Third-year student Alexandria H. “Alex” Clark received the School of Law’s Clinical Legal Education Association Award for Outstanding Externship Student, while third-year student Paige Medley and second-year students Jack K. Mahon and Brianna Yates teamed up to win the Outstanding Clinic Team Award for their work in the school’s First Amendment Clinic.
Clark sought experiential opportunities involving the criminal justice system while in law school and completed externships with the law school’s Criminal Defense Practicum and Prosecutorial Justice Program as well as the Georgia Innocence Project. She also served as a judicial clerk for Georgia Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Boggs. She received multiple outstanding evaluations for her work. Regarding her time with the Criminal Defense Practicum, it was shared that she “set a high standard for the quality of work and level of reflection we hope all students engage in. She approached all of her work with the utmost professionalism and dedication – both with respect to the legal work itself, as well as thinking critically about challenging systemic issues that impact the extent in which justice is effectuated in our criminal system.”
Medley, Mahon and Yates were recognized for their work “litigating a highly intensive and legally-challenging First Amendment police-misconduct case.” The team achieved victories at every opportunity, while cultivating a strong relationship with their client, according to their nomination. “[T]heir lawyering showed unparalleled interpersonal skills and legal prowess well beyond their years. … The students worked with the intensive facts to prepare written discovery and find an expert witness for the case. The team also took the time to explain to their client the importance of their work at every step of the semester and spent hours distilling complex legal theories into digestible pieces for their client. They mastered complicated First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Qualified Immunity case law with an applaudable attention-to-detail and took on every task assigned with diligence associated with experienced attorneys.”