A Day in the Life

News from our Clinics: The Federal Criminal Justice Project!

Professor Alison Siegler, who is the newest member of our legal clinic, is in charge of the Federal Criminal Justice Project. The FCJP is a terrific opportunity for students to gain experience practicing in federal courts while representing indigent defendants who have been charged with federal crimes.  Two of our 3L students, Kristin Greer Love and James Burnham, recently filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit dealing with the "fast track" sentencing disparity, a cutting-edge legal issue.  Kristin, James, and two other 3Ls, Emma Mittelstaedt and Stephanie Holmes, also recently helped a draft a petition for a writ of certiorari on this issue, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a current division among the Circuits over the correct answer. Both briefs were quoted on the “Sentencing Law & Policy” blog, the premier sentencing blog in the country and  the first blog ever to be cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Here is a copy of the amicus brief and here is a copy of the cert petition -- both with the students' names listed.

The students are very excited about having filed their first briefs and cert petition. As Professor Siegler explains, “My goal is for my students to get lots of practical experience working with clients and in federal court, and also to get them involved in the most contested legal issues of the day.” And as Kristin relates, this first year of the clinic has been very successful: “It is very exciting to both get direct litigation experience and to work on one of the most interesting and controversial issues in sentencing law today.” “We are spending more time practicing in federal court through the clinic than most law firm associates,” said Stephanie.  Emma notes that “I have always been interested in criminal law, and the clinic provides an opportunity to make a real difference.” Finally, James adds: “The fast-track disparity is likely to end up before the Supreme Court soon, and our clinic may be lucky enough to take it there.  We just filed our own fast-track appeal in the Seventh Circuit.  If the Supreme Court doesn’t grant cert on the Eleventh Circuit case, there’s a chance they’ll take ours.”  Congratulations Kristin, James, Stephanie, and Emma, and good luck with your cases!

New Clinical Oppportunity: Federal Criminal Justice Project

The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic is proud to announce the creation of a new clinical opportunity, the Federal Criminal Justice Project (FCJP).  FCJP will be led by Director Alison Siegler, formerly an attorney with the Federal Defender Program and instructor of Federal Sentencing course here at the Law School. 

The primary mission of the FCJP is to zealously represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes while giving students a unique opportunity to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  The FCJP will represent clients from arrest through trial/plea bargaining and sentencing and will also represent clients on appeal.  Students will be assigned to cases in teams of two and among their responsibilities will be interviewing of clients and witnesses; conducting and participating in bond hearings, preliminary hearings, arraignments, plea and sentencing hearings, and trials; preparing and filing written motions; negotiating withe the United States Attorney's Office and probation officers; and participating in investigations.  In addition to representing individual clients the FCJP will serve as an information clearinghouse and resource for Chicago-area federal criminal defense lawyers and will work to address larger systematic problems with the federal criminal justice process.  Projects members will also attend weekly sessions with the Director that will include exercise and simulations, lectures and discussion sessions. Finally students will take courses in Evidence, Criminal Procedure I, a new course this fall, Federal Criminal Procedure and participate in the Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop before the start of their 3L year.

The Federal Criminal Justice Program marks the second new clinical project this year, and joins the Exoneration Project as part of an ever expanding number of clinical opportunities offered to our students.  The FCJP will launch in the Fall Quarter.

Clinics In the News: Institute for Justice Clinic on Entreprenuership Feature

One of the Law School's clinical projects, the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship ("IJ"), was the subject of a recent piece in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, the source for news in the Chicago legal world, highlighting its work with low-income individuals wishing to start up businesses in the Chicago area.  The piece focused on one the project's recent success stories: the Perfect Peace Cafe & Bakery located on Chicago's southwest side.  The shop is a bright spot in what is an otherwise desolate neighborhood but the hope is that its arrival will mark the reinvigoration of the community, not only providing residents with a gathering place but also inspire other businesses to return to the area. 

