The past year has proven challenging for many law school clinics and student-based organizations. They have experienced the political and legal retaliation that sometimes comes when representing clients with unpopular or controversial cases. A number of law school clinics and innocence projects have defended themselves against actions by prosecutors and others attempting to obtain information traditionally protected by confidentiality rules and evidentiary privileges.
At the University of Michigan, students of the law school’s innocence clinic were placed on the prosecution’s witness list for the retrial of a clinic client. In Illinois, the Cook County state’s attorney subpoenaed unpublished student notes and memorandums from journalism students participating in Northwestern University’s innocence project. The University of Maryland School of Law and Rutgers School of Law – Newark have been required to defend their clinics against actions by legislatures and private parties seeking disclosure of client lists and the process for choosing clients.
