UCI Law’s  Appellate Litigation Clinic (ALC)  represents clients in a broad range of significant issues, including immigration, civil rights, and first amendment claims. Students work together in teams of two to prepare the briefs and argue cases, generally dividing the issues so that each has an opportunity to perform a wide variety of work. In the past eight years, the ALC has represented clients in more than 30 appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This year, the ALC has had an incredible success rate, with its clients prevailing in five of the six cases litigated before the Ninth Circuit . These cases are:  Astor-White v. Strong , a copyright infringement case;  Carr v. Stelzer , a civil rights case involving an inmate moved to a cell next to a violent prisoner who then attacked him;  Burton v. Lee , a case involving a man incarcerated for over 20 years for a crime committed when he was a mino r ; Williams v. Rodriguez , a federal civil rights claim case against correctional officers who allegedly assaulted the client; and Deisy Ordonoez Godoy v. Sessions , an asylum case involving a Honduran woman fleeing from gang violence and political killings. ALC is still awaiting a decision on the sixth case, concerning an important first amendment issue.

Residents of Capistrano Terrace Mobilehome Estates, and UCI Law CED directors, Carrie Hempel and Bob Solomon and clinic students, celebrate the deal closing.

Since the Community and Economic Development Clinic (CED) first began representing clients in fall 2011, it has worked to meet its client’s goals using a diverse range of legal tools, from litigation to business formation. CED students have employed this broad problem-solving approach in working with varied communities, from a group of medical students creating a needle exchange program to a group of small business owners dedicated to improving their downtown business community. And since the beginning, a substantial portion of CED's work has been for residents of low-income mobile home parks striving to preserve and improve their communities, which are an important source of affordable housing in Southern California. Students have sued park owners, created non-profit corporations controlled by park residents, and obtained grants and other sources of funding for purchasing and improving mobile home communities. Two great success stories are the CED's Coachella and San Juan Capistrano projects.

In Coachella, the owner of an unpermitted park issue d residents notice of an impending closure. Clients sought to keep the park open, and the clinic co-counseled with California Rural Legal Assistance in suing the owner to prevent the closure. After extensive pre-trial work and negotiation, CED reached a settlement by which its clients had an option to purchase the park. CED moved out of litigation mode and began the process to develop the site. When CED could not find a buyer, it worked with its clients to form a non-stock, tax-exempt entity to purchase the park, spent 18 months to secure a Conditional Use Permit, obtained a grant to supply drinking water and another for planning and design of a permanent water and sewer construction, obtained financing for the purchase, secured a manager, and represented the corporation in the purchase of the park.

In San Juan Capistrano, CED began by forming a non-stock, tax-exempt corporation controlled by the residents. Students represented the corporation in negotiating the purchase. Because of complications resulting from prior contracts, the clinic brought litigation on behalf of the corporation, which resulted in a Purchase and Sale Agreement. Students secured financing, and the resident-controlled corporation was then able to purchase. This project started at the opposite end of the legal spectrum from Coachella, but both projects involved litigation and both ended with corporations formed by the clinic purchasing the parks.

The Consumer Law Clinic (CLC) provides comprehensive advocacy to consumers through policy analysis, community education and outreach, and direct representation of consumers.

CLC teaches students the skills of lawyering while exploring a community-based approach to consumer law. As advocates for consumers and veterans exploited by predatory lending practices, students investigate potential consumer protection claims and provide direct representation in state and federal court for violations of California's Unfair Competition Law and other unfair and/or deceptive business practices. Direct representation also includes drafting amicus briefs in consumer cases, filing complaints with regulatory agencies, and disputing inaccuracies in consumer credit reports.

In furtherance of CLC's mission, students have the opportunity to analyze finance industry regulations and legislation through white papers, public comment, and empirical research. To increase community impact and address the growing needs of consumers, students develop self-help materials and conduct community education and outreach to help protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices.