Project Director and Lecturer in Law, Elizabeth Milnikel, described some of the Project's goals and its recent work for clients like Perfect Peace Cafe & Bakery's owners, Denise Nicholes and Julie Welborn: "We're trying to serve those who can't afford an attorney.  We're convinced that an entrepreneur's ability to create new business creates new opportunity for the entrepreneurs, community members and potential employees."  Among the services IJ provides its 150 clients since its inception nearly ten years ago are: writing and negotiating contracts, creating loan agreements with investors and lenders, acquiring business permits and helping clients understand workplace safety regulations and payroll taxes. 

Nicholes and Welborn praised IJ's attentive and responsive service stating, "It was just a miracle how everything came together, ... [t]here were questions I never knew I had to ask."  Welborn went on to further praise IJ's work on their behalf, "At any time we needed to negotiate with the contractors, architects or landlords, they were a part of it.  To this day, anything I do, I run by them first.  In that alone, I don't even know how to put a value to it."

The benefits of the project extend not only to its clients but also the 2L and 3L students who participate.  Kathy Lee, a 3L in the project and member of the Clinic Student Board, commented: "Being able to see issues real people face and being able to address them ... wading through their stories and picking out the legal roadblocks they might face, that is completely different from the experience of going through hypotheticals" in the classroom. 

IJ is just one of the unique clinical projects at the Law School offering students the opportunity to do transactional work that also intersects with aspects of intellectual property and regulatory law.  You can learn more about the other clinical projects by visiting the Clinical Education homepage as well as visiting past posts on the clinics here on "A Day in the Life."  To read the full piece in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin visit the Law School News Page.

The Law School Welcomes New Clinical Opportunity: The Exoneration Project

The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic is proud to welcome an addition to the unique clinical opportunities available to the students at the Law School, The Exoneration Project, which makes it bow this month.  Director of Clinical Programs, Randy Schmidt ('79), made the announcement:

"The Exoneration Project will provide representation to client who are asserting their actual innocence in state and federal court.  Students in the Project will be involved in all aspects of the case from initial case selection through investigation and litigation.  There will be a classroom component that will allow students to learn more about investigation, litigation discovery, post-conviction petitions and other legal work.  Students will interact with supervising attorneys and clients on a regular basis, and 3L students will have an opportunity to appear in court.

The supervising lawyers and founders of the Project are from the law firm of Loevy & Loevy, a civil rights firm in Chicago.  Tara Thompson, a 2003 graduate of the Law School, and Gayle Horn will be the primary supervising attorneys on this project.  Jon Loevy and Russell Ainsworth, attorneys also at the Loevy firm, will also provide some supervision in the Project."

I recently spoke with Law School and Clinic alum, Tara Thompson (who also happens to live in my condo building!), about her thoughts on the Project:

"I'm ecstatic about coming back to the Law School and working with the Exoneration Project.  Working in the Clinic (I was fortunate enough to work with Professor Craig Futterman in the Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project) was one of my favorite parts of law school, and where I first learned about communicating with clients, building a case from the ground up, and the importance of using my privileged position as a lawyer to help people who are the most vulnerable to the injustices in our legal system.  In the Exoneration Project, students will have an opportunity to investigate and evaluate cases, draft post-conviction petitions and other types of petitions and motions, and appear in court.  I and the other lawyers from my firm who will be staffing the Project hope that it will be a great addition to the other wonderful opportunities in the Clinic already available to the students."

We warmly welcome the newest addition to the Clinic and encourage you to check out other posts about the clinical experience as well as the Clinical Programs page on our website.

Clinical Professor Randolph Stone Honored by the Public Interest Law Initiative

Clinical Professor Randolph N. Stone, Director of the Criminal Juvenile Justice Project, received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Public Interest Law Initiative at its Annual Awards Luncheon on December 7, 2006.The award, presented by former Appellate Court Justice and distinguished civil rights lawyer R. Eugene Pincham, recognized Professor Stone's accomplishments at the Clinic and in previous work as head of the Cook County Public Defender Office and Deputy Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.  The Law School congratulates Professor Stone on this fantastic award!

