Appellate Clinic

The Appellate Clinic is a full-year, 12-credit clinic in which students take the lead in researching and writing complex appellate briefs for public interest cases in an intensive, collaborative learning environment. Appellate Clinic clients are individuals and entities otherwise unlikely to obtain quality representation either because they are indigent and can’t afford a lawyer or because their case is unlikely to generate substantial profit even though it’s important. For example, we represent civil-rights plaintiffs, employees fighting for fair workplaces, consumers, tenants, immigrants, and criminal defendants. We occasionally represent amici as well.

Student teams work under the close supervision of the Clinic’s director through multiple drafts of outlines and briefs. Every aspect of appellate advocacy—argument choice, argument ordering, use of authority, writing style and tone, and word choice, to name a few—are discussed and debated within the student team and with the clinic’s director. Our clients’ causes are worthy ones, and we have the time and resources to file briefs of the highest possible quality on their behalf.

FACULTY

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  Madeline Meth

  Clinical Associate Professor