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Projects: Street Law, Innocence and Pro-Bono
Street Law"Street Law is practical law that is of use to citizens in their daily lives on the streets where they live." ( "Put Your Legal Education To Work", Street Law Inc.)
Street Law is offered as a course to 2L and 3L students. During the course, students teach a 10 class course on rights and responsibilities under law to New Hampshire High School students. These law–student–taught classes focus on civil, criminal, and constitutional themes, providing practical legal information and teaching the underlying concepts of our constitutional democracy. Students teach not only about the law, but also about human rights and democratic values upon which a legal system should be based. Before teaching, students will be trained in effective teaching methods and will participate in peer teaching exercises within the law school classroom setting. The goals of this course are two fold - to effectively teach a law related education course to a lay audience, while at the same time gaining a better understanding of how law is applied; developing trial skills; and improving oral advocacy skills and knowledge of legal procedures and concepts.
Pierce Law Innocence Project (PLIP)
The Pierce Law Innocence Project, affiliated with the New England Innocence Project, brings students, faculty and the private bar together to investigate and litigate the cases of those wrongfully convicted of crimes.
" The New England Innocence Project ("NEIP") provides pro bono legal assistance to inmates who are challenging their wrongful convictions. The organization's mission is to identify, investigate and exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals who are currently incarcerated in New England.
NEIP currently focuses on the use of DNA evidence to achieve these goals. Over the past ten years, more than 150 individuals in the United States have had their convictions vacated after DNA testing established that they were innocent of the crimes for which they had been convicted and imprisoned.
NEIP considers cases from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island in which actual innocence is claimed.
In addition to its work on behalf of individual inmates, the NEIP also supports legal reform that will hasten the identification and release of innocent prisoners and ensure that wrongful convictions are, to the extent possible, prevented in the future. For instance, with corrective legislation and improved training for law enforcement, some of the most frequent causes of wrongful convictions, such as eyewitness misidentification, can be decreased."
© Copyright New England Innocence Project 2000 - 2004.
Student Pro Bono Project
Pierce Law's Student Pro Bono Project, a joint project with the New Hampshire Bar Association's Pro Bono Program, began as a student initiative. The project pairs law students with NH lawyers to work on a volunteer basis on pro bono cases accepted through the NH Bar Association's Pro Bono Program.
