Project for Informed Reform Clinic

Clinic students will produce white papers, op-eds, research papers and/or testimony in support of legislation related to criminal justice reform. Students should expect to devote a minimum of 12-15 hours to clinic work each week.

Some projects may involve meetings/document review in other offices in the commonwealth of Virginia, so a car would be enormously useful, although not essential. Additionally, having a full day with no classes (preferably a Monday or a Friday) to travel/investigate will greatly enhance the clinical experience. 

Upcoming projects for the 2023-24 school year include:

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  Identifying cold and unsolved rapes and murders — in the U.S. and other countries — and linking them to a known (deceased) serial killer.

• Researching and identifying causes of racial imbalance on Virginia jury venires and proposing solutions on how to fix it.
• Analyzing the Virginia Parole Board’s public parole grant information (and additional data obtained from FOIA requests) to create a report responding to – and refuting – the Attorney General’s claim that Virginia’s number of parole grants is too high. 
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  Writing a motion challenging Virginia’s practice of requiring indigent defendants, who are ultimately found guilty, to pay the Commonwealth back for the cost of their public defender once they are released and financially stable. 

Prior clinic projects include:

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  Creating a website for the state of Virginia that maps out the current harm reduction and needle exchange services that are available to residents of Virginia in every county and major city. The site shares information about the current state of the law and how to obtain Narcan and administer it to others.

• Consulting with two of the leading law professors who research and write about gun regulations to determine the feasibility of implementing legislation to require gun owners to use low-capacity magazines.