Criminal Defense Clinic 2025 Highlights

CDC Fall 2025: (top row, l-r) Weston Rasmussen, Ali'a Keliiholokai, Ellie Sullum, Ava Severs, and Michael Williams; (bottom row, l-r) Lasch Clinical Teaching Fellow Kelly Caldwell, Callie Borst, Kyla Ramsey, Jennifer Testa, and Visiting Assistant Professor Amanda Savage.

Students attorneys in the Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC) at the Sturm College of Law have been busy during the fall semester representing people in six Municipal and County Courts around Colorado. After a rigorous orientation program to sharpen litigation and trial skills, students dove into action on behalf of their clients.

CDC Student Attorneys Ali'a Keliiholokai and Weston Rasmussen	CDC Student Attorneys Nichole Adams and Catherine Charleston	CDC Student Attorneys Delaney Ross-Shannon and Madison Campau

Most of the clients the CDC represents face nearly a year or more in jail for alleged offenses, often because of the exponentially more punitive sentencing schemes in local Municipal Courts. Student attorneys have litigated all manner of legal issues on behalf of their clients, including violations of clients’ Fifth Amendment rights, Fourteenth Amendment rights, First Amendment Rights, violations of Equal Protection, and more, leading to suppression of unconstitutionally obtained information and at times dismissals of all charges against their clients. 

CDC Student Attorneys Jennifer Testa and Kyla Ramsey	CDC Student Attorneys Michael Williams and Ava Severs	CDC Student Attorneys Ellie Sullum and Callie Borst

CDC student attorneys represent clients at all stages of the trial court proceeding and have represented clients on post-conviction matters. Student attorneys collaborate with fellow students in other clinics as well as professionals at outside organizations as needed to guarantee rigorous, holistic representation of their clients. 

The CDC has represented veterans, clients experiencing mental health crises, clients experiencing housing instability, survivors of domestic abuse wrongfully charged with crimes, and more, and student attorneys have consistently vindicated their clients’ rights.

The CDC is excited to welcome Kelly Caldwell as a Lasch Clinical Teaching Fellow. Caldwell is an experienced criminal defense attorney who transitioned into this role in the fall of 2025 from a private criminal defense firm and before that the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender.

CDC Faculty Highlights

Amanda Savage, Visiting Assistant Professor

The Pseudoscience of Gun Hunting, Colum. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026).