In the clinic’s seminar, students study the legal, social, and policy factors that contributed to the exponential rise of America’s prison population and consider alternative approaches to punishment. In the field work, students represent clients in two types of cases: federal sentencing proceedings and Connecticut state parole hearings. Students will learn advocacy strategies aimed at mitigating or ameliorating their clients’ punishment, both prospectively during sentencing and retrospectively during post-conviction proceedings. This work will include: building relationships with clients (some of whom will be incarcerated); interviewing witnesses; investigating case facts; developing case theories; working on interdisciplinary teams alongside expert witnesses; using narrative writing techniques to prepare persuasive pleadings; and developing reentry plans for clients leaving prison. Additionally, students will present oral arguments at their clients’ federal hearings and will prepare state-sentenced clients to testify before the parole board.

Instructor

Miriam Gohara

Kelly M. Barrett

Ways to Engage

Our Clinics

Yale Law School offers more than 30 clinics that provide students with hands on, practical experience in the law on a diverse range of subject matters.

Simulation

Yale Law School offers a suite of innovative simulation courses based on real-world case studies.

Centers and Workshops

Yale Law School enhances the intellectual life of its academic community by sponsoring a variety of centers, programs, and workshops, inspired by the interests of its faculty and students.

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This place has always been imbued with a restless spirit, the assumption that being the finest law school in the world is never enough, and a deep belief that you, our students, can do anything.”

Heather Gerken

Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law