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At the FSU Law Public Interest Law Center, we are all about expansion, collaboration, and innovation. Exciting new programs are already fully booked. A statewide racial justice initiative adds to our established focus on racial issues. Advocacy and research with the FSU College of Social Sciences reflects our zeal for collaboration. Decades of advocacy result in full release from prison. The honor of a fact reference from the United Nations. More than 80 Afghan families, relocated in North Florida, receiving our crucial help. These are stories of hope and dedicated students. Happy holidays!
-Professor Paolo Annino, director of the FSU College of Law Public Interest Law Center
Children in Prison Project
Tim Kane (fifth from right) with former Public Interest Law Center student advocates, family, and friends.
The FSU Children in Prison Project, directed by Professor Paolo Annino, had a major victory! Tim Kane was released from all parole conditions. Tim was 14 when sentenced to two life terms. Tim lived in prison for 25 years without receiving one disciplinary report. The project advocated for Tim for over 15 years. Tim, a person of strong faith, is flourishing. Many dedicated FSU students (Cindy Myers, Donna Duncan, Caitlyn Clibbon, and Kara Ottervanger) and many organizations (Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, The Sentencing Project, and The Florida Catholic Conference) and one stellar jurist, retired Judge John Blue, created a powerful team for success.
Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic
Aging & the Law Class
Local elder law attorney Annalise Kapusta joined the Aging & the Law class to discuss guardianship and other elder law issues. 
We are excited to announce that we will offer a new clinic in the spring of 2023: the Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic, directed by Professor Rima Nathan. This interdisciplinary clinic will integrate substantive elder law concepts with sociology, public health, and criminology principles to help students develop an innovative understanding of issues facing our aging population. Participating students will draft important advance directives for low-income clients and work on policy issues in the elder law field by partnering with various policy leaders. Be on the lookout for student publications and engagement events where students will educate the community on everything from avoiding financial exploitation to applying for government benefits.
Racial Justice Fellowship
Launching in 2023, the Public Interest Law Center will host the inaugural racial justice fellowship at FSU Law. Directed by Professor Daynica Harley, the racial justice fellowship will foster student collaboration with other fellows around the state through the Florida Law Schools' Consortium for Racial Justice. In addition to collaboration, students will participate in research and statewide advocacy, and will help plan the annual statewide racial justice panel.
Alternative Spring Break
ASB Students
Students work in a garden designed to foster food sovereignty for local communities. 
Alternative Spring Break, directed by Professor Darby Kerrigan Scott, continued to thrive in 2022! Fourteen students were selected to travel to Apopka, Florida, to work alongside the Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc. (FWAF) and directly with migrant workers to learn about the environmental, legal, and cultural issues that they face. Students had the opportunity to learn about the U.S. immigration system and labor trafficking from area experts and survivors. Jeannie Economos, a leading expert and advocate on farmworker rights with FWAF, served as the mentor for the trip, providing students with a transformative service learning experience. See more photos of the trip here.
International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic

The International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic, directed by Professor Darby Kerrigan Scott, was cited in a United Nations report! The clinic partnered with the Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc. in responding to a call for submissions by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance for its 2022 Report on Climate and Racial Justice to the General Assembly. The submission focused on the historical and modern-day implications of racism in the U.S. agricultural sector, including agricultural exceptionalism (systematic exclusion of farmworkers from federal labor protections), and the impacts of climate change on migration and the labor force. Read the full report here. Sophia Muina, research assistant for the clinic, is pictured and contributed to writing the submission. 

Farmworker & Immigration Rights Clinic
FIRC Clinics
A TPS clinic volunteer assists an Afghan citizen.
During the past year, the Farmworker & Immigration Rights Clinic (FIRC), directed by Professor Ashley Hamill, led a coalition of law students, pro bono attorneys, and non-profit organizations to provide free legal representation and resources to Afghan citizens in the Tallahassee community. The coalition hosted legal screening workshops, where 20 attorney, student, and community volunteers provided free legal consultations for approximately 80 Afghan families. On June 25 and October 8, FIRC hosted pro se Temporary Protected Status (TPS) clinics, recruiting and training more than 70 attorney, student, and community volunteers, and successfully submitted TPS and work authorization applications on behalf of 97 Afghan citizens. 
Children's Advocacy Clinic
The Children's Advocacy Clinic, directed by Professor Paolo Annino and Professor Daynica Harley, helped a little boy leave a nursing facility. The child, a ward of the state, lived at the facility for seven years. The curtains in his room were routinely drawn closed. He rarely went outside and spent most of his day in a specially made crib enwrapped in a thick plastic bubble. The child would rip his plastic bubble to escape. With a legal services office, the Children's Advocacy Clinic advocated for the child to be placed in a home-like setting. We prevailed: the child is in a medical foster home, playing with the other children.
Human Trafficking and Exploitation Law Project
HELP

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Law Project is directed by Professor Paolo Annino and Professor Daynica Harley.

Students and professors celebrated the end of the fall 2022 semester in November.
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