Confronting Invisible Punishments: The Collateral Consequences Project

Clinic students Geordan Logan and Keely Perdue
are bringing immigration law into Las Vegas
criminal practice.

After people are convicted of crimes and serve their sentences, they often discover that there are a myriad of other, invisible consequences that flow from criminal convictions, including impacts on child custody, parental rights, access to employment and housing, and the accrual of debt. For noncitizens, there is a danger of post-sentence detention by immigration authorities, followed by deportation. Because of these hidden collateral consequences, even minor crimes can shatter families and hobble individuals.

In the Collateral Consequences Project (CCP), students in the Thomas & Mack Clinic are at the frontlines of innovating new ways for lawyers to help their clients understand these invisible punishments, to avoid them through creative plea negotiating, and to be better prepared for the challenges they will face after conviction. Working with the Clark County Public Defender and other community partners, Clinic students are positioned to not only learn how to practice law, but to change the way law is practiced.

The Immigration Clinic has made the intersection of local criminal justice and federal immigration enforcement a primary focus. Clinic students consult with public defenders on cases involving immigrants to ensure that non-citizens know the immigration consequences of any plea bargain offered by prosecutors, and to help defense attorneys propose alternatives that meet the State’s objectives without a risk of deportation. Students in the Immigration Clinic have represented clients of the Public Defender in their immigration cases, and, as a pilot project this fall, are representing immigrants in misdemeanor cases in Las Vegas Justice Court.  Working with the National Immigration Law Center, students also helped persuade the Clark County Sheriff to change a policy that prevented immigrants from being released on bail.

In the Community: Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic One of Seven Organizations in the Nation to Receive Justice AmeriCorps Grant to Serve Immigrant Children

For immigrant children, immigration court is a daunting place and having a lawyer can mean the difference between staying here or being deported. Children are not entitled to appointed counsel in immigration court, and few, if any, can afford counsel.  In Las Vegas, children in immigration court will now get counsel through a new grant sponsored by the Justice Department and the Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the AmeriCorps national service programs.

A Laboratory for Scholarship: Immigration Clinic Advocates for Rights of Mentally Incompetent in Removal Proceedings

The Immigration Clinic is at the forefront of advancing the rights of mentally incompetent individuals in deportation proceedings.  In addition to providing representation to mentally incompetent clients, the Clinic is actively shaping the legal landscape on issues of mental competence through scholarship and leadership in helping implement national-level policies. 

Clinic Connections: Lucy Flores JD ’10: Legislative Externship Paves the Way to a Career in Politics

Some students catch the political bug in law school. For Lucy Flores (BSL 2010), the legislative externship was a stepping-stone on her pathway to a political career. As a 2L in 2009, Flores participated in the legislative externship, which is offered every odd year during the biennial Nevada Legislative Session. A year later, Lucy graduated and successfully ran for the Nevada Assembly in 2010.  This fall she is a candidate for Nevada Lieutenant Governor.

Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic

Student attorneys in the inaugural Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic have embarked on a range of client projects, including forming a nonprofit that mentors children who have lost a guardian, representing a company that provides translations of self-help legal forms, and helping a nonprofit address the problem of unlicensed elder care facilities. In addition, the clinic helped the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities apply for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service.  The Guinn Center is a nonprofit, bipartisan, "think-do" tank that provides analysis of critical policy issues facing the state of Nevada. The Guinn Center was awarded tax-exempt status in August 2014.

Juvenile Justice

Students in the Juvenile Justice Clinic are extending their representation of their clients to include post-disposition work. By maintaining our close relationships with our clients during this crucial phase, we are able to assist them with, among other things, school disciplinary matters and compliance with conditions of probation, and thereby minimize recidivism.

Appellate Pro Bono

This fall law students are earning pro bono service hours handling pro bono appeals in the Nevada Supreme Court. Professor Anne Traum, who directs the Appellate Clinic and was instrumental in expanding the Nevada Appellate Pro Bono Program, recruited students to volunteer to work on the cases under the school’s Partners in Pro Bono Program, which pairs law students with attorneys handling pro bono cases. In September eight law students were paired with eight experienced appellate lawyers to handle pro bono appeals from around the state.  Having this one-on-one opportunity to work with an experienced lawyer is a valuable practical experience for students, who can get certified as student attorneys and handle most attorney tasks under supervision.  Student who complete sixty hours of pro bono service earn “Pro Bono Honors” on their transcript.

