Clinical Programs

Whether delivered on a national stage or a local one, whether by faculty or by students, our demands for justice are reverberating. Read on to celebrate the many accomplishments of Denver Law’s Clinical Programs this past year, including Professor Laura Rovner's Ted talk which has more than 800,000 views! 

New Clinical Fellows

Denver Law welcomes three new Fellows as our class of Clinical Teaching Fellows grows to six. Joining us this year are Sara Hildebrand, Jesse Loper and Tania Valdez and we welcome back Danielle Jefferis, Sarah Matsumoto and Katherine Wallat.

Civil Litigation Clinic

Students litigated a host of cases in the Civil Litigation Clinic (CLC), including civil protection order, housing, immigration, guardian ad litem and family law cases over the 2018-2019 academic year. They also collaborated with the Direct Action Team, a grassroots group of volunteers in the Denver community committed to fighting wage theft. More from the Civil Litigation Clinic. 

Civil Rights Clinic

The Civil Rights Clinic (CRC) started the academic year with a two-day federal bench trial in front of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in late August. Three student attorneys, Michael Bishop, Rachel Kennedy, and Elizabeth Othmer, tried the case on behalf of their incarcerated client, Ahmad Ajaj, who brought a claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, requesting that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provide him meaningful access to an imam and access to a halal diet. More from the Civil Rights Clinic. 

Community Economic Development Clinic 

This year, the Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic welcomes new students and new Clinical Fellow Jesse Loper. This year students in the CED Clinic are representing a diverse range of clients on transactional matters, including a nonprofit small business incubator focused on incubating retail businesses and minority and women-owned businesses in podcasting production and other media services, construction contracting, and public relations. CED Clinic students are also providing community education workshops on business structures and legal entities throughout the academic year. More from the Community Economic Development Clinic. 

 Criminal Defense Clinic 

After an intensive three-week-long orientation, student attorneys in Denver Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC) are now in full swing for the Fall 2019 semester. CDC student attorneys practice under the supervision of Professors Robin Walker Sterling and Christopher Lasch, who are entering their ninth year as a teaching team at the University of Denver. Clinical Teaching Fellow Sara Hildebrand, a 2012 graduate of the Sturm College of Law and CDC alumnae, joined the teaching team in July bringing her expertise to the clinic. More from the Criminal Defense Clinic.

Environmental Law Clinic

During the 2018-2019 academic year and over the summer, the Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) represented communities on the front lines of the pressing matters facing Colorado’s communities and special places, including oil & gas development, water scarcity, and air pollution. Two ELC students were the first students to ever argue cases before the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing two appeals on behalf of Colorado communities challenging permits authorizing industrial-scale oil & gas developments near their homes and schools. More from the Environmental Law Clinic.

Immigration Law & Policy Clinic 

Now entering its second year, the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic (ILPC) continues to defend the rights of immigrants ensnared at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. ILPC students work under the supervision of Professors Christopher Lasch and Robin Walker Sterling.  In July, the teaching team welcomed Clinical Teaching Fellow Tania Valdez, a Berkeley Law graduate with extensive immigration practice experience. The addition of Valdez increases the number and breadth of opportunities available to students through the ILPC. More from the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic.

Legal Externship Program 

Denver Law’s Legal Externship Program boasted its largest enrollment in its history this past academic year hosting 576 externships and partnering with 350 supervisors. Students logged almost 140,000 hours working alongside lawyers in the field. With a program of this size, the effect on students is significant. In fact, 91 percent of Class of 2018 graduates completed at least one externship. We also regularly see connections to post-graduate employment: 22 percent of graduates in the class of 2018 are employed at their former externship placement and another 12 percent are working at a place related to their externship placement and/or we know the externship placement led to the position. More from the Legal Externship Program.

Low Income Taxpayer Clinic 

The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) had a successful year and opened 62 new cases dealing with a wide array of IRS and Colorado Department of Revenue issues.  Some of the cases came from Wyoming Legal Services after their clinic closed at the end of 2018. LITC will assist low income Wyoming residents until their state establishes a new clinic. More from the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. 

