Three AUWCL Students Selected for Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Project

Partnership Encourages Graduates to Become Public Defenders

Glickman, Berry, and Maes
Pictured: Glickman, Berry, and Maes.

Three American University Washington College of Law students—Annie Berry, Deanna Glickman, and Robert Maes — have been selected from 70 applicants for the prestigious Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Project (LSPP).

Gideon's Promise is an Atlanta-based non-profit that trains and advocates for public defenders throughout the South. LSPP, launched in 2013, places graduating law students in a partner public defender office. Participating law schools like AUWCL support selected graduates for up to a year. The public defender office in turn commits to hiring the graduate for a permanent position.  Professor Angela Davis and Associate Dean Jenny Roberts oversee AUWCL’s involvement in the partnership.

“The selection process was extremely competitive this year,” said Davis. “That three of our students were selected is a source of great pride for the law school and says volumes about these outstanding students.”

Two AUWCL graduates were selected  for LSPP in 2014. Corinne Warren ‘14 was placed with St. Tammany Parish Public Defender’s Office in Louisiana, and Kelly Pretzer ‘14 with the public defender in Memphis, Tennesee.

“We are thrilled to have so many AUWCL students interested in dedicating themselves to public defender work,” said Roberts. “They will join many AUWCL alumni representing indigent clients in criminal courts in D.C., Maryland, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, California, Tennessee, and many other states and jurisdictions. We are particularly pleased that AUWCL is establishing such an important social justice presence in southern public defenders’ offices.”

Read more about the 2015 fellows from AUWCL:

Annie Berry will be working in the Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office of Davidson County in Nashville, Tennessee. The office was established in 1961 with the goal of embodying the Public Defender's Credo: seeking attorneys who are protective, fearless, humble, and dedicated.

“I picked Gideon’s Promise because I knew it would put me in an office that would be supportive and excited  about representation,” said Berry.

According to Berry, her new workplace is client-centered with a collegial feel; the office encourages mentoring by integrating young attorneys with more established attorneys.   

“I picked this program because I really want to be in this the rest of my life,” said Berry. “This is a unique opportunity—a supportive kickstart that is almost unheard of in the field. I’m thankful and hopeful that after these three years I’ll know what I’m going to do for the next twenty years.”

Deanna Glickman has a background serving underrepresented and underserviced populations with expertise in tribal criminal law.

“Justice isn’t being done if people aren’t being represented or if the prosecution isn’t being held to their burden proof,” explained Glickman.

Glickman will be working in Robeson County, North Carolina where nearly a third of the population is Native American. The public defender department there was developed in 1989, and Glickman said she is excited to be a part of building the department and integrating herself into the community.

“Three years from now, I hope to embody everything that Gideon’s is giving us,” said Glickman. “I want everyone that practices law to know Gideon’s and to respect it.”

Robert Maes applied to Gideon’s Promise LSPP for the chance to receive specialized training and the opportunity to work in a community in need of client-centered, holistic representation.

“I want the experience of both living in a community and serving it while working with people that share the same passion,” said Maes.

Maes accepted the offer to work in the Law Offices of the Shelby County Public Defender in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest public defender offices in the country. According to Maes, there is a strong emphasis on civil rights in the office, particularly as the place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated nearly 50 years ago.

“The disproportionate effect of mass incarceration and the role of public defense is really felt in that community,” said Maes.

AUWCL offers a number of excellent opportunities for students interested in criminal justice, including a variety of upper level courses dedicated to different criminal law topics, simulation-based courses like Criminal Defense: Theory & Practice and Plea Bargaining, and the long-standing Criminal Justice Clinic, where student-attorneys represent indigent clients in Montgomery County, Maryland’s criminal court system.  The Criminal Justice Practice & Policy Institute, Criminal Law Practitioner, Criminal Law Society, Law and Government Program, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and other programs all support students interested in criminal law through counseling, programming, and networking.

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