One reason McGeorge School of Law was of great interest to me was its many legal clinics where students operate as certified law students under the supervision of assigned attorneys. The clinics are primarily “student-run,” which means students handle cases from intake to close, allowing them to gain a depth and variety of experience you can’t get in the classroom. McGeorge School of Law offers various clinics ranging from Elder and Health Law to Immigration Law and Bankruptcy.

During my first year of law school, an older student shared her clinical experience with me and strongly recommended I get involved. She felt her clinical experience prepared her for future employment in ways the classroom didn’t. Since then, I made it a priority to get involved in a clinic. I have been involved in the Elder and Health Law Clinic since the fall semester of my 3L year, and I will continue to work in the Clinic until graduation.

Staying in the Clinic for more than one semester has allowed me to further build upon the skills I’ve learned. Throughout my time in the Elder and Health Law Clinic, I have acquired various skills that I will carry with me into my first post-Bar job. Being in the Clinic has taught me interpersonal skills, what it means to carry and direct a meeting, the importance of organized note-taking and recording, and continued to strengthen my legal research and writing skills. Throughout my time in the clinic, I have handled various cases ranging from estate planning to financial elder abuse.

Serving the community is of great importance to me, and I am passionate about serving vulnerable populations. Prior to attending law school, I was a mentor for children of prisoners and worked with homeless veterans. Upon entering law school, I sought to continue serving vulnerable populations, and the Elder and Health Law Clinic seemed like a great way to assist the elderly with various legal challenges.

Elder abuse is prevalent in our society and it is important we continue to breed passionate advocates to assist vulnerable populations. It has been an honor advocating for my clients throughout my time and involvement in the Elder Law and Health Clinic.

By Kelli Sanshey, a third-year law student at McGeorge School of Law.

When I began law school, I committed myself to using the skill set I would develop during my time at McGeorge School of Law to help people. My 1L summer internship at the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office solidified my passion for indigent defense work. At that point in my law school journey, I began to see how my desire to help people could manifest into a career. Once I knew that I wanted to be a public defender, I started making plans to participate in the McGeorge Federal Defender Clinic.

I chose the Federal Defender Clinic because this year-long program provides law students the unique opportunity to get comprehensive real-life litigation experience under the supervision of two highly qualified federal defenders. The Clinic is only open to eight students per year. The small group setting allows for a lot of face time with our supervising attorneys.

Additionally, because the students are divided into teams of two, this Clinic creates a highly collaborative learning environment where we are able to pool knowledge and support each other. What drew me most to this Clinic was that fact that it would allow me to represent real clients in the courtroom from arraignment through appeal.

During my first semester in the Clinic, I was accepting appointments and working up cases right away. I was also able to negotiate dismissals. By the end of the fall semester, my partner and I represented one of our clients in a bench trial. This semester, in addition to routine misdemeanor intake work, my partner and I are currently working on an appeal and have a jury trial set for spring.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many significant and new challenges to all of us. For me, law school has been radically different than what I expected it to be at the start of my 1L year in 2019. Unfortunately, because of the courtroom, classroom, and office closures in 2020, many of us did not have the chance to be inside the courtroom or interact with our mentors and supervisors in the same way that our predecessors did. This is another reason why I feel so privileged to be a part of the Clinic this year. As a part of this cohort, I feel like I have had the chance to make up for some of that lost time. This Clinic has not only allowed me to learn firsthand about federal defense work, but it has also allowed me to continue to develop the real-life litigation skills that I need in order to be successful in the future.

By Kendra Hall, a third-year law student at McGeorge School of Law.

When I was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I attended a Critical Race Theory Seminar hosted by political activist, professor, and author Angela Davis. I learned a great deal about the prison-industrial complex. From there, I became interested in topics ranging from prison conditions, mass incarceration, and other social justice issues. When I decided to go to law school, I knew that I wanted to get involved in the prisoner civil rights space in some capacity.

I joined the Prisoner Civil Rights Mediation Clinic at McGeorge School of Law to provide inmates with a chance at receiving justice. I’ve learned that upwards of 90 percent of cases filed by inmates do not make it to court. The reasons for this statistic are plentiful. Inmates face many hurdles when filing a complaint, ranging from costly filing fees, a lack of resources, and most importantly, the incredibly high burden inmates bear when proving a Section 1983 claim. Consequently, mediation is an excellent alternative for inmates to seek resolution. I often felt that mediation provided these inmates the closest alternative to their day in court.