Veterans Advocacy Project 

50 years after serving in Vietnam, one of the Veterans Advocacy Project’s (VAP) clients, “Bill,” received Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation benefits for the injuries he received in the country.  Students in the VAP worked with both the Department of Defense, to have his discharge status changed to Honorable, and the VA to secure disability compensation benefits for Bill. Each year, about 7,000 service members receive a less than honorable discharge – a discharge status which prevents them from accessing the services and benefits they earned by serving their country.  Bill is just one of the many clients with a less than honorable discharge represented by students in the VAP. More from the Veterans Advocacy Project. 

Greetings from the Clinical Programs at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law! It has been an incredible year for our students and faculty members at Denver Law. We are thrilled to announce the promotions of clinicians Kevin Lynch and Lindsey Webb to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure, and Christopher Lasch to the rank of Professor. We also are excited to welcome Wyatt Sassman to the Environmental Law Clinic and Kristen Uhl Hulse to the Legal Externship Program. This fall we welcomed a new class of clinical fellows and launched the new Immigration Law and Policy Clinic (ILPC), which focuses on representing detained clients who cannot afford counsel. Other highlights include the extraordinary successes of the Civil Rights Clinic, which has won meaningful relief for a Muslim prisoner under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, which has served more than 90 clients so far this fall, and the ILPC, in which every student worked on a team that won bond and had clients released from detention. These achievements and innovations apparently inspired Professor Lasch to join the co-director photoshoot!

New Leadership for Denver Law's Clinical Programs

Professors Tammy Kuennen and Robin Walker Sterling are now serving as co-directors of DU's Clinical Programs. Their official titles are Ronald V. Yegge Clinical Co-Directors, in recognition of Ronald Yegge and his contributions to the law school's Clinical Programs.

A Rise in Rankings for Denver Law

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law Clinical Programs moved up five spots in the U.S. News & World Report 2018–2019 law school rankings and is now ranked 8th in the country. This marks the eighth consecutive year that the clinical programs have been ranked among the top 20 in the nation.

Sturm College of Law Receives Gift from Arnold & Porter Foundation 

A recent $687,000 gift from the Arnold & Porter Foundation to the University of Denver will create two new endowed scholarships at the Sturm College of Law for outstanding students with a demonstrated commitment to civil liberties and civil rights. The gift also will support a strategic litigation fund designed to advance the nationally recognized work of the law school’s Civil Rights Clinic. Learn more.

Clinic Welcomes New Fellows

Join us in welcoming the new class of Clinical Teaching Fellows at Denver Law (l-r): Danielle Jefferis, who has been serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor in our Civil Rights Clinic; Katherine Wallat, who was recently a Clinical Teaching Fellow and Supervising Attorney in Georgetown Law’s Community Justice Project; Sarah Matsumoto, an environmental lawyer from Eugene, Oregon; and Christina Brown, who recently served as a Deputy State Public Defender in Fort Collins, Colo.

Denver Law Establishes New Immigration Law & Policy Clinic

The newly established Immigration Law and Policy Clinic (ILPC) provides legal services at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. ILPC students participate in immigration removal cases and explore systemic problems in the immigration enforcement system such as racial and economic bias, law enforcement accountability, hyper-incarceration and access to justice. More from the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic.

 Civil Litigation Clinic Fights for Wage Theft Victims

Students in the Civil Litigation Clinic learned that community solidarity and political action are invaluable tools to help clients solve problems. Students collaborated with the Direct Action Team, a grass roots group of volunteers in the Denver community committed to fighting wage theft, which takes “direct action” in the form of confronting employers who refuse to pay wages. More from the Civil Litigation Clinic.

More Wins for the Civil Rights Clinic

The Civil Rights Clinic reached a tentative settlement agreement in a case brought on behalf of a transgender individual confined in the Colorado Department of Corrections, and also tried a case in federal court brought on behalf of a federal prisoner challenging the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ infringement of his religious rights. More from the Civil Rights Clinic.

