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Introduction to the Clinic
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Our Program
History The Juvenile Justice Clinic was founded in 1973, a mere six years after the Supreme Court's landmark decision in In re Gault . In that case, the Supreme Court guaranteed children a constitutional right to counsel and to procedural due process. One of the first law school-based legal clinics specializing in children's issues, the Juvenile Justice Clinic and its staff seeks to fulfill the mandates of the Gault decision, to expand the legal rights of children, and to insure that children are protected from maltreatment by their parents or by the government. In its early years, the clinic was a full service children's rights center as well as a teaching program operating within the Law Center community. As such, the clinic staff provided legal assistance in every type of case concerning children. We also assisted in the formulation of policy at both the local and federal level and trained a cadre of young lawyers to continue the work they began as students in law school. Since that time, the Juvenile Justice Clinic's mission and its methods have evolved. So too has the law's response to children's issues. The legal rights and entitlements possessed by children, while difficult at times to describe with certainty, have expanded. Moreover, the legal system has become more sophisticated in its understanding of children and their needs. The procedures now used by the courts in all types of cases insure that at least in some measure, children's voices are heard when the legal system impacts on their lives. Recognizing the evolving complexity of children's rights laws and conscious of the limited amount of time available to teach this complex law in a clinical education course, we have limited the scope of the clinic's work. We now focus on delinquency cases, addressing other issues (e.g., education, child neglect and abuse, etc.) as they arise within the delinquency context. While clinic faculty still engage in research across a broad range of issues affecting children and participate in both national and local debates concerning governmental policies relating to adolescent crime, the law students in the clinic are permitted to represent only those children who are accused of a crime. Why We Represent Children Accused Of Crime A child in trouble is a crisis and a challenge. But above all, a child in trouble remains a child. As life for many children in America gets harder, as the streets they live on become more violent, as the schools they attend become more crowded, as their health becomes impaired and their very lives threatened, and while their current need for the special care long promised by juvenile courts is as great or greater than ever, many states and the federal government are giving up on their juvenile courts and on America's children. Children are being imprisoned in greater numbers and for longer periods of time than at any time in recent history. Demagogues from both political parties have declared war on children, making them the scapegoats for the failures of adult-made policy. American citizens are paying the price now for society's decades of neglect of the nation's children. Students and staff at the clinic witness this neglect everyday; but once they have seen a child's face through the bars of a jail cell, they will never think about childhood -- or the practice of law -- in the same way again. Clinic staff, students and alumni know that if the lives of children are not improved, society will pay an even greater price for this neglect in the future. Thus we fight to remove them from jail and enroll them in school. We fight to obtain the support they need to stay free, safe, and together with their families. We fight for better educational opportunities. We fight to preserve the liberties embodied in the Bill of Rights, even though those liberties are not always accorded to children. No matter how loud politicians may shout for harsher and longer punishment, children cannot be silenced as long as someone is willing to stand with them, listen to them, and speak for them. For the children of the District of Columbia, the Juvenile Justice Clinic is there, ready to listen, ready to fight. Faculty and Staff Wallace J. Mlyniec, Lupo-Ricci Professor of Clinical Legal Studies; Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic B.S., Northwestern; J.D.,
Georgetown Kristin Henning, Professor of Law, Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic B.A., Duke University; J.D.,
Yale Law School; LL.M., Georgetown
Lula graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2009 and received her B.A. in politics from the University of Virginia in 2004. Prior to law school, she spent two years as a middle school teacher in Atlanta through the program Teach For America. While at Georgetown, Lula participated in the Street Law Clinic and the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic where she represented juveniles charged with misdemeanors and felonies in D.C. Superior Court. After earning her J.D., she worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia as a post-graduate fellow in the Trial Division.
Texys Morris grew up in Maysville, Georgia. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Virginia in 2004 and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2011. Prior to law school, Texys served as a youth development volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Lesotho, Africa. She then worked as the legal clinic coordinator for the Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization, Bread for the City. At Georgia Law, Texys was a James E. Butler Scholarship recipient for public interest law. While in law school, Texys participated in the Public Interest Practicum Clinic and the Criminal Defense Clinic, representing indigent defendants in the juvenile and state courts of Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit. Texys also co-founded UGA’s Public Interest Law Council and started the Alternative Spring Break program. During her law school summers, Texys interned for the Orleans Public Defenders and the Bronx Defenders.
Wanda D. Duarte, Executive Assistant, Juvenile Justice Clinic Ms. Duarte manages the Juvenile Justice Clinic office. She has been with Georgetown Law Center since 1983 and has been with the Juvenile Justice Clinic since 1984.
Graduate Fellowships Fellows spend two years in the program, after which they are awarded a Masters Degree in Advocacy. During the first year, fellows try cases and develop their skills as clinical teachers. In the second year, they continue to represent clients and supervise third year law students in the Juvenile Justice Clinic. The Juvenile Justice Clinic is open to Georgetown law students who meet the requirement of the D.C. Student Practice Rule. Students apply for membership in the clinic in the Spring during the Law Center's Clinic registration period. The course may be taken either for the Fall semester only or for the entire year. Revised October 18, 2010 (LdL) |
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Lula Hagos , E. Barrett Prettyman, Juvenile Justice Fellow, 2010-2012
Texys Morris