Law Students get first hand experience in advocacy
By Michelle Hershman, L'07
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From left, Kalena Schock, L'07; Anna-Jane Zarndt, L'07; Melissa Coretz Goemann, director of the Mid-Atlantic Defender Center; Del. Albert Eisenberg; Kimberly Fitzgerald, L'07; and Sarah Butts Stanton, L'06, discuss pending legislation at Eisenberg's General Assembly office.
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The image of a lawyer usually conjures up mental pictures of Law & Order, Boston Legal and other courtroom dramas. The problem is that such visual images focus solely on the litigation aspect of the law. In reality, not all lawyers are interested in the courtroom.
Melissa Goemann, director of the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center, realized That when her organization began working out of University of Richmond's Children's Law Center.
The law center offered two clinical placement programs that introduced law students to courtroom work. However, there was nothing available to introduce future lawyers to another side of law: policy-making.
Goemann started talking with other members of the law center and created the Juvenile Law and Policy Clinic.
"Richmond was kind enough to house [Mid-Atlantic] here," she said. "We started talking about using the work we do in our organization as a clinical opportunity for the students. It's a great opportunity while I'm here to utilize my skills and be the legislative advocacy section of the clinic."
Not only was the new clinic the first in the law center to focus primarily on policy issues instead of litigation, but also it was two semesters long, rather than the standard one semester.
The clinic commenced last fall with four students interested in policy.
"I wanted to get practical experience with forming policy, and this is the only policy clinic," said Kalena Schock, a second-year Richmond law student.
The first semester included mostly research on different issues passing through the Virginia General Assembly. Goemann and the students would pick a topic and use it to explore the skills of legislative lawyering. After researching and analyzing the current law in that area, the students would analyze the best ways to change the law to help children.
"There aren't a lot of things at law school that help you look at things from a policy perspective," said Anna Jane Zarndt, a second-year law student. "This clinic gave us that opportunity."
After laying the groundwork last semester, the students became more hands-on in the spring semester as they drafted pieces of legislation and visited the General Assembly while it was in session.
"The General Assembly is a great resource we have here to teach legislative lawyering," Goemann said. "They're talking to delegates, writing letters, going to meetings down there and learning how advocates would use the media to further their legislation."
The clinic just finished a big project with Al Eisenberg, D-Arlington, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Eisenberg had contacted Mid-Atlantic's national center because he was interested in particular legislation on recording juvenile custodial interrogations.
"It worked out perfectly to coordinate his interest with the student's work," Goemann said.
The students have also worked with Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, on ombudsmen legislation.
"I think it's been really exciting to see the students learn how laws are made," Goemann said. "Getting hands-on experience has given them a great depth of knowledge about the legislative process and statutory research."
Looking to the future, Goemann hopes to expand the program to coordinate activities with other parts of the University. In particular, she would like to collaborate with an undergraduate political science professor on some of the classes and expand the clinic to include other areas of juvenile advocacy such as child custody and dependency issues.
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