U of C's Police Accountability Project Releases Major Study of Chicago Police Department Misconduct

The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic's Police Accountability Project released Wednesday a groundbreaking study of the Chicago Police Department's supervisory and disciplinary practices in its report, "The Chicago Police Department's Broken System."  The study, co-authored by Clinical Professor and head of the Project, Craig Futterman, prior Clinical Lecturer Melissa Mather, and recent graduate Melanie Miles ('07), outlines the results of a three-year study into the habitual misconduct of a group of Chicago police officers assigned to Chicago's former south side public housing projects.  The study's origins lie in the case of Diane Bond, a fifty year-old resident of Stateway Gardens, one of the former public housing communities located on the south side of Chicago, who was the victim of multiple instances pf physical, verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of the rogue team of officers assigned to the housing project.  The Clinic represented Ms. Bond in her litigation against the individual officers and the CPD and in the course of law students' fact investigation the students uncovered the pattern of abuse and sparked the idea for the study. 

The study, which has gained attention in local and national print publications, radio and television, not only demonstrates fundamental and systematic failures of the Department to address misconduct of its officers, it also discusses ways in which the study's use of statistical analysis can be used in litigation against police officers who engage in the type of abuse examined in the study. 

This type of complex and substantive investigation and scholarship is indicative of the quality of work our students perform as part of their clinical experience.  The study will be published in the upcoming Volume 23 of the Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook.

The Clinic Experience: Intensive Trial Practice Workshop

One of the most amazing experiences I had during my time at the Law School was my participation in the Mental Health Project, just one of the many Clinical Programs offered to our students.  As you saw in a recent post about the Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project our students are making real world contributions to the legal community every day.  As a 3L participating in any of the clinics students have the opportunity to obtain a student license that allows them to practice in Illinois courts under the supervision of their clinical professor.  Our 3L students frequently participate in litigation, doing everything from depositions to motion practice to first-chairing hearings and trials. 

In order to receive their student licenses 3L students participate in the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop which occurs immediately before the beginning of the Fall Quarter.  For two weeks the students spend 6 hours a day learning trial preparation, trial advocacy, and trial strategy through simulation exercises, lectures and demonstrations by clinic faculty and practicing lawyers and judges.  The course culminates in a simulated jury trial with a sitting state or federal court judge presiding over the proceedings.   

As a clinic alum who took the course I can attest to the "intensive" part of the course's title, however contrary to what may be the popular connotation of that word, my experience in the workshop was "intensively" edifying, exhilarating and just plain fun!  Not only did I have the opportunity to learn from the practicing attorneys' (many of whom were alums!) smooth demonstrations at the end of a day of attempting to hone my skills to resemble that expertise, but I also learned so much from my peers.  Much like the 1L year where everything is new and sometimes a little intimidating we bonded over the shared experience of being, well, a little clueless.  Amazingly by the time the actual trial everything (for the most part!) came together and suddenly I was on my feet with 12 sets of eyes watching my every move from the jury box just 8 feet away, doing my best to passionately and articulately tell my clients' story and convince those 12 high school students to find for my clients.  The thrill of hearing the foreperson read the verdict finding in our favor was phenomenal!  The entire rest of the day I was abuzz with excitement. 

More importantly than the thrill of victory, however, was the fact that I was then able to immediately apply those skills to use in my work in the Mental Health Project.  We represented an individual who had been civilly committment for many years and who was now seeking release from the state psychiatric hospital.  After many postponements the release hearing finally happened in March of my 3L (conveniently coinciding with Winter Quarter exams!) and once again I was on my feet, except that this time a real person's life would be profoundly affected by my work.  As first chair I was the one who repeated all the steps of the mock trial except that this time my task was to convince the judge alone, which I found to be a much tougher task.  Although we ultimately did not prevail, the skills I developed during both the workshop and the hearing put me leaps and bounds ahead of my peers when I began practice and helped me seek out and receive the opportunities to do substantive work early in my career. 

The Trial Advisor Perspective

As an admitted litigation "junkie" and an enthusiastic clinic alum you can only imagine how excited I was when the Faculty Director of Clinic Programs, Professor Randy Schmidt, stopped me in the hall to ask me if I would like to serve as a trial advisor for this year's mock trials, held this past Saturday at the Circuit Court of Cook County.  Working with my advisees in the week leading up to the trial and watching their and their opposing counsel's very impressive work this past Saturday reminded me once again how fantastic my clinic experience was.  I could endlessly elaborate on all the great things about the Workshop and the Clinic overall, but I thought I would share some of this year's participants reflections on their experience.

