Abstract
What to make of a law student, one part Holden Caulfield and one part Doogie Howser, who declares himself and his experience in a criminal defense clinic to be a "failure," because he decides not to become a public defender? What to make of a public defender who becomes a clinical law teacher at least in part to draw students like Caulfield/Howser to become public defenders - or to seriously contemplate it - and only occasionally succeeds? The student, Robert (Rob) Rader, a recent Harvard Law School graduate and my student in the Fall of 1994, writes about his clinical experiences at Harvard's Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) in his recent Clinical Law Review article, "Confessions of Guilt: A Clinic Student's Reflections on Representing Indigent Criminal Defendants." The article is the culmination of several months of intense engagement in the workings of the criminal justice system in the classroom, in the courtroom, and in my office.
Publication Title
Clinical Law Review
Volume
1
Issue
3
First Page
723
Recommended Citation
Abbe Smith,
Carrying on in Criminal Court: When Criminal Defense Is Not So Sexy and Other Grievances,
1
Clinical L. Rev
723
(1995).
Available at:
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/clr/vol1/iss3/11