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Feder al, Criminal, and Appellate Clinic
In January 2011, Kelly KnepperStephens (J.D. ’05), visiting professor in the Federal, Criminal, and Appellate Clinic (FAC), argued State v. Northam in Maryland’s highest court. The case reached the court in 2010, after a FAC student-attorney (Stephanie Patton, J.D. ’10) persuaded the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to reverse and remand her client’s felony murder conviction because the trial judge had failed to address the client’s repeated requests to
Visiting Professor Kelly Knepper-Stephens
discharge his attorney. When the Maryland Court of Appeals granted the government’s petition for certiorari in the case, FAC students and Professor Knepper-Stephens developed arguments designed to protect their victory below. In April and May, the Maryland Court of Appeals will hear arguments in two other cases argued below by FAC studentattorneys, including one case on the constitutionality of the “CSI” jury instruction, which informs jurors that the state need not use certain investigative and scientific techniques. In February, Nick Vitolo (J.D. ’11) argued a case before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. In March, Eric Sidler (J.D. ’11) and Lillian Marquez (J.D. ’11) argued their cases. One issue in Marquez’s case involved the propriety of trying and sentencing in absentia a defendant who had escaped. The rest of FAC’s student-attorneys are preparing a variety of other appellate issues for spring semester oral arguments. Health Rights Law Clinic
Students in the Health Rights Law Clinic work with GW’s Health Insurance Counseling Project, fielding an average of 100 calls a week requesting assistance with an array of health-related legal problems. Exposure to such a wide range of issues gives clinic students a broad range of opportunities for client service while learning about the health care system, as well as the possibilities for changing it and advocating within it. Recently, Professor Suzanne Jackson and several clinic students visited a senior apartment building, interviewing many residents who sought assistance with health care costs and decisions. Wireless laptops
[ in memoriam ] Professor Emeritus Donald P. Rothschild, the founder of the Law School’s Consumer Help Clinic—one of the earliest clinics at GW Law— passed away on February 28, 2010 in Ft. Myers, Florida. He was 83 years old. Professor Rothschild taught labor law, employment law, and disability law. Students and colleagues Professor Emeritus Donald P. Rothschild remember him as a mentor, a friend, and a visionary teacher. He was also a clinic pioneer whose legacy lives on in the Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics. If you have memories of Professor Rothschild or of the Consumer Help Clinic that you would like to share, please send them to us. We send our heartfelt condolences to all of Professor Rothschild’s family and friends.
in tow, student advocates searched through Medicare’s databases to identify each person’s best options and helped many seniors to apply for public benefits that can dramatically reduce their costs for health care and medicine. They helped others extricate themselves from managed-care plans that they had joined based on insurance brokers’ inaccurate claims. In another clinic matter, student Caroline Jova (J.D. ’12) discovered that Medicare was automatically denying claims
without review based on a billing code that a hospital had incorrectly added to her client’s file. After conducting extensive research and determining that a class action could be brought, she consulted with several national experts while simultaneously submitting an appeal of the denial of her client’s claim. Medicare granted her client’s appeal and has suspended its policy of automatically denying claims based on the billing code. Another student, Daniel Cousineau (J.D. ’11), recently secured approval for a special wheelchair that previously had been denied to an elderly woman, persuading Medicaid that the woman’s condominium should not be considered an asset that would disqualify her from coverage. IMMIGR ATION CLINIC
Professor Suzanne Jackson
Students in the Immigration Clinic recently obtained cancellation of removal for a client from Mexico who had experienced domestic violence
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interviews, preparing discovery documents, and drafting motions in preparation of trial. In her most recent case, a contested divorce, Langer’s efforts resulted in expanded legal protection and financial support for a battered woman and her children. Langer reports that her experience in DVP “has renewed my sense of commitment to practicing public interest law.” DV LEAP, directed by Professor Joan Meier, has received a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The grant will fund DV LEAP’s Custody and Abuse Project, which will provide training to judges, lawyers, experts, advocates, and pro se litigants on the misuse of science in custody and abuse litigation.