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| Multi-disciplinary collaborations have formed across George Washington University and D.C. as our Clinical Program prepares to meet and exceed the requirements set forth in ABA Rule 303(c). Starting in Fall 2023, training and education to law students on "bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism" will be required. By leveraging off-site field trips, trainings, and case rounds with a focus on these topics, our student attorneys continue examining the influence of systemic racism on access to justice and economic opportunity for current and future clients. All client names and the names of their family members have been changed to respect their confidentiality.
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Clinic Examines Bias and Cultural Humility in Clinic Casework and Client Advocacy
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Throughout the Fall 2022 semester, student attorneys participated in multiple sessions examining bias and cultural humility within the context of Clinic casework and advocacy efforts. These topics were first discussed in September at our clinic-wide orientation during a session entitled, Identifying Bias & Cultural Humility in Clinical Practice, and led by Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Carmia Caesar. At the session, student attorneys considered, discussed, and prepared to provide advocacy and representation to Clinic clients, many of whom are part of minoritized groups and ttraditionally marginalized communities. Clinic Social Worker Maria Meli, MSW, LICSW also shared resources with student attorneys and made additional recommendations for providing effective holistic services and referrals to our clients. In November 2022, Dean Caesar returned to the Clinics for mid-semester Clinic caserounds in which student attorneys raised questions, shared stories, discussed experiences in connection with working with clients, and offered their thoughts on how our antiracism orientation could prepare students to provide the most effective services possible.
A special thank you to Julie McLaughlin, Associate Director in the Career Center and an advisor on federal clerkships for her fantastic presentation on leveraging Clinic experience within a job search and writing samples.
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GW Law Clinics Welcome Two New Clinical Faculty Members
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GW is proud to announce that in December 2022, Professor Lula Hagos and Professor Emily Benfer accepted tenure track offers to join the GW Faculty. Professor Hagos will direct the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic, which she founded in 2021. Professor Benfer will direct the Law School's new Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic, which she is in the process of launching with the generous support of GW alums. The GW Law faculty was appropriately impressed by the expertise, passion, and history of scholarship that Professors Benfer and Hagos bring with them, and we could not be more thrilled to have them as permanent colleagues in our Clinics.
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Community Advocacy and Activism Across Washington, D.C.
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See the City You Serve: GW's Medical-Legal Partnership Engages in Community Learning and Listening Sessions
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The Civil Access to Justice Clinic (Medical-Legal Partnership Division), led by Professor Emily Benfer, joined D.C. community partners for a guided bus tour of Wards 7 and 8 and a community conversation at the Far Southeast Family Collaborative. Many community leaders, legal and health advocates, and members of community-based organizations served as tour guides and speakers, including the following:
- Jehan El-Bayoumi, MD, FACP, Founding Director Rodham Institute, Professor of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (pictured above)
- Thelma Jones, Founder and Director Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund
- Kristina Williams, BS, BC, CPC, Director of Community Engagement Rodham Institute
- Jeff Menzise, PhD, Clinical Psychologist; Associate Professor, Institute for Urban Research
- Nikita Beans, LGSW Special Project Manager, Far Southeast Family Collaborative
- Marianne Moore, Community Member
- Tracie Bass, Director, Doctors of Tomorrow Program; Executive Coordinator, The Rodham Institute, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
While travelling through Ward 8 in Southeast D.C., attendees spent time in neighborhoods where their future clients and patients were most likely to live. There, they learned about the evolution of geographic health disparities throughout several decades in the District. Student attorneys, medical students, residents, GW faculty, and staff all gained a better understanding of the access to justice barriers and social determinants of health (SDOH) that Clinic clients navigate daily. Attendees also gained insight into community responses, local leadership, and community resiliency. Learn more about how the "See the City You Serve" Field Trip has proven effective in the past for teaching SDOH in GW's School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
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Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic
This Fall, student-attorneys in the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic (CDJC), led by Professor Lula Hagos and with the support of Professor Ilan Friedmann-Grunstein, had the Clinic’s first trial. Their client was charged with simple assault and was facing significant collateral consequences if convicted. After student attorneys skillfully cross-examined the government’s central witness and called multiple witnesses in the case, including their client, a D.C. Superior Court judge found their client not guilty.
Congratulations to student-attorneys Ellie (Rosemary) Martin (Class of '23), Mikayla Sherman (Class of ’23), and their client!
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Health Right Law Clinic
In the Health Rights Law Clinic, led by Professor Drake Hagner, student attorneys help low-income clients access the safety-net benefits they need to obtain medical care, feed their families, and pay for housing and other basic necessities.
The Clinic's first victory this semester was for Ms. Gerome. She reached out for legal support after her newborn baby was turned away from a doctor’s appointment and was unable to get vaccinated. The office staff told Ms. Gerome that her health insurance, D.C. Medicaid, was inactive for her baby. Ms. Gerome worried about her baby’s safety without vaccinations. Further, she was unable to enroll her unvaccinated child in daycare and return to work to support her family. Ms. Gerome is a persistent advocate and over a six- week period, contacted the D.C. government multiple times to try and resolve this problem on her own. When that failed, she sought legal support.
