Criminal & Juvenile Justice Law Clinic

More than 2 million people are behind bars. As a result of certain laws and policing practices, minorities and low-income residents are disproportionately likely to be arrested and imprisoned, often for non-violent crimes.

Work for Social Justice

Learn how to navigate the complicated criminal justice system to ensure justice and best advocate for their clients. As a second- or third-year student, represent people charged with misdemeanor offenses in San Francisco Superior Court. You'll also represent San Quentin State Prison inmates who were incarcerated for crimes committed as teenagers and are now eligible for parole.

Under the supervision of USF law professors, you'll handle nearly every aspect of a client's case, including client and witness interviews, investigations, court appearances, client counseling, motions practice, suppression hearings, motion to return property hearings, trials, appeals, and writs of mandate.

You'll attend a weekly seminar with peers in the Racial Justice Clinic. In the seminar, learn the skills necessary to defend a criminal case from investigation to closing argument. The seminar also has a variety of dynamic and accomplished guest speakers who share their knowledge and experience.

The most rewarding part of working in the clinic was the amount of real experience we gained from working on cases from beginning to end, from interviewing the client to writing the motions and arguing them in court.”

Robyn Hall ’18

Faculty

Image

Professor Lara Bazelon

Lara Bazelon is a professor of law and the director of the Criminal Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinical Programs at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She also holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy. From 2012-2015, she was a visiting associate clinical professor at Loyola Law School and the director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent. Professor Bazelon was a trial attorney in the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles for seven years. Prior to that, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Harry Pregerson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Image

Professor Erin O'Donnell

Erin O'Donnell has been a private criminal defense attorney since graduating from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2000. She started her career at Pier 5 Law Offices working with the notable J. Tony Serra. After honing her skills at Pier 5, she opened her own office and continued her work as a criminal defense warrior. She has almost two decades of criminal defense work in state and federal courts.