Gearing up for "Trial Season" in the Criminal Defense Clinic 

In Colorado, misdemeanor and municipal cases are jury triable, so the fall 2018 CDC class is gearing up for what their professors call the “trial season,” when the clinic has several trials scheduled each week through the end of the semester.
More from the Criminal Defense Clinic.

New Professor and Fellow for the Environmental Law Clinic 

The Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) is representing a coalition of environmental groups challenging the proposed Windy Gap Firming Project, which poses risks to Colorado's Grand Lake. The ELC also welcomed two new faculty members: Wyatt Sassman and Sarah Matsumoto. More from the Environmental Law Clinic.

Legal Externship Program Tops 500 Placements

Students in the Legal Externship Program collectively devoted close to 120,000 hours in the field this past year. The program hosted 520 externships completed by 386 students and partnered with over 300 supervisors. This past summer, the program welcomed Assistant Professor of the Practice of Law Kristen Uhl Hulse as a full-time permanent faculty member to the externship team. More from the Legal Externship Program.

Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Reaches Settlements with IRS

The students in the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) have continued to provide successful resolution to IRS and Colorado Department of Revenue issues for more than 90 clients in the fall of 2018. The LITC recently had eight offers in compromise accepted by the IRS.  These settlements with the IRS reduced the LITC clients’ tax liabilities by more than $250,000. More from the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic.

Mediation Practicum

Students in DU’s Mediation Practicum are mediating small claims disputes in both Denver County Court and Adams County Courts and facilitate settlements between pro-se landlords and tenants. More from the Mediation Practicum.

Clinical Programs Faculty Highlights

Associate Professor Patience Crowder
Community Economic Development Clinic
Impact Transaction: Lawyering for the Public Good through Collective Impact Agreements, 49 INDIANA L. REV. 621 (2016) (reprinted in 48 ELR 10681, 2018).

Professor Christopher Lasch
Criminal Defense Clinic
The Battle over “Sanctuary Policies” Illuminates the Clash of Values Underlying Today’s Immigration Policy Debates, 52 ABA SEC. INT’L LAW YEAR IN REVIEW 347 (2018).

Associate Professor Kevin Lynch
Environmental Law Clinic  
A Fracking Mess: Just Compensation for Regulatory Takings of Oil and Gas Property Rights, 43 COLUM. J. OF ENVTL. L. 335 (2018).

More Clinical Faculty Highlights

A Rise in Rankings for Denver Law

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law Clinical Programs moved up five spots in the U.S. News & World Report 2018–2019 law school rankings and is now ranked 8th in the country. This marks the eighth consecutive year that the clinical programs have been ranked among the top 20 in the nation.

DU Students Score Big Win in Wage-Theft Case

Students in the Civil Litigation Clinic won $15,000 on behalf of four workers whose employer admitted to owing them money but refused to pay. More from the Civil Litigation Clinic.

Environmental Law Clinic Student Reflection

Student Attorney Brandy Noriega argued a lawsuit challenging the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission’s well development directly adjacent to ballfields and playgrounds. More from the Environmental Law Clinic.

Fulbright Scholar Works for Juvenile Justice in Ghana

Professor Walker Sterling continued her work as a consultant for the Children's Act Revision Project of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). More from the Criminal Defense Clinic.

Clinic Receives Grant for Local Redevelopment Legal Assistance

The Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic was awarded a three-year grant totaling $150,000 from the Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation (COLTAF). The grant will be used to support the CED Clinic’s work in three new and critically important areas: conducting rural entrepreneurship workshops, supporting creators of technology advancing social justice, and conducting workplace “Know Your Rights” trainings to help prepare small businesses for encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  The COLTAF award is a grant of restricted funds designated exclusively for community redevelopment legal assistance.

The CED Clinic is a year-long clinic that teaches transactional practice skills to students through the representation of nonprofit corporations, community-based associations and enterprises, small businesses, and artists.  The award is recognition of the outstanding, high quality, and client-centered work the student attorneys in the CED Clinic have provided since the clinic began representing clients in Fall 2011.  

