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Legal Clinics: Celebrating the Past while Looking to the Future.

Seventy-five years ago, in the basement of Dallas Hall, the beloved dean of a fledgling 91��Ƭ�S�ϼ� School of Law conceived of a legal clinic that could aid the city’s poor by offering free or low-cost legal services, while giving a small cadre of SMU law students unprecedented legal experience before they ever crossed the stage in a robe and tassel.

Two birds, one stone. What Dean Robert Storey did not know when he started the program in 1948, however, was that the small community clinic would one day grow into 10 clinics and go on to serve tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of low-income residents over seven and a half decades of operational excellence.

When it first opened, the clinic was one of only two in Texas and predated, by several decades, the national movement to establish legal clinics at university law schools to serve people in need. Dean Storey’s career was distinguished by public service, first as an assistant attorney general of Texas and notably as executive counsel under Justice Jackson at the historic Nuremberg Trials, following World War II. He started the clinic at SMU to provide legal services to families in need while also providing a hands-on learning opportunity for law students.

The first clinic was a joint project with the City-County Welfare Office, the Dallas Junior Bar Association, and the Southwestern Legal Foundation. In 1948, Dallas County had a population of about 600,000 residents. Dallas County’s 2023 population is 2.7 million. Under the supervision of Professor Wilmer D. Masterson, Jr., five students selected based on their academic achievement met each Friday afternoon at 1313 Pacific Avenue downtown to take cases from the welfare department. Many of the cases involved family law matters and presented complex challenges for the law students and would have demanded significant compensation by any private law firm. But students were determined to get their clients the best outcome no matter what it took, even though their clients could not pay. One early student director of the clinic said proudly, “We work as hard on these $10 lawsuits as we would if millions of dollars were involved.”

Within the first five years of operation, the clinic handled an astonishing 1,200 cases involving everything from divorce and child support disputes to drawing up wills for the elderly. Although students were unable to speak in the courtroom since they had not yet passed the bar, they conducted all of the legwork and behind-the-scenes preparation and advised the trial lawyer who would argue their case on behalf of their client.

Dedicated in 1951, the broader organization known as the Legal Center, which housed the growing SMU School of Law and the Southwestern Legal Foundation, of which Dean Storey was president at the time, maintained the legal aid clinic as a rare and highly sought-after community resource. The Legal Center also made strides in advancing the legal profession that drew professionals from around the nation to hear what was going on at SMU.

Realizing his vision for law studies at SMU via the Legal Center, Dean Storey said, “Just as medical centers have extended the span of life and eased human pains, so should a legal center be concerned with vitalizing and modernizing our laws to this atomic age.”

Seventy-five years on from the establishment of that vision, the students and faculty at the Dedman School of Law have taken the legal aid clinic framework to impressive heights that no one in 1948 would have imagined. More than 80 students now participate in 10 clinics each semester at SMU Dedman Law with help from 12 faculty, six fellows, and three staff. Cases now come in from across Texas that go well beyond the original scope of the program. Unlike early clinic students, today’s students regularly appear in court on behalf of their clients and engage in other lawyer tasks under rules promulgated by the State Bar of Texas.

The various clinics at SMU serve low-income individuals with civil and consumer needs, federal taxpayer problems, and First Amendment cases, as well as small businesses in need of legal assistance and children without advocates who are receiving critical help through the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Child Advocacy Clinic. From 2014 to 2016, SMU Dedman Law greatly expanded its clinical offerings once again to include the Innocence Clinic, the VanSickle Family Law Clinic, the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, and the patent and trademark clinics.

SMU Dedman Law requires law students to complete 30 hours of public service, a program launched in 1996. Students who choose to participate in law clinics or externships log separate hours for these two programs outside the required public service hours.

In 2015, the graduating class had clocked over 13,000 hours of pro bono public service work, averaging 55 hours per student, well above the required threshold. The class of 2023 has achieved an average of 85 hours of public service per student for an astonishing 18,564 hours of total service; 31 graduates gave 200 hours, and six graduates volunteered more than 420 hours.

