For one week this summer, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law hosted 20 rising high school juniors who immersed themselves in the legal profession. Through the Journey to JD (J2JD) program, founded by the Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI), this diverse range of students gained a basic understanding of the legal system and were empowered to explore a career in law.
The Civil Rights Clinic (CRC) has had an exciting and eventful past few months. In June, the CRC reached a tentative settlement agreement in a case brought on behalf of a transgender individual confined in the Colorado Department of Corrections. The settlement was finalized in September, and two of the student attorneys provide a reflection of their work on that case below. In July, the CRC secured the release of a federal prisoner after over two years litigating his post-conviction claim. The government immediately appealed, and we are continuing to litigate that appeal. In the interim, we are happy that our client is home with his family. Finally, in August, the CRC tried a case in federal court brought on behalf of a federal prisoner challenging the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ infringement of his religious rights. A student attorney who worked on that case for the past year provides a second reflection of her experiences below.
With Professor Walker Sterling returned from her year-long Fulbright, the Criminal Defense Clinic is once again being co-taught by Professors Walker Sterling and Lasch. The Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC) represents indigent members of Denver’s community who are accused of crimes in municipal, misdemeanor, and county courts in and around the Denver area. Typical cases include assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to obey a lawful order from a peace officer, disturbing the peace, and harassment. The Criminal Defense Clinic also represents juvenile clients, and has several juvenile court cases as well.
The Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) welcomed two new faculty members this fall. Wyatt Sassman joined the clinic as an assistant professor. Sassman previously clerked for Judge Gilbert S. Merritt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, worked for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charleston, South Carolina, and taught in the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic at Georgetown.
Greetings from Denver Law’s Legal Externship Program!
An integral part of one of the nation’s top ten clinical programs, Denver Law’s Legal Externship Program continues to innovate while keeping our students’ interests, goals, and academic needs first and foremost. With the fall semester fully underway, we are excited to have our largest ever fall student enrollment! As always, students are putting their talents to use across public and private sectors, growing their skills, honing in on their interests, and developing a strong sense of their professional identities, while faculty work tirelessly to support them inside and outside of the classroom.
The students in the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) have continued to provide successful resolution to IRS and Colorado Department of Revenue issues for more than 90 clients in the fall of 2018. The LITC recently had eight offers in compromise accepted by the IRS. These settlements with the IRS reduced the LITC clients’ tax liabilities by more than $250,000.
“ILPC students develop essential lawyering skills while helping migrants navigate some of the most treacherous waters our legal system offers. The ILPC trains students not only in the science of legal representation, but also in the art of advocacy -- all while providing representation to individuals who would otherwise face detention and potential deportation without an attorney.”
– ILPC Student Attorney (September 2018)
On August 6, 2018, seven intrepid students reported for the first day of the intensive three-week orientation of the brand new Immigration Law and Policy Clinic (ILPC) at Denver Law. Two months later, they had already secured the release from immigration detention of their first three clients.
The need for an immigration clinic at Denver Law had become particularly acute in today’s climate of hyper-enforcement of immigration laws. There is no constitutional right to counsel in immigration removal cases, so noncitizens are represented only when they can afford to hire counsel or if they secure pro bonocounsel. This problem of underrepresentation is exacerbated by detention—often the person facing deportation is the family’s main breadwinner and retaining private counsel is impossible. In fiscal year 2017, for example, only about 11% of people detained at the Aurora immigration detention center (a private jail run by the “GEO”—Global Excellence in Outsourcing—corporation) were represented in their deportation proceedings. The importance of representation is underscored by dramatically differing success rates for those represented (about 23% of those represented in 2017 received a grant of relief or termination of their proceedings) and those forced to proceed without counsel (of whom barely 3% enjoyed such success).
In light of this representation gap, the ILPC focuses on representing clients detained in the Aurora detention center who cannot afford counsel. The ILPC engages students in immigration removal practice with a particular emphasis on cases that present issues at the intersection of criminal and immigration law—issues pertaining to detention, enforcement, and the impact of criminal convictions on a person’s immigration status. In its first three cases, ILPC students challenged the government’s arguments that our clients’ misdemeanor criminal convictions—from as long ago as 19 years—made them ineligible for release from custody. In each case, the ILPC students marshalled evidence, submitting volumes of documentation in support of their bond applications; briefed complicated questions of statutory, regulatory, and constitutional law; and argued successfully in immigration court for the release of our clients.
The ILPC provides broad exposure to immigration practice in the existing Denver Law clinical model, in which the students are the attorneys and are fully responsible for the representation of the ILPC’s clients. In addition to their work representing individual detained clients, ILPC students are partnering with organizations and individuals to pursue various immigration policy research and advocacy projects.