First LLM Fellow Graduates

Congratulations to Tim Estep, Casey Faucon, Nicole Godfrey, and Rachel Moran, the first graduates of Denver Law’s Clinical Teaching LLM Program! It’s hard to believe three years have passed since the fellows began the program at DU. During that time, they’ve developed into skilled clinical teachers who have greatly enriched our program. We will miss them enormously but are excited to see them embark on this next chapter of their careers. Tim Estep will continue his work in public interest environmental law; Casey Faucon will be an Assistant Professor and Director of the Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Clinic at the University of Alabama School of Law; Nicole Godfrey will be a Visiting Assistant Professor in Denver Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, and Rachel Moran will be an Assistant Professor in the at the University of St. Thomas School of Law where she will be launching a new criminal & juvenile defense clinic.

Legal Externship Program Continues to Grow

Students in Denver Law’s Legal Externship Program contributed more than 52,000 hours of work in the field during the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters. These two semesters alone placed students in over 275 externships. More from the Legal Externship Program.

Associate Professor Patience Crowder
Community Economic Development Clinic 
“Contracting for Complexity: Collective Impact Agreements in Community Economic Development,” 26(1) Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law 63 (Symposium) (2017).  Read more.

Professor Tamara Kuennen
Civil Litigation Clinic
“Intimate Partner Violence and Men’s Professional Sports” (with Chelsea Augelli), __ Sports & Entertainment L.J. __ (forthcoming 2018).

Associate Professor Christopher Lasch
Criminal Defense Clinic
“A Common-Law Privilege to Protect State and Local Courts During the Crimmigration Crisis,” 127 Yale L.J. F. 410 (2017). Read more.

Ronald V. Yegge Clinical Director and Professor Laura Rovner
Civil Rights Clinic 
“On Litigating Constitutional Challenges to the Federal Supermax: Improving Conditions and Shining a Light,” 95 Denver U. L. Rev. 457 (2018). Read more.

Assistant Professor Lindsey Webb
Civil Rights Clinic  
“Legal Consciousness as Race Consciousness: Expansion of the Fourth Amendment Seizure Analysis Through Objective Knowledge of Police Impunity,” 48 Seton Hall L. Rev. 403 (2018). Read more.


More Clinical Faculty Highlights.

The 2017–2018 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings placed the University of Denver Sturm College of Law's Clinical Program 13th, marking the seventh consecutive year that the clinical programs have been ranked among the top 20 in the U.S. Denver Law has also been recognized as the nation's 9th best school for practical training by the National Jurist.

Environmental Law Clinic Argues Against Oil & Gas Developer

On October 12, 2017, Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) students Travis Parker and Erica Montague, both second-year students, argued in Denver City and County District Court on behalf of a neighborhood group in Greeley, Colorado claiming that a state agency was failing to follow its regulations when approving large oil and gas development projects in residential communities.

The lawsuit, Neighbors Affected by Triple Creek v. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, is the first challenge to an approval of an oil and gas development subject to the Commission’s new Large Urban Mitigation Area regulations. Over the 11 months following the filing of the Neighbors’ complaint, ELC student attorneys filed briefs and successfully prevented the Commission and Industry-Intervenors from relying on documents outside of the administrative record to provide a post-hoc rationalization for the Commission’s approval of the 22-well development in the middle of multiple residential developments in western Greeley. The court's ruling on best management practices and mitigation measures represents the first successful challenge to the permitting of an oil and gas development in close proximity to a community in Colorado. Read More

Fulbright Scholar in Ghana

This year, Associate Professor Robin Walker Sterling is teaching and researching as a visiting professor and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ghana School of Law in Accra. Walker Sterling is the first clinical professor at Denver Law to receive a Fulbright award. Walker Sterling is presenting a series of lectures as part of the Gender and the Law course, and is teaching a seminar on juvenile justice issues to Ph.D. students. “I am so lucky to work with this group of students, who are from all over the continent – I have students from Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Teaching them has really helped me advance my thinking about juvenile justice, the tie between our country’s recent move away from rehabilitative principles and the erosion of informal social institutions, and the ways that juvenile system stakeholders can reify the commonsense notion that system-involved children should not be treated the same as system-involved adults. I hope they are learning from me as much as I am learning from them.” Read More

