Legal education experts agree that the best way for students to gain practical experience is in a real courtroom, advocating on behalf of real clients.
For Mitchell Hamline School of Law student Andrew Wilson, 27, of Northfield, Minn., that opportunity came recently in a civil jury trial.
Wilson, a 3L, tried and won a difficult case—successfully defending his client, who was being sued for wrongful death.
Wilson represented his client through Mitchell Hamline’s Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) Clinic.
The program receives hundreds of requests for help each year from among the state’s population of 9,000 prisoners. When LAMP takes a case, Mitchell Hamline students represent the client with supervision from resident adjunct professor Bradford Colbert ’85.
Wilson’s client was convicted of first degree assault and was sentenced to prison for a 2012 bar fight in Stillwater, Minn. He’s expected to remain in the Faribault Correctional Facility until 2017.
The client’s conviction arose out of a disagreement with a man over a spilled drink in a bar. The other man involved in the fight fell into a coma and later died in a hospital. The man’s family sued Wilson’s client, and the bar, for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
During the four-day civil trial in January, Wilson argued that while his client had pled guilty to an assault charge and is serving prison time for that conviction, he couldn’t be held civilly responsible for the man’s death, because he didn’t cause the death. The defense was based on the deposition of a medical expert, who testified that the injured man fell out of bed in the hospital, hitting his head. Wilson argued it wasn’t clear whether the fight, or the fall, led to the man’s death.
Colbert said Wilson spent hours studying the expert’s testimony, finding crucial information he weaved into his closing argument for the jury.
“That was a key to this trial,” Colbert said. “His use of those facts during closing arguments was masterful. That’s what I think won the case for us.”
Colbert emphasizes that Wilson was the lawyer during the trial.
“Andy did the entire trial,” Colbert said. “He did everything. He did the opening statement, he did the cross examination, and the closing argument. I didn’t do anything but watch.”
For Wilson, the courtroom experience was exhilarating, terrifying, but most importantly, valuable.
“In terms of a learning experience, it was incredible,” Wilson said. “The reason I did the LAMP Clinic, and came to law school in the first place, was to help people who can’t help themselves.”
Mitchell Hamline School of Law gives students real-world legal experience through clinics, externships, and semester-long job placements. It’s the kind of work that prepares them for jobs after graduation, whether in the courtroom, business, government, or public service.
Mitchell Hamline Professor Ann Juergens, co-director of the school’s clinical program, said the most valuable experience for students is advocating on behalf of real clients.
“Your own interests recede and the client’s interests are primary,” Juergens said. “This is one of the shifts in becoming a professional, putting your client’s interests first.”
Mitchell Hamline students have the opportunity to serve clients in 17 different clinics. That work can include representing clients at bail hearings, plea hearings, and trials. Students help draft contracts for nonprofit groups and form new businesses entities. They file patent and trademark applications, and they represent Indian tribes in federal court.
Mitchell Hamline Professor Peter Knapp, co-director of the clinical program, said that’s experience students won’t get just by studying the law.
“It’s the beauty of the real world,” Knapp said. “You can’t make it up, you can’t quite simulate it, and you surely can’t explain it all in a classroom.”
Knapp said representing real clients shows Mitchell Hamline students just how rewarding a legal career can be. And it also gives them real world experience to put on their resumes.
That’s something Mitchell Hamline student Andrew Wilson knows firsthand. With a successful jury trial under his belt, he expects to have an advantage as he begins looking for jobs after graduation in May.
“I still hope to do lots of trial work in the future, so this is a great stepping stone.”