The Criminal Defense Clinic is the only legal organization in the country devoted to representing individuals facing life imprisonment under California's Three Strikes law, which was enacted by voter-approved initiative in 1994. The Clinic represents defendants who have committed minor, non-violent, offenses yet face a life term under the recidivist sentencing law. We represent individuals at every stage of the criminal process: at trial, on appeal, and in state and federal post-conviction habeas corpus proceedings. Current clients include inmates serving life sentences for stealing one dollar in loose change from a parked car; for simple possession of less than a gram of narcotics; and for writing bad checks.
Starting in the Winter 2010 quarter, the Clinic will also address public policy issues raised by the Three Strikes law. This work will include legislative and fiscal analysis, political strategy, empirical studies and scholarship, and media relations. The initial goal of the Clinic's public policy work will be to evaluate various reform proposals and strategic options, including initiative campaigns, legislative action in the state assembly, and impact litigation. We will also work with a number of outside organizations committed to criminal justice public policy, including both defendant-oriented advocacy groups and prosecutor's offices throughout the state. We strongly encourage students of all political persuasions to apply to participate in the Clinic. In terms of the Clinic's case work, Clinic students work in teams of two and take primary responsibility for all aspects of the Clinic's litigation. Students are responsible for managing relationships with Clinic clients, including visiting clients in prison; students also conduct factual investigations in the field throughout California, research case law and draft court pleadings, and argue cases in open court. Much of the Clinic's work involves novel and complex appellate and post-conviction constitutional litigation. Clinic attorneys supervise student work and meet weekly with each student team.
The Clinic also includes a seminar component, which covers instruction on research and writing skills, investigation techniques, and advanced doctrinal analysis of state and federal criminal law. The seminar also involves presentations from guest speakers, including public policy advocates, outside counsel, and experts in forensic psychology.
In the course of a quarter, each student team is expected to complete at least one major written project. That project depends on the timing and posture of each case but is typically a legal brief for filing in state or federal court.
The Clinic was founded in 2006 by Larry Marshall and Michael Romano. One of the aspirations of the Clinic is to adopt clinical pedagogy, litigation strategies, and policy reform developed in the context of capital and innocence programs and engineered by Professor Marshall and apply them to the Clinic's cases under the Three Strikes law.
The Clinic is supervised and instructed by Michael Romano, who maintains a small criminal defense and civil rights practice in San Francisco, and Galit Lipa, a former public defender in California and Washington DC.
General Structure of Clinical Courses Beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year, each of the Law School's clinical courses is being offered on a full-time basis for 12 credits. Students enrolled in a clinic are not permitted to enroll in any other classes, seminars, directed research or other credit-yielding activities during the quarter in which they are enrolled in a clinic. This will allow students to obtain an immersive professional experience without the need to balance clinical projects with other classes, exams and papers.
(The rules described here do not apply to Advanced Clinics for students who are continuing with a clinic in which they were previously enrolled. For information about Advanced Clinics, please see the course descriptions for those courses.) Students enrolled in a clinic should expect to work at least 40 hours per week and to be available for meetings during normal business hours. Because students have no other courses (and hence no exams or papers), the clinical quarter goes from the first day of classes through the final day of the examination period.
The work during the week is divided into three components. First, the main component is the work on client matters or case work. Students are expected to devote at least 30 hours per week to the various facets of this work (this time includes meetings with instructors to discuss the work). Second, students will spend approximately five-to-seven hours per week preparing for and participating in a weekly seminar or seminars. Third, over the course of the quarter each student will spend a total of 27 hours (plus appropriate preparation time) participating in "clinical modules." These clinic-wide modules are mini-courses designed to enhance the clinical quarter by providing students with opportunities to develop their professional skills, problem solving capacities, understanding of professional ethics, and exposure to professional values. Each module involves 4.5 hours of meeting time and students are required to complete six modules during the course of their clinical quarter. Some modules and some clinic meetings may take place on evenings or weekends.
Students will be awarded three separate grades for their clinical quarter, each reflecting four credits. The three grades are broken into the following categories: clinical practice; clinical methods; and clinical coursework. Grading is pursuant to the H/P system. Students may not enroll in any clinic (basic or advanced) which would result in their earning more than 24 clinical credits during their law school career.