In August, the Ohio Supreme Court approved a rule change that allows legal interns (i.e., third year law students) to represent certain defendants in felony cases. Legal interns may represent any person who qualifies for services provided by particular legal services organizations, including law school clinics, legal aid bureaus, and public defender’s offices. While Ohio 3Ls have long been able to represent defendants in misdemeanor cases, the new rule allows legal interns to advocate in first-, second-, or third-degree felonies with a licensed attorney serving as co-counsel; interns may represent the accused in fourth- and fifth-degree felonies under an attorney’s supervision. The consequences of losing a felony trial are severe: defendants found guilty of a first-degree felony can be sentenced with up to ten years in prison, eight years if convicted of a second-degree felony, five years for a third-degree felony, eighteen months for a fourth-degree felony, and one year for a fifth-degree felony.
Public defenders in at least two Ohio counties do not support the rule change and don’t plan to be assigning legal interns to felony cases any time soon. Law school officials, as one might imagine, are pleased with the new rule. Some of the more convincing arguments against the rule include:
- Third-year law students do not have the experience necessary to represent defendants who face losing their freedom.
- Because the legal interns need a substantial amount of supervision by public defenders, it could actually add to the public defenders’ already overwhelming workloads.
- Supervision can only be so effective when trials require thinking on your feet and split-second decision—experience is necessary.
Arguments in support of the rule include:
- Presumably, interns would be supervised and guided by law school personnel. Assuming knowledgeable and experienced supervisors are provided by law schools, interns could possibly ease the public defenders’ case loads.
- Legal interns may not have any less experience than assistant public defenders hired immediately after graduating and passing the bar (unless, of course, they served as legal interns while in law school). While nobody will dispute the importance of the third year or the rigors of the bar exam, neither provide students with practical experience.
- Legal interns will gain unparalleled real-life experience. Some of these students will eventually feed into the public defender’s office, making the initial time investment worthwhile not only for the students, but for the public defenders as well.
It’s also worth noting that this rule applies only to the defense and not the prosecution. As one prosecutor stated, “When you are representing the state of Ohio and only have one shot at a criminal defendant, I won’t take that chance.” It’s true that the defense can appeal in situations where the prosecution cannot, but is this really a valid justification for turning a person’s life into a school project?
On a personal note, while I was in law school, I worked at a family law clinic. Of course, none of our cases involved possible imprisonment, but there was a lot riding on the outcomes, especially where children were involved. It’s also worthy to note that while criminal defendants are entitled to representation, civil litigants are not—thus civil clinics provide a service other than allowing to law students to gain experience. It seems to me that allowing students to represent criminal defendants begets completely different, and more weighty, issues altogether.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that third year law students are able to provide proper representation in felony cases? Certainly, providing law students with experience will benefit representation down the road, but does this function trump providing the accused in felony cases with the best representation possible under the circumstances?
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