For some UDSL students, their first day in court comes before their graduation day. Students enrolled in the third-year Law Clinic work with actual clients on actual cases, all supervised by  a professor, some of which end in a plea bargain and some of which end by going to trial.

"To me, the Clinic experience as a whole is invaluable. Students are not only afforded the opportunity to interact with clients, but also appear and argue before judges and jurors,” says Criminal Law Clinic Professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister. “Those who go to trial find out that litigating a case is hard work and labor intensive, especially when it is your first one. However, most if not all of the Clinic students treasure the experience and realize that the skills learned in the Clinic will allow them to hit the ground running when they graduate."

Jeremy Waite, a student who took Criminal Law Clinic in the fall semester had four clients, all misdemeanors, two who took pleas and two who asked for trials. “Organizing pleas was a big step forward from the daily happenings of law school,” he said.

Waite said that the process involved discussing the prosecutor's position, evidence, and burden; the client's version and best defenses; the consequences of pleading; reviewing the criminal statutes and other relevant law; and talking about chances and the unpredictable. After his clients decided to plead, they discussed mitigating factors and what the judge was likely to do in sentencing (jail time, fines, restitution, probation, suspending sentences, etc). Then they discussed the clients' opportunities to make a statement, what they might say, and the consequences.

When the opportunity came to take clients to trial, the pressure was really on. Waite was assigned fellow student Michelle Ko as his co-counsel. “We spent a lot of time in meetings, subpoenaed witnesses, practiced all parts of the trial, and met with the prosecutor. It was a he-said/she-said case with impeachment and inconsistencies,” he explained. “We constantly revised our tactics, theme, and questions. I was scheduled to cross the alleged victim and police officers. We practiced with other clinic members, and tried to throw each other off with unexpected, yet possible, answers. It was very real and nerve-racking, but we wanted to do it.”

Unfortunately for Waite, a January graduate, the trial was pushed back to a date after he was scheduled to move out of the area.

For Zachary Kluck, a student who took Criminal Law Clinic this semester, hard work and preparation did culminate with a day in court. “The experience of going to trial was great. In the beginning of the case, all of these pieces of information are just floating out there and throughout the case they slowly fall into place. By the time the trial starts, the pieces of the puzzle are all together,” he said. “I was very anxious at first, but once the trial started, the nerves disappeared and we were able to focus on the job at hand.”

No matter the outcome of working with clients in the Clinic, professors guide students through the processes, yet allow them to do the work, learn from the experience, and celebrate the outcomes. “The professor discusses with the student and client in advance what each are planning to do and say, but then--for the student's sake--the professor lets the student do everything,” Waite said. “I got the impression that the judge and professor would provide a safety net, but that I should proceed as if there was not one.”

The result of this approach is an invaluable learning experience. “I learned that however small or uncomplicated a case may seem at the beginning, if you put a lot of work into it, small aspects will come out which may determine the outcome of the case,” Kluck said. 

“Could you ask for something more interesting to talk about during a job interview?” Waite added.

UDSL requires every third-year student to undertake a capstone experience in the form of a small-enrollment, four-hour clinical or capstone course, which helps students transition from a theoretical to a practical understanding of the practice area. Students taking the Law Clinic assume the responsibility of representing real clients in a variety of matters under the supervision of professors. University of Dayton School of Law students work under a licensed attorney in the Law Clinic on campus handling actual cases in areas such as criminal law, community lawyering, and juvenile law.