JIFS Victories

Sarah Cook ’23 had been a clinical student at the Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing Clinic (JIFS) for less than a month, but that was enough time for her to make a significant impact on the wellbeing of her client and demonstrate that she has the potential to be a force in the California judicial system.

Angelenos like to think of themselves as dwelling in a reasonably enlightened city, governed by fairness and the rule of law. But Christopher Hawthorne '00 has watched — first as a Loyola Law School student, then as an attorney, and more recently as a clinical professor at LLS — something far more baleful.

Culminating a year in which students in the Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing Clinic (JIFS) wrote 15 appellate briefs, argued motions in four different superior courts, represented clients at five parole hearings, and welcomed three clients home after being released on parole.