The Criminal Justice Clinic (CJC) has been at the forefront of seeking post-conviction relief in California criminal court for non-citizens who are faced with losing their ability to remain in the United States with their families as a consequence of minor criminal conduct in their past. In the past two years, CJC has successfully represented more than 20 non-citizens in post-conviction relief. Clinic students handle all aspects of these motions, which center on the premise that the client was not aware of the immigration consequences of their criminal convictions at the time of their initial guilty plea.

J.H., at the age of 17, left Mexico and came by himself to the U.S. to work and find a better life. Four years later, he met the love of his life, and today, they own a home and have four children. In 2014 he was caught with a small amount of drugs. Since it was his first offense, he pled guilty to misdemeanor possession of drugs, and was allowed to complete a drug program, after which the court dismissed his case.

CJC students Thomas Moneymaker ’20 and Raina Sharma ’20 outside the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, CA.

Unfortunately, this state court dismissal is not recognized under federal immigration law and a few months later he was placed in removal proceedings. CJC successfully developed a novel legal claim arguing the legal error in promising a “dismissal for all purposes.” The court granted the motion and vacated the conviction in a manner recognized by immigration law. J.H. is now eligible to apply for relief from removal so that he may remain in the U.S. with his wife and children.

R.B. was a young college student who had “DACA” (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and was charged with a misdemeanor DUI offense. R.B. paid for a private attorney who erroneously told him that a DUI conviction would not affect his DACA status. After pleading guilty to a DUI, R.B. learned he was prohibited from DACA. His DACA status ended, and R.B. lost his work permit and ability to receive financial aid from his college. In seeking post-conviction relief for R.B., CJC students successfully argued that the prior attorney failed in his duty as counsel and provided legal misadvice to R.B. Through negotiations with the prosecutor, R.B. was able to vacate his DUI plea and instead plead guilty to a reckless driving charge that would not change his criminal punishment but would in fact allowed to renew his DACA status. Several months later, the student reached back out to CJC with the happy news that his DACA had been approved. He is back working and in college.

CJC sees this post-conviction work—which centers on undoing past, devastating mistakes in the representation of non-citizens faced with criminal charges—as an important and meaningful compliment to its work at the “front-end” of the criminal court system. CJC students, in addition to working on cases of post-conviction relief, also represent individuals currently charged with misdemeanors in state criminal court.

Law students in the Domestic Violence Clinic (DVC) provide transformative representation to help abuse survivors and their children achieve freedom from violence. DVC serves clients in crisis in comprehensive ways across multiple areas of the law, including civil restraining order, child custody, criminal, and immigration matters. DVC law students learn to be client-centered, culturally competent, reflective, and effective advocates while honing their trial and lawyering skills and helping clients secure safety.

The experience of representing clients and seeing larger patterns of systemic injustice and inadequacies in the law informs the community education, system reform, and policy advocacy work DVC does to produce broader systemic change.

For example, DVC was troubled that abuse survivors who could not achieve personal service in civil restraining order cases were denied relief because California did not permit alternative service in domestic violence cases. The clinic began representing Mary and her children after the father of one of Mary’s children was discovered to have sexually abused her child from a prior relationship. DVC students obtained a temporary restraining order for Mary and her children, proceeded to terminate the opposing party’s parental rights, and are representing Mary in her immigration case. The opposing party fled when his abuse was discovered, and while the clinic received permission to serve notice of the termination of parental rights case via publication and successfully terminated his parental rights, the restraining order case was eventually dismissed for lack of personal service, leaving Mary and her children without needed protection.

On behalf of Mary and multiple other clients, DVC launched a legislative reform project to permit the availability of alternative service in domestic violence cases in California, as is the case in approximately one-quarter of other jurisdictions. Working under faculty supervision, students drafted proposed statutory amendments, letters of support, and bill summaries; communicated with legislators and organizations across the state to build support for AB 2694; and testified before the Judiciary Committee in Sacramento in April 2018 on behalf of the clinic's clients. Mary and other affected clients were thrilled when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law on August 27, 2018.

DVC testified before the Judiciary Committee in Sacramento in April 2018 on behalf of multiple clients in support of a bill regarding notice and service provisions to increase access to safety for abuse survivors. 

