The Best Defense
April 23, 2009A new William Mitchell clinic gives students exposure to criminal law and a chance to connect with the local community
By Mary Lahr Schier
George T. Stephenson ’85 understands the demography and geography of criminal justice in St. Paul. As a former prosecutor and criminal defense and family lawyer, and now a Ramsey County judge, many of the defendants he sees are young people of color who often don’t live far from William Mitchell’s campus. Some are represented by lawyers from the Neighborhood Justice Center, a nonprofit legal aid organization located four blocks from campus.
He also knows that many graduates want to stay connected to the school and give back to the community. So, he thought, why not involve alumni in pro bono work for the community? “William Mitchell is in a community with a disproportionate representation of its residents in juvenile and criminal courts,” he says. “The community is right there, so why not?”
Stephenson’s comments at an alumni board meeting and a subsequent lunch with Andriel Dees ’95, the school’s associate dean of multicultural affairs, led to the start of a new clinic that is introducing students to criminal defense work under the supervision of Jeffrey Martin ’03, a part-time public defender and full-time solo practitioner in St. Paul. The clinic began in January, and Dees, Stephenson, and Martin hope it will become a fixture. “The clinic is really geared toward connecting William Mitchell to the surrounding community and to getting students and alumni involved in that community,” Dees says.
Building skills
Martin, who has an office in the same building as the Neighborhood Justice Center, views the clinic as an effective skill-building experience for students and a way to improve representation for many low-income people from the neighborhood. Since the clinic opened, two students have been working with Martin on a variety of felony cases, including a domestic assault case and a third-degree sale of cocaine charge. Both cases—which Martin considers typical for what a private practice criminal defense lawyer would handle— will likely go to trial, with the students and Martin handling them as a team.
The students have done most of the pretrial preparation on their own, with “a little bit of guidance” from Martin. For the students, this pretrial process offers an opportunity to develop practice skills and confidence, says Martin. “You won’t know how to do this work until you do it,” he explains. “You won’t know how to handle the initial interview until you meet a client or how to negotiate until you go back and forth with a prosecutor. It doesn’t matter how many cases you’ve read in class. It’s not real until you do it.”
The experience is especially vital for students who become sole practitioners after graduation, he adds. “In these tough economic times, you need to have the confidence to walk away from school knowing you can handle a case.”
Quality time
The clinic benefits defendants, too, who often get more attention and time from a student than they would from an overworked public defender. “The student is more likely to be willing to listen to the defendant’s story 10 times to get all the details,” Martin says. “In contrast, a public defender with dozens of cases is more likely to say, ‘OK, let’s cut to the chase. Did you do it?’ With the students, you have the ability to put quality time into a case.”
The clinic’s focus on criminal defense expands Mitchell’s highly regarded experiential focus in a new and much needed area. The college already offers many opportunities to work with prosecutors, and many students work in the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners clinic. But no offerings address the needs of criminal defense clients. “This clinic has a different perspective for students, a different flavor of how criminal defense is handled,” Dees says. “It’s all criminal law, and to understand both sides is important.”
The clinic is similar to other William Mitchell programs because student lawyers work with faculty advisors and a field supervisor. They receive credit for working at the clinic based on how many hours they put into their cases. “You’d be surprised how much research goes into these cases and how quickly 100 hours is used up,” Dees says.
Community connections
The clinic also allows students and the college to connect with the local community, says Dees. One important aspect of that connection is the collaborative relationship between the clinic and the Neighborhood Justice Center. The center handles referrals to the clinic and provides administrative support for it.
Beyond putting the idea in motion, Stephenson is unable to take an active role in the clinic due to the potential for conflict of interest, but both he and Dees hope that the program will continue and expand as more alumni get involved as supervisors and more students pursue criminal defense clinical experience. “I have high hopes that this will become a continuing part of our curriculum,” says Dees. “Many students come here for the clinic experience. It’s part of our tradition.”
