Welcome to Our Fall Newsletter!
We are excited to highlight some of the ways that Suffolk Law’s clinical programs are providing students with rich clinical experiences, while meeting emerging community needs and leveraging technology to help solve pressing access to justice issues.
Some highlights include our Transactional Clinic, which helped a non-profit create a Sharia-compliant micro-loan program to assist African refugees; our Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Clinic, which earned a victory for indigenous Guatemalans after a ten-year battle to win the right to access broadcast media; and our Legal Innovation & Technology Lab, which was recognized for its groundbreaking work providing pro se litigants with digital access to essential court processes. Of course, we have new colleagues to welcome and promotions to celebrate, too!
We’re also thrilled to be hiring two visiting clinical professors–one to help us build out a new Environmental Law Clinic, and another to help us develop a Legislative Policy and Practice Clinic. Please consider joining us for a year–or help us spread the word! Details below.
We wish you all a productive fall semester and are overjoyed to be seeing many of you in San Francisco this spring!
Sincerely,
Sarah Boonin
Associate Dean for Experiential Learning
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If you or someone you know is interested in helping us shape a new in-house clinic, we have openings for two visiting clinical professors starting fall 2023. The visitors will help us develop an Environmental Law Clinic and Legislative-Regulatory Policy & Practice Clinic, both of which will be full-year clinics. For more information, please see the job listings:
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The new programs will bring to 14 our in-house clinical offerings, including: |
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New Transactional Clinic Creates Sharia-Compliant Nano-Loan Documents for Underserved Muslim Communities |
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One of the major challenges faced by Muslim-owned small businesses is that most lenders require interest payments, which are prohibited under Sharia law. This restriction puts many minority and immigrant-owned businesses at a major disadvantage. Students in the Transactional Clinic, led by Professor Carlos Teuscher, worked with a Massachusetts nonprofit and an international law firm to create Sharia-compliant nano-loan documents for their clients.
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Suffolk LIT Lab Wins Award for Innovation |
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Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation and Technology (LIT) Lab, which creates technological solutions to increase access to justice, is among a handful of winners of the College of Law Practice Management’s 2022 InnovAction Awards. The prize recognizes the LIT Lab's work on the “Document Assembly Line Project,” which has helped citizens in Massachusetts and other states access the courts via mobile friendly "smartforms." To date, over 20,000 smartforms have been downloaded, including 3,500 fee waivers, 500 restraining order petitions, and 550 emergency housing injunction forms.
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Indigenous Peoples Clinic Wins Landmark Media-Access Ruling, Turns Focus to Implementation |
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After a nearly decade-long case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Suffolk Law's Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights Clinic, led by Professor Nicole Friederichs, secured a precedent-setting ruling ordering the Guatemalan government to halt its crackdown on Indigenous community radio stations. Last summer, Friederichs and Professor Amy Van Zyl-Chavarro (JD’08) travelled to Guatemala for ten days of meetings to implement the landmark ruling. (The photo above was taken in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, with members of the Comunidad Maya Mam de Todos Santos Cuchumatán.) |
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Clinic Student Highlights Housing Stability Tools During Roundtable Hosted by AG Merrick Garland |
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In May, Accelerator Practice student and LIT Lab fellow Grace L. Barlow Enchill (JD ’22) represented Suffolk Law at a roundtable with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Massachusetts law students to discuss housing stability. Enchill–now an associate at real estate firm Heller & Robbins–highlighted the collaborative work of multiple Suffolk Law clinics that assisted tenants facing eviction. Suffolk’s efforts range from directly representing tenants in eviction and housing discrimination cases to developing technology to help tenants determine if they qualified for CDC eviction relief.
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Innocence Clinic Collaborates with State Access to Justice Commission Fellow on Systemic Reform Proposals |
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Suffolk’s Innocence Clinic is collaborating on a program that pairs senior lawyers and retired judges with public service entities to work on law reform projects. Through the partnership, Innocence Clinic students, along with a Suffolk Law alumnus, are creating proposals for systemic criminal law reform, including proposed new jury instructions, a model to create an independent office to oversee wrongful conviction processes, and a proposed new civil right of action for anyone convicted by tainted evidence. Learn more about this inter-generational collaboration.
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Professors Appointed to Community Posts |
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Suffolk’s clinical faculty continue to be involved in the community:
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Fair Housing Conference: Suffolk Law will host a virtual fair housing conference January 26 and 27, 2023. During the conference, fair housing professionals from across the nation will participate in a range of sessions on fair housing enforcement, testing, and education. Visit the Suffolk Housing Discrimination Testing Program website for emerging details on the conference.
LITCon 2023: Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation and Tech Lab will again be hosting LITCon, to be held April 3. Visit the LITLab’s website for emerging details!
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Christina Miller was promoted to associate clinical professor of law. Miller serves as the director of Suffolk’s Prosecutor’s Program. Before coming to Suffolk Law, she was chief of district courts and community prosecutions for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
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Quinten Steenhuis was promoted from clinical fellow to practitioner in residence in the LIT Lab. Steenhuis's work focuses on using technology to address the access to justice gap. He was a senior housing attorney, systems administrator, and developer at Greater Boston Legal Services for more than a decade.
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Vanessa Hernandez, JD '10, has been promoted to practitioner in residence and named the new director of the Juvenile Defenders Clinic, where she previously served as a clinical fellow. Prior to joining the Suffolk faculty, she represented juveniles in delinquency and youthful offender cases for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
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Mary Sawicki has been named the director of Suffolk’s Domestic and International Externship Programs. She has been appointed as a practitioner in residence. She came to Suffolk Law after a distinguished career as a prosecutor specializing in child abuse prosecution.
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This fall, we are pleased to welcome three new clinical fellows: |
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Emma Lodge works in the Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP) with a focus on advocating for clients in their housing searches and in procurement of housing around Boston. Lodge received a JD from Lewis and Clark Law School and a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she worked with veteran service organizations, victim rights legal groups, and in low-income estate planning.
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Dexter Rowell joined HDTP as part of a joint project with the City of Boston’s Office of Fair Housing & Equity. Rowell focuses on providing fair housing training, community outreach, and discrimination testing throughout Boston. Before joining HDTP, Rowell was a staff attorney in the Guardian ad Litem program with the Children’s Law Center in Washington, DC. He earned his BA and JD from Northeastern University.
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Shannon Rand joins the Family Advocacy Clinic after a career that has included private family law practice, 10 years representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in child support cases, and experience representing low-income victims of domestic violence for a legal services organization. Shannon graduated from Simmons College and Northeastern University School of Law and immediately went into legal services.
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