Juvenile Defender Clinic

Introduction

The Juvenile Defender Clinic is a year-long, 14-credit course that focuses on the representation of juveniles who have been charged with committing crimes. The clinic involves a mixture of fieldwork, seminars on criminal and juvenile law and litigation skills, and participation in simulated trials and hearings.

Course Description

Fieldwork

Each student will work with the teacher of the clinic and the Legal Aid Society's Juvenile Rights Practice (JRP) in representing children accused of crimes in New York Family Court delinquency proceedings. The clinic is designed to allow students to experience all stages of the juvenile/criminal process. Students work on all aspects of the process, including arraignment, investigation, drafting of motions, motions arguments, negotiation, client counseling, suppression hearings, trial, and sentencing (which, in Family Court, may take the form of a contested evidentiary hearing).

The Seminar

For the first five weeks of the fall semester, the seminar will focus on New York criminal and juvenile law and procedure, so as to prepare students for representing juvenile clients accused of crimes in Family Court delinquency proceedings. For the remainder of the fall semester and throughout the spring semester, students will participate in simulated hearings and trials that are designed to teach the range of skills involved in criminal/juvenile trial practice. After covering the basic skills of witness examination and trial-level argument, these simulations will focus on the ways in which lawyers use a "theory of the case" to guide their witness examinations and the host of tactical judgments that must be made when cross-examining adverse witnesses, making objections, presenting one's own witnesses, and arguing a case to a judge or jury.

The seminar also will be used to discuss ethical, strategic and systemic issues that arise in the cases in which students are involved. Several sessions of the seminar will be devoted to an examination of the criminal and juvenile legal systems. 

Qualifications for Applicants

There is no pre- or co-requisite but it is recommended that students take Criminal Procedure or Criminal Litigation, either prior to or concurrently with the clinic.

Learning Objectives

The clinic’s seminar, fieldwork, and simulations are designed to teach the full range of lawyering skills that are relevant in a criminal or juvenile case, including: interviewing of a client and witnesses; fact investigation; written and oral communication; negotiation; trial advocacy skills (direct examination, cross-examination, objections, evidentiary arguments, and opening statements and closing arguments in a bench trial or jury trial); and preparation for and handling sentencing. More broadly, the clinic focuses on the underlying conceptual skills of problem-solving, contingency planning, and decisionmaking. Throughout the course, there is a sustained focus on issues of race and class in the juvenile/criminal legal systems, and on the teaching of cross-cultural competence and the ability to recognize and address bias and racism in the legal system.

Application Procedure

Students should submit an application, resume and transcript on-line via CAMS. Leomaris Sanchez will contact you to schedule an interview with Randy Hertz. If you have questions, you can direct them either to Ms. Sanchez at (212) 998-6477 or via email or to Randy Hertz.

Student Contacts

Students who are interested in learning more about the course may wish to speak with the following students who are currently in the Criminal and Juvenile Defender Clinic:

Obi Ananaba
Savannah Baker
Jahne Brown
Connor Crinion
Olivia Dure
Will Haskell
Anna Lifsec
Haley Myers
Paulina Pages
Amy Pass
Marie Portes
Miriam Raffel-Smith

* 14 credits include 3 clinical credits and 4 academic seminar credits per semester.

** The course may be taken before or concurrently with the clinic.