As one of UCI’s inaugural clinics, the Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) enters its 8th year with a renewed focus providing legal services to clients seeking to enhance environmental health and conserve and protect natural resources. With the arrival of two new clinical fellows, including UCI Law’s first Mysun Clinical Fellow, ELC is expanding its efforts to help its clients address issues related to environmental justice, associated needs related to uneven access to justice, and significant gaps in regulatory safeguards.

From left: L. Song Richardson, Richard Glassberg, Alyse Bertenthal, Adam Glassberg, and Michael Robinson-Dorn. Adam and Richard Glassberg serve as trustees for The Mysun Charitable Foundation.

Interdisciplinary, community-engaged institution building and client representation are vital components of this work. ELC is implementing these commitments through several ongoing and new projects. For example, ELC is collaborating with members of UCI’s School of Public Health, and School of Medicine to investigate health and other repercussions from the dense concentration of industry, and other threats to community health in lower-income, predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in Santa Ana. ELC also represents clients with environmental justice concerns permitting and operation of hazardous waste and other industrial facilities that threaten neighboring communities. On the policy side, the clinic is engaged in efforts to better codify environmental justice at the federal level, and helping clients to ensure that California state agencies are properly implementing relevant environmental justice legislation.

The clinic provides assistance to its pro bono clients involved in litigation, legislative efforts, and work at the administrative agency level. Clinic students are challenged to learn new tools and approaches to enhance efforts to promote the equitable distribution of environmental burdens and benefits regardless of race, income or ethnicity.

ELC is training students to work alongside its clients to help address pressing environmental justice issues. Recognizing that many of the challenges facing its clients require multidisciplinary solutions, ELC helps students to become proficient consumers, and effective communicators, of the science, technology, and policy that have significant impacts on underserved communities. Throughout the year, ELC will be implementing collaborations with other members of the UCI community across campus whose work touches on environmental justice issues.

For many years, the Immigrant Rights Clinic (IRC) has been representing immigrants in deportation proceedings as they fight for a chance to stay in the United States. This year, the clinic had the opportunity to welcome a client back to California after having spent years in exile following his deportation to Mexico in 2010.

Spc. Fabian Rebolledo is a U.S. army veteran born in Cuernavaca, Mexico who immigrated to the United States with his parents in his early teens.

U.S. Army Veteran Spc. Fabian Rebolledo, UCI Law alumna Danielle Nygren ’18, and UCI Law Prof. Annie Lai.

He served in the 82nd Airborne Division, and in 1999, was deployed to Kosovo where he participated in a UN peacekeeping mission retrieving bodies of Kosovan villagers killed by Serbian forces. When Spc. Rebolledo came back from his tour, like many other veterans, he struggled with PTSD and alcohol abuse. He had a son and was beginning to turn his life around when, one day in 2007, he tried to cash a bad check from an employer and ended up with a conviction for check fraud. This conviction would ultimately lead to his deportation.

Clinic students met Spc. Rebolledo in 2016 when they traveled to Tijuana to hear his story and the stories of other deported veterans. Fortunately, due to a law passed by California voters called Proposition 47, Spc. Rebolledo was able to have his 2007 check fraud conviction re-classified as a misdemeanor and his sentence reduced. This in turn allowed the clinic to reopen his 2010 immigration case and eventually restore his legal residency.

Immigrants who have had criminal justice contact are among the most stigmatized in the immigration system. Students working on these complex cases must engage in close fact development and sophisticated legal advocacy to achieve results. Thanks to IRC's efforts, Spc. Rebolledo was able to return home to his son, elderly parents and other family in the Los Angeles area on September 19. He plans to continue advocating for the return of all deported veterans. 

IPAT Clinic Students in Washington, D.C. after testifying at hearings on exemptions to copyright laws.

Ever since the Intellectual Property, Arts and Technology Clinic (IPAT)'s founding, clinic students have worked with documentary filmmakers to help them tell their stories safely, effectively, and without fear of liability. This work involves not just working with individual filmmakers, but also high-profile advocacy for the documentary filmmaking community nationwide. Over the past year, the clinic has emerged as one of the documentary film community's leading legal and policy advocates with students reaching several milestones in this work.