Civil Litigation Clinic Represents Asylum Seekers

This fall, with the help of adjunct professor Theresa Vogel, the Civil Litigation Clinic has been able to represent individuals seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and asylum as well as individuals in immigration detention seeking bond. At this halfway point in the semester, second- and third-year students litigated more than twenty cases in the Denver and Jefferson County Courts! As practitioners in these fields know, these types of cases involve discrete legal matters with no formal discovery. Thus the student attorneys have been able to represent these clients from start to finish, providing a unique educational opportunity that compliments the longer-lasting and more complex civil litigation opportunities provided by the law school’s Environmental Law and Civil Rights clinics. Read More 

Legal Externship Program Continues to Grow

In 2016-17, Denver Law's Legal Externship Program placed 418 students in more than 520 externships, and worked with over 310 supervisors. Summer enrollment alone increased by 50 percent. As always, our students engaged in a robust set of activities, growing their skills and impacting real people and real issues. Students wrote petitions of certiorari for Colorado Supreme Court justices, helped lawyers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prepare for a trial regarding religious discrimination for Muslim workers, crafted arguments for cutting edge litigation regarding the cannabis industry, and supported a state task force pursue legislation on mental health support for the criminal justice system, among many other experiences. Read More

Reflections from the First Class of Clinic Fellows 

In the summer of 2015, our first class of clinical graduate fellows matriculated in Denver Law’s Clinical Teaching Fellowship LLM program. Clinical Fellows are enrolled in a three-year program during which they are in residence at one of the Denver Law’s in-house clinics, where they learn clinical supervision, classroom teaching, and have the opportunity to develop as scholars. Two and a half years later, our Fellows are now in the last year of their fellowships. During that time, they’ve grown into thoughtful teachers, emerging scholars, and wonderful colleagues. While it will be difficult to "push them out of the nest," we’re looking forward to having them join the wonderful nationwide community of clinical teachers. Click here to read their reflections about their fellowships.

Clinic Faculty Highlights

Patience Crowder, "What’s Art Got to do With It?: A Rebellious Lawyer Mindset in Transactional Practice," 23 Clinical L. Rev. 53 (2016).

Danielle Jefferis (Visiting Professor), “Institutionalizing Statelessness: Residency Rights in East Jerusalem,” East Jerusalem after Fifty Years of Israeli Occupation and Prospects for the Future (2017).

Tamara Kuennen, "Domestic Violence Dynamics and the Impact of Domestic Violence on Children and Families," (Aug. 17, 2017, Denver CO) (with Amy Pohl).

Chris Lasch, Jose Sabino Espino-Paez v. State of Colorado. Prof. Lasch argued before the Colorado Supreme Court, raising the important question of what procedural protections the State of Colorado will afford to criminal defendants who are subjected to immigration removal proceedings on the basis of a guilty plea entered without the effective assistance of counsel.

Kevin Lynch, "A Fracking Mess: Just Compensation for Regulatory Takings of Oil and Gas Property Rights," 43 Colum. J. of Envtl. L. (forthcoming 2018).

Laura Rovner, “Everything Is at Stake if Norway Is Sentenced. In that Case, We Have Failed”: Solitary Confinement and the “Hard” Cases in the United States and Norway, 1 UCLA Crim. J. L. Rev. 77 (2017).

Robin Walker Sterling, "Narrative and Justice Reinvestment," __ Denver L. Rev.___ (2017).

Lindsey Webb, "Positive Disruption: Addressing Race in a Time of Social Change Through a Team-Taught, Reflection-Based, Outward-Looking Law School Seminar," (co-authored with Alexi Freeman), ___ U. Pa. J. Law & Social Change___ (forthcoming 2018).

More Clinical Faculty Highlights

Fall 2018

Spring 2018

Fall 2017

Fall 2016

Fall 2015

Fall 2014

Spring 2014

Fall 2013

Spring 2013

Fall 2012

Spring 2012

Fall 2011

Fall 2010

Spring 2010