Advanced Criminal Defense Clinic

Catalog description

Students who have completed the Criminal Defense Clinic are eligible to apply for enrollment as returning students in Advanced Clinic. Advanced Clinic work may include: factual and legal analysis on Sixth Amendment violations of the right to a speedy trial, culminating in briefing and oral argument in the trial court; strategic advisement on techniques and strategies for direct examination, cross examination, admission of exhibits and Fourth Amendment constitutional legal analysis in moot hearings of active clinic motions; analysis of police reports and body camera footage for evidence of explicit or implicit bias exhibited by law enforcement officers in support of motions for violations of California's Racial Justice Act. During the Winter Quarter, students may advocate for the pre-trial liberty of incarcerated clients facing felony criminal charges in the Santa Clara County Superior Court, in collaboration with the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office. This work may include in-custody client interviewing of incarcerated clients, in-court appearances at arraignments for initial bail determination for incarcerated clients, and the possibility of written and oral advocacy in a subsequent bail motion for clients who are not released at arraignment. This work provides Advanced Clinic students interested in a criminal defense practice a unique opportunity to engage in supported advocacy in the real-time high-volume setting of a criminal arraignment courtroom. Students may not enroll in any clinic (full-time or advanced) that would result in them earning more than 27 clinical units during their law school career.