During the first part of the Clinic, I learned about the administrative process within the prison system and the various types of prisoner civil rights claims. In particular, the clinic provided a primer on the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, inmates’ First Amendment claims, and the like.

The latter part of the Clinic allowed me to interview inmates, write memos for a Federal Magistrate Judge, and participate in facilitative mediation. Speaking frequently with a Federal Magistrate Judge made me feel more comfortable in the courtroom. Also, the Clinic offered simulated mediations, which made me feel adequately prepared when mediation day arrived. I learned many practical skills that translate to all areas of legal practice. Specifically, I learned how to help parties craft a mutually acceptable solution by utilizing negotiation and problem-solving skills. Not to mention, the clinic allowed me to work as a full-time law clerk for the Eastern District of California the fall of 2021.

My most profound experience in the Clinic was interviewing inmates. I realized that many inmates made their mistakes and ended up in prison, in part, because of unfortunate circumstances such as poverty, racial bias, and lack of resources. As I interviewed these inmates, I learned more about their families and the many challenges they faced during childhood. Often, inmates are stigmatized once they commit a crime, but I don’t believe that society should view a person based solely on the mistakes they’ve made in life.

While these issues can be complex, Bryan Stevenson best illustrates my perspective on these matters in his book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. “Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

By Ryan Tyre, a third-year law student at McGeorge School of Law.

Amidst the pandemic in October 2020, I applied for a position with a local non-profit organization in Sacramento called Women’s Empowerment. After three years of working as a legal secretary for a firm that handled landlord-tenant law, I found myself wanting to advocate for the unhoused during a time when housing was and currently still is, something that is lacking in the greater Sacramento region and across the United States.

The non-profit, Women’s Empowerment, is a job-readiness program that works with women and children that are experiencing homelessness. It is the agency’s goal to educate and empower these women who are experiencing homelessness with the skills and the confidence necessary to get a job, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and regain a home for themselves and their children.

Currently, I work as the agency’s Housing Specialist. In this role, I am responsible for providing housing education, financial education, and housing advocacy for the more than 1,700 women who have walked through the doors of Women’s Empowerment. My experience at Women’s Empowerment has helped me see a system that lacks both the knowledge and the resources necessary to address the needs of those in poverty. Due to my knowledge and experiences, when I saw the creation of the Homeless Advocacy Clinic at McGeorge School of Law I knew I needed to get involved as quickly as I could.

As an evening student, it is difficult balancing full-time employment, law school, externship and internship requirements, and a social life. When I learned about what the Homeless Advocacy Clinic offered as services, I immediately applied. Working with the women at Women’s Empowerment, I have become aware of the barriers that people in poverty face in order to access basic legal services. People who are unhoused often lack access to public benefits, medical needs, expungement services, and basic information pertaining to their rights as humans.

My experience thus far in the Homeless Advocacy Clinic is one that I am going to take with me into my legal practice moving forward. Usually our scope of services are limited to things like Social Security applications, expungements, and traffic court violations; but our group was able to assist one of our clients in her pursuit of a domestic violence restraining order. Here in the United States, one in four women are victims of domestic violence, but for women that are experiencing housing instability, it occurs much more frequently. Our semester was filled with research on the legal requirements to win the case, hours of fact gathering with our client, sessions with our supervising attorney on trauma-informed lawyering, and ultimately a hearing in front of a Superior Court judge.

In the end, we were able to have our client be awarded a permanent restraining order and have a moment of peace after years of abuse, but it made me realize that the justice we are pursuing for our clients is only the first win in a long battle towards equality.

The Homeless Advocacy Clinic is meeting an urgent need in Sacramento County, and it is something that I am honored to be a part of. The wins mean something that is difficult to explain because they often provide hope to people who have been stuck in cycles of empty promises and hopelessness. I am excited to continue my legal career in social justice, and continue to provide advocacy for those whose voices are continuously muffled.

By Kaitlyn Monck, a third-year law student at McGeorge School of Law.