Mediation Clinic

The Mediation Clinic continues to work in partnership with Clark County's Family Court and the Neighborhood Justice Center where students mediate divorce and small claims cases.  In addition, Mediation Clinic students are engaged in projects to educate the legal community about different kinds of mediation and are also developing mediation training materials for mediators of small claims cases.

Pushing the Borders of Human Rights: Boyd Students Fight for Workers’ Rights in India

Eleven Boyd students, supervised by Professor Fatma Marouf, traveled to New Delhi over the winter session to engage in human rights study and fieldwork. In partnership with Indian students, they examined conditions for some of the world’s most vulnerable workers. According to Whitney Short (2L) the project allowed her to “make a real difference in people's lives.” Katelyn Franklin (3L) described the practicum as “a life altering, empowering experience.”

After a weeklong orientation course at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the students conducted two weeks of intensive fieldwork on behalf of the Society for Labour and Development, an NGO based in New Delhi. Professor Marouf and Jennifer Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, co-taught the program.

In the Community: The Business of Grassroots Organizing

Ahead of its official launch in fall 2014, the new Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic (the “Clinic”), directed by Professor Eric Franklin, is already assisting community groups, including its first client, Nevadans for the Common Good (“NCG”), a grassroots political organization. Started in 2012, NCG is a broad and diverse group of nonprofits, schools, and religious organizations, focusing on some of Nevada’s most pressing issues, including child sex trafficking, the vulnerable elderly, immigrant integration, education, foreclosures, and neighborhood blight. NCG claimed its first victory in 2013, with the passage of Assembly Bill 67, recognizing the crime of sex trafficking.

A Laboratory for Scholarship: Research Probes Efficacy of Kids’ Court School

Our dual degree and law students are conducting empirical research on the Kids’ Court School that could potentially add significantly to the literature in child witness research. UNLV’s innovative Kids’ Court School educates children and youth about the judicial process, using a standardized, empirically based curriculum. The program seeks to maintain the integrity of the legal process, to conduct ongoing research aimed at improving the capabilities of child witnesses, to minimize the potentially traumatic effects of the courtroom on children, and to serve as a training program regarding best practices for educating children about the judicial process. To date, 849 children and youth have benefitted from the Kids’ Court School, and over 60 law students have participated as teachers and mock trial participants.

Clinic Connections: Gaining Appellate Expertise: Seth Floyd (Boyd ’10)

On his first day at a law firm in 2011, Seth Floyd was asked to list his area of expertise for his firm bio. He listed appellate, knowing it was more aspirational than factual at the time. “Apart from my summer clerking experience, I’d only been practicing at the firm for a few hours. But I figured, why not, that’s what I like best.” Back then Seth was fresh off a clerkship with Justice Hardesty at the Nevada Supreme Court and had fallen in love with appellate work as a student in Professor Anne Traum’s Appellate Clinic, where he had the chance to orally argue an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Immigration Detention Project

In November 2013, the Immigration Clinic published a report on conditions for immigration detainees at the Henderson Detention Center. The report has attracted attention from the media, congressional representatives, and community organizations. In partnership with PLAN Nevada and Mi Familia Vota, the Immigration Clinic continues to work towards detention reforms. Congressman Steven Horsford will chair an ad hoc congressional hearing on immigration on March 17, 2014, in North Las Vegas, where the Immigration Clinic will present its key findings on detention conditions and concerns about ICE's failure to follow prosecutorial discretion policies.

Family Justice

With the launch of the Post-Conviction Community Needs Assessment Project, the Family Justice Clinic (“FJC”) continues to explore the impact of criminalization on the family.

Juvenile Justice

Motivated by their experience representing children in juvenile court last semester, students in the Juvenile Justice Clinic under the leadership of Professor Mary Berkheiser are working on a policy proposal to develop “safe harbors” for child victims of sex trafficking so that these children are provided assistance and not simply prosecuted as offenders.

Externships

Professor Jean Whitney has been appointed as UNLV’s new Externship Director, after serving in that position on an interim basis since 2012. In Spring 2014, 29 students are serving as externs in 29 different placements - 17 in judicial placements, 20 in Government & Public Interest placements, and 1 each in Congressional and Legislative placements – including the Cook Inlet Housing Authority in Anchorage, Alaska, and the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, D.C.

Immigration

In an innovative pilot program designed to implement the Sixth Amendment rights of immigrants, students in the Immigration Clinic are advising the Clark County Public Defender on criminal cases that might have immigration consequences.

Mediation

The Strasser Mediation Clinic is exploring how it can help inmates in Nevada's prisons to reintegrate into their communities with pre-release mediation services.