Clinic hours have seen astonishing growth as well. Students have logged about 30,000 hours of free legal services per year—the equivalent of 10 to 15 full-time lawyers. Pro bono work accomplished through the 10 clinics has informed and shaped the careers of SMU Dedman Law alumni who go on to help steer the course of the nation. A number of alumni have gone on to occupy important public service positions, from Irma Carrillo Ramirez ’91, the newest judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to Sarah Saldaña ’84 as the director of ICE under Barack Obama to John Ratcliffe ’89 as Director of National Intelligence under Donald Trump.

Clinical work did not stop during the COVID pandemic and even provided novel experience to students who suddenly found themselves navigating virtual hearings and video conferences – something that was foreign to many practicing attorneys. Through these experiences, students at SMU Dedman School of Law received a head start in a new era of legal practice and provided crucial remote legal assistance to individuals, especially children being helped by the Child Advocacy Clinic experiencing abuse, who otherwise would have lost most legal access due to pandemic constraints on in-person counsel.

Mary Spector, Associate Dean for Experiential Learning, Director of the Civil/ Consumer Legal Clinic, and Professor of Law, stresses the importance of instilling an ethic of preparation in students who run the clinic. “One of the things that we tell the students is what they lack in experience we make up for in preparation. That’s why we’re here till 11:30 at night going over the opening, going over the motion.”

Clients served by the law clinics have always been from diverse backgrounds. What’s changed in recent decades is the growing diversity of the SMU Dedman Law student body. About 55% of Dedman Law’s incoming class is composed of women, and 30% of the class come from historically underrepresented groups. “I have some of those students right now, first generation college students who speak another language at home, students who are immigrants that are coming here because their families are seeking religious freedom or political freedom in their own country. Our students often have more in common with our clients than you may think.”

One of the newest clinics, launched in 2016, the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, provides representation to survivors of gender-based harms, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, in a broad range of legal areas. The Hunter Center has partnered with established local community organizations to serve women who are most critically in need of legal assistance in matters including, but not limited to, obtaining orders of protection, family law, humanitarian immigration claims, and post-conviction relief. The Hunter Center also engages in systemic advocacy and policy work to both prevent and seek long-term solutions to the problem of violence against women.

Natalie Nanasi, Director of the Hunter Center and Associate Professor of Law, said the free legal services provided by the clinic expose law students to a desperately needed form of legal practice to serve some of society’s most vulnerable populations. For many students, let alone for the clients they assist, the experience is life-changing. “When they [law students] leave the clinic, we hope they are empathetic, culturally competent, and zealous advocates,” said Professor Nanasi. “We want to train them to be lawyers; we want to help them be better at researching, be better at writing, be better at oral advocacy, at negotiation – those really core legal skills. But we also want them to employ that knowledge in a way that understands their client’s lived experiences and is responsive to their trauma and the needs that they have in moving through the legal system.”

Jacob B. Fishman and Allayna Ford, both third-year law students who will graduate in May, have found their time working in the legal clinics an important source of confidence and experience that will propel them into their legal careers. Both have already secured posts with major Dallas firms, which they will assume this summer after passing the Texas Bar.

“I’ve been able to really grow and flourish in the law clinics,” said Ford. “I had a semester of mock trial under my belt. And so, I thought that I knew everything. But then whenever I started the civil clinic, I realized just how little I knew. On the first day that I was in the civil clinic, I was immediately thrown into an ongoing case, and I immediately started having to write motions and make phone calls. It was so hands on, and I really was able to grow in my confidence as an advocate.” The clinic experience, she said, helped her land a position with a Dallas litigation firm. “In the job interview, they [the employer] honed in on the fact that I have the civil clinic experience on my resume.

They said that one of their most recent associates whom they had hired just did his first deposition, and they had to really coach him through that. I mentioned that I’ve already done two depositions in my third year, and they were so impressed by that. And then I listed out the many different motions that I’ve drafted, and their eyes just widened.”

