain a student practice certification.

Students participating in the Clinic will be required to attend the Orientation program held prior to or in the beginning of their Clinic semester. Participation in the Orientation is mandatory, and no exceptions will be made. Orientation will consist of intensive preparatory sessions focused on the substantive law and advocacy skills necessary to prepare students to attend court with clients as soon as possible, typically in the first or second week of the semester.