The student attorneys determined that the D.C. government had illegally terminated Ms. Gerome’s benefits without any written notice and they wrote a forceful demand letter requesting immediate activation of her Medicaid benefits. The government conceded the legal error, activated benefits shortly thereafter, and provided Ms. Gerome with the hundreds of dollars of back-benefits they owed her on another benefit that was illegally terminated. The Clinic continues to coordinate with local advocates on similar cases where benefits were terminated without notice, thus leveraging Ms. Gerome’s experience into an opportunity for broader systemic change.
Congratulations to student attorneys Deanna Hartog (Class of ‘24) and Sydney Fay (Class of ‘24), pictured above, for their advocacy and work with Ms. Gerome.
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GW Law Hosts Mid-Atlantic Regional Clinical Conference February 3-4, 2023
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We are excited to extend an invitation to the first annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Clinical Conference! The conference theme is Navigating Uncertainty in a Shifting World.
These last few years have shown us little predictability other than that life is unpredictable. As teachers, lawyers, and human beings, we have tried to navigate uncertainty – the Pandemic, assaults on our democracy, loss of fundamental rights, and other tumultuous challenges – while providing some solid ground for our students, our clients, and ourselves. We will be coming together to reflect on how we responded to these challenges and to consider how to move forward because the challenges are not going away.
The Conference will take place on Friday, February 3, 2023, and Saturday, February 4, 2023, in Washington, D.C. at George Washington Law School. The events will begin on Friday evening with cocktails and dinner. We are so pleased to announce that the keynote address will take place at dinner on February 3, 2023, and will feature Verna Williams, the CEO of Equal Justice Works. Programming will continue on Saturday and the Conference will end with a cocktail reception at Georgetown Law Center on Saturday evening. The Conference registration fee will be $125 per person. Please contact us if you seek a fee waiver. We invite our regional community and clinicians from across the country to join us for this regional conference, both because we are entirely unsure what the Mid-Atlantic really is, and because we want to see and discuss these topics with you.
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We seek proposals for concurrent sessions related to the conference theme; teaching spotlight sessions; works in progress; and early-stage incubator scholarship presentations. We also ask for volunteers to serve as commentators on works-in-progress. Please fill out this form and upload your brief proposal descriptions. The deadline for proposals is December 12, 2022. If you have not already submitted your proposal please do so HERE.
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Clinic Anniversary Celebrations
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Register here for our next Social Impact Showcase session on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 from 5-6 pm EST led by Professor Lula Hagos, Director of the Criminal Defense & Justice Clinic. The theme is Advocating for Dignity in Indigent Criminal Defense. We look forward to welcoming our GW Law faculty, staff, alums and community partners to this special event on-campus in the Lerner Moot Courtroom, followed by cocktails and d'oeuvres in the Tasher Great Room until 7 pm.
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Clinical Scholars, Faculty Influence, and News
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Professor Emily Benfer
Visiting Professor of Clinical Law; Director of the Medical and Legal Partnership Clinic
In December 2022, Professor Emily Benfer accepted an offer for a tenure track faculty position at GW Law. In November she was invited to join a meeting with White House officials on behalf of the Domestic Policy Council and National Economic Council. The roundtable included a wide spectrum of people with lived expertise, housing providers, legal aid advocates, fair housing advocates, and researchers to inform the Biden-Harris Administration’s policy development and deliverables for tenant protection and issues related to rental affordability. Additionally, Harvard Law School’s Petrie Flom Center Bill of Health published her latest article entitled U.S. Eviction Policy is Harming Children: The Case for Sustainable Eviction Prevention to Promote Health Equity which describes the devastating and long-term effects of eviction on children and health equity.
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In December 2022, Professor Lolita Darden was named as a new member of the USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee. In November, she served as a presenter at the Innovator Diversity Pilots Conference on Rectifying Missed Opportunities: Expanding the Diversity in Innovation Pledge to Law firms and Law Schools at Santa Clara University School of Law.
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Professor Lula Hagos
Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Law; Director of the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic
In December 2022, Professor Lula Hagos accepted an offer for a tenure track faculty position at GW Law. Professor Hagos launched GW's Criminal Defense & Justice Clinic in 2021, and joins the faculty after working as an Assistant Federal Public Defender with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, where she represented indigent clients in a wide range of cases, including complex fraud and terrorism-related offenses.
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Professor Joan Meier
National Family Violence Law Center Professor of Clinical Law; Director of the Domestic Violence Project
In September 2022, Professor Joan Meier spoke to the San Francisco Public Press about the California bill, Piqui’s Law, which would set conditions for handling child abuse and domestic violence cases.
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For real-time updates on the GW Law Clinics, follow us on our LinkedIn company page, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If you are a Clinic alum or current student attorney interested in joining our new LinkedIn group for current Clinic students and Clinic alums please provide the name of the clinic you have been affiliated with and the year of your involvement along with your requests to join. You may request to join here.
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