The Student Perspective

Maria Phillis, a student in the Mental Health Project had this to say:

"The trial was the best part of the workshop.  It was an incredible rush to get up in front of a jury and present a case.  The feedback that the jury gave was extremely useful.  It made me think about how the presentational techniques we learned affected the way the jury saw the facts and the ultimate outcome of the case.  It will definitely have a positive impact on the way I prepare for my December jury trial for the Mental Health Project."

Adrienne Schwisow, another clinic student commented, "I really had a lot of fun, and learned so much, both from [the mock trial] and from the whole class.  In fact, I would even venture to say that I am inspired!"

As you can tell the Clinical Programs at the Law School are an excellent way for our students to supplement the critical, analytical thinking and writing skills honed from classes and learn to apply those skills to the real world early in their legal careers, to benefit those who would otherwise go without representation.

Chicago Professor in the News!!

I just finished my first week of recruiting and was in Washington DC, Virginia and North Carolina.  It was a one night one state trip but I did see a lot of prospective students.  As I was unpacking and going through my mail when I got home, I was watching CNN and to my delight I saw one of our clinical faculty members, Professor Craig Futterman, on Anderson Cooper 360 commenting on the Law School's recent success in checking instances of police brutality.  Professor Futterman teaches in our Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and specializes in civil rights lawsuits, focusing on matters involving police brutality and racial discrimination.  Anderson Cooper was reporting on some of the ongoing cases involving the Chicago Police Department.  Professor Futterman, who heads up just one the many Clinical Programs available to our students, the Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project, comments "the work of our students in the Clinic has contributed to public understanding of and discourse around fundamental issues of justice in law enforcement and our criminal justice system.  Our students have helped to make visible conditions of institutional denial and impunity that have allowed human rights violations in our own backyard to go unchecked and unseen.  The efforts of our students will ultimately prevent the abuse of the most vulnerable in our community, as well as make the job for the vast majority of good police officers out there safer and more effective".  As you can see Craig and our students are doing very interesting work in reforming the system, and the Police Accountability Project is just one example of the excellent ways in which the Law School’s Clinical Programs not only educate our students but also allow them to begin practical application of that knowledge to improve the legal system.

Clinic: Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project

We at the Law School are very proud of our clinical programs. We have two umbrella clinics - the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. The Mandel Clinic essentially functions like a public interest law firm - there are different departments (we call them projects) and in each, faculty supervise students working on real cases. Students get real hands-on experience in meeting with clients, drafting documents, deposing witnesses, and arguing cases in court. In later posts we'll tell you more about the IJ Clinic and the other projects of the Mandel Clinic, but we wanted to tell you a bit about our newest project - the Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project (ICAP).

ICAP joined the Law School this past fall, and is headed by Maria Woltjen, who has worked in children's advocacy law since 1991. ICAP is a human service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interests of immigrant and refugee children who are alone in the United States. Law students and bilingual volunteers working for ICAP are trained to serve as friends of the child or Child Advocates. Their role is to figure out what brought the children to the United States and advocate on their behalf. The Advocates get to know the children, help sort out their story and help identify their eligibility for asylum or special protective visas. The Advocates help ensure the best interests of these most vulnerable children. Students working in the ICAP project are bilingual in languages including Spanish, Hindi, and Mandarin.

Stay tuned for spotlights on other clinical project soon!

BREAKING NEWS: Mandel Legal Aid Clinic Wins Major Wrongful Conviction Case

The University of Chicago Law School has a fantastic and ground-breaking clinical legal education program that we'll be telling you more about in the future. Today, however, Craig Futterman, the clinical faculty member who runs our Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, notched a big win yesterday on behalf of client Corethian Bell. Mr. Bell is a mentally disabled man who was coerced into confessing to the murder of his mother and spent 17 months in Cook County Jail for a crime he did not commit. Professor Futterman and Mr. Bell's other attorneys reached a million-dollar settlement with the Chicago Police Department in the case. All of us here at the Law School are proud of the fine work done by all the students and faculty in our clinical programs, and are especially happy to report this good news today. To read more, click here.