In January 2018, in a first for IPAT, a client’s film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Kusama—Infinity, which explores the life and art of Yayoi Kusama, is one of the most important films about art to be made in years.

For much of 2017 and 2018, IPAT students represented a large coalition of national filmmaker organizations in a rulemaking proceeding at the Library of Congress seeking exemptions to the copyright laws that will allow filmmakers to exercise their fair use rights; in addition to hundreds of pages of filings, in April clinic students traveled to Washington, DC to testify at hearings on this matter. In January, IPAT authored an amicus brief in the California Court of Appeal in FX Networks v. de Havilland, a closely-watched case involving the right to portray real-life individuals. And in September, students participated in a panel discussion on advocacy for the documentary community at Getting Real ‘18, the large biennial gathering of documentary filmmakers from all over the world. The discussion focused on how lawyers, activists, and filmmaker organizations can best help the community in light of the promise, and challenge, of today’s media environment.

In October 2018, IPAT celebrated another win for independent filmmakers by helping to secure a renewal and modification of an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to include fair use exemptions for fictional and narrative filmmakers. The clinic represented a coalition of major independent filmmaking organizations in the effort, led by the International Documentary Association, Film Independent, and Kartemquin Films.

Students and faculty in the International Justice Clinic (IJC) work with activists, lawyers, diplomats, scholars and NGOs at home and around the world to develop and implement advocacy strategies concerning accountability for violations of human rights law. IJC students pursue research, engage in on-the-ground fact finding, conduct interviews in cross-cultural settings and prepare written and oral reports of their findings. Students focus on oral and written advocacy, coalition building, legal research and legislative drafting.

In June 2014, IJC Director and Professor David Kaye was named the United Nations Special Rapporteur to monitor, promote and protect freedom of opinion and expression around the world. Clinic students support the work of this mandate by investigating problems in such areas as the protection of journalists, artists, academics and others, the impact of surveillance on free expression, the right to access government information, the regulation of hate speech and other subjects that touch on the international right to freedom of expression. IJC students also explore specific country situations and help develop regional networks of defenders committed to free expression.

In the years since IJC began this work, students have contributed to and participated in high-level country missions to Japan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Ecuador, key diplomatic and multi-stakeholder meetings such as the Internet Governance Forum in Guadaljara and Paris, RightsCon in Brussels and Toronto, and the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and expert meetings in Geneva, Beirut, Kuala Lumpur, and elsewhere. They have drafted amicus briefs in advocacy before the European Court of Human Rights, the East African Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Court of Justice, and legislative commentary related to free expression issues in domestic legislatures around the world. IJC students have had the opportunity to do related externships in Geneva at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several have gone on to work in the field after graduation.

IJC students traveled to Turkey with Prof. David Kaye, left, to assess the freedom of expression situation in the country in the wake of an attempted coup and series of terrorist attacks.

Since its inception in fall 2010, the Externship Program has placed more than 600 students in positions with judges, government agencies, and non-profit organizations locally, across the country, as well as internationally. Through a combination of field work, coursework, and reflection, the program increases students’ understanding of the fundamental values of the legal profession, including a commitment to promoting access to justice and the ethical practice of law.

The program encourages innovation and allows students to create placements that fit their specific learning and career goals. In the last year alone, students have worked in positions as diverse as the Center for Court Innovation, the Transgender Law Center, the Laguna Ocean Foundation, and the Office of the Attorney General for the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians.

Beginning in fall 2019, the Externship Program will launch a course for students enrolled in UCI Law’s new Graduate Tax Program, the only program of its kind in the U.S. that makes practical tax skills a mandatory part of the curriculum. Externships are at the heart of this experiential component with placements at both non- and for-profit organizations. UCI Law is particularly proud of its exclusive formal externship program with the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) in Amsterdam.

With part-time opportunities offered in every semester, including summer, full-time opportunities available in the academic year, and opportunities for LL.M. students, the Externship Program at UCI Law can support every students’ learning and career goals.