If it weren’t for his clinic experience, Jacob Fishman, who recently helped win a $100,000 settlement for a client, said he would not have had the opportunity to assist clients from low-income backgrounds who simply could not afford access to justice, which everyone deserves, he said. “The clinic is client-centered,” Fishman said. “It’s so important to us to be focused on their goals and their wants and their needs. We work through one of the most challenging issues of their lives, and we help them solve it. The experience is personally and professionally transformative. You get a real exposure to what the practice of law is like. In your head, you might have, you know, some romanticized notions of what it’s like to practice law, but it’s very different from boots on the ground, especially working with the indigent.” “It is special to feel a part of this big machine that’s doing good in Dallas. I keep coming back to volunteer.”

For alums Robert Doggett ’90 and John Creuzot ’82, their clinic experiences were career game-changers, and they believe all law students should participate in them.

“The clinic planted that seed for me to reconsider a traditional track of working for a law firm that had paying clients, you know, banks and insurance companies and things like that, who can afford to retain paid counsel,” said Doggett, Executive Director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, the nation’s second largest legal aid provider and the largest in Texas. TRLA provides free civil legal services to residents in 68 Southwest Texas counties and represents migrant and seasonal farm workers throughout the state and in six other southern states. TRLA also operates public defender programs that serve at least 10 Texas counties, representing low-income and indigent people accused of felonies, misdemeanors, and juvenile crimes. TRLA serves about 23,000 clients each year in more than 45 practice areas at branch offices across the state. “I certainly looked at the private firm model and was considering it and applied for some of those positions. And my heart just wasn’t in it; my heart was in something else. And that seed, that decision, has made my life the most meaningful and valuable. I can’t imagine doing anything differently.”

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot had a similar experience after his trials-by-fire in the civil and criminal justice clinics. A retired Dallas County Judge, Creuzot is now serving his second term as Dallas County Criminal District Attorney after being first elected in 2018. His background includes more than 21 years as a Felony District Court Judge, seven years of service as a Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and Chief Felony Prosecutor, as well as a criminal defense lawyer while in private practice. “[The clinic experiences] allowed me to understand what I wanted to do as a lawyer, which was to be a criminal trial lawyer,” Creuzot said. “And so, it gave me that push. I was fortunate enough to be hired into the district attorney’s office, and it was kind of the steppingstone for my entire career that I ended up here today.“Even if you’re not going to practice criminal law or civil law, I’ve seen that clinic work is valuable to people because people do change,” he said. “I mean, they start off doing banking law, and they may wind up doing something else that requires them to go to the courthouse, have hearings, maybe try cases. You get that experience with the clinics while you’re still in law school.”

Professor Nanasi, who came to SMU in 2015, marvels at the Dedman Law Clinics program. “Where we have come in 75 years with so many clinics, staffed or run, I should say, and directed by my absolutely incredible colleagues, working in just this incredible range of subject matters, training so many students – it just really is remarkable to look back and see how far we’ve come,” she said.

“We are delighted to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our legal clinics,” said Jason P. Nance, dean of SMU Dedman School of Law. “We view our clinical education program as an important partnership with the DFW community and an opportunity to teach students to become competent lawyers who also have a compassionate public-service mindset.”

Said Professor Spector: “I love being able to see these students come in, shy and unsure, and then after time in the clinics have them walk out standing up straight with confidence in their legal abilities and the knowledge that they’ve been able to make a difference in the lives of their clients.”

75th Anniversary Clinic Week
OCTOBER 2–6, 2023

SMU Dedman School of Law celebrated the 75th anniversary of its legal clinics with various events throughout “Clinic Week” beginning October 2.

Deborah N. Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), associate dean for Experiential Education and Clinical Programs, professor of Clinical Law, and faculty director of the Community Equity Lab at New York University School of Law delivered the Clinic Week’s keynote lecture, “Celebrating the Past while Looking to the Future” on October 5th.

A reception featuring a very special 75th Anniversary cake followed the lecture, and was attended by clinic alumni, faculty, staff, and students.
Other celebratory events for the Law School community were held during Clinic Week, such as “Coffee and Cookies with the Clinics” and an SMU Dedman Law alumni panel reminisced about their work in the clinics as law students and discussed the role that experience has played in their legal careers.