Why did you choose to work with one of the clinics? And why did you choose the Civil Litigation Clinic?
Real experience is always substantially different from anything in a classroom environment. Since I want to jump into litigation and trial practice as soon as I graduate, I felt having some actual cases under my belt would give me an edge.
The Civil Litigation Clinic appealed to me because it offers a great package of practice experience with classes (Pre-Trial Advocacy, Trial Advocacy, and Professional Responsibility) that are specially tailored to the program, exclusive to participants in the clinic, and taught by our clinical instructors.
What was your most memorable case, and why?
My most memorable case was helping a refugee seeking asylum. I met the client at his initial intake interview and had the privilege of being his first legal champion after years of him living in a situation where he had no rights at all. It was really great working with a client like that. I'm sure they can't all be that sweet, but working with him was an experience that made it very easy to care.
Working with someone in that situation ups the stakes. Because of the number of asylum cases that pass through the government, many get overlooked. If we don’t win the case, some of these people would be tortured and killed if they had to return to their home countries. That’s how high the stakes are.
I got to learn some valuable legal lessons in that case as well. Like—watch your vocabulary in front of the judge! When I mentioned to the judge that my client was "stateless,” she jumped all over that and asked for a brief explaining why I said that, and why she should care. This ended up being a massive project covering the laws of two foreign countries (that means no Westlaw, no easy searches unless you happen to be multi-lingual, and dealing with translators) and three international treaties. Oh, and U.S. domestic law, of course.
What do you think you got out of the program?
I think the Civil Litigation Program was quite possibly my most important experience in law school. I'm comfortable going to court, talking to the judge, filing motions, meeting a client and giving legal advice. At the same time, I feel I've learned what to be careful about and what things it's healthy to be insecure about (and act on that insecurity). There are a lot of pitfalls out there, and there are a lot of unnecessary nerves that nothing but practice will iron out to turn a student into a litigator. The Civil Litigation Clinic offers exactly that chance—but with supervision to make sure you don't actually screw things up for a client!
What advice would you give to incoming students curious about the clinical programs?
If your interest is piqued, you should definitely go for the clinical programs. I really can't say enough about them —in my opinion these or something like them should be required for litigation/dispute resolution-track law students.
