Capital Habeas Unit Law Clerk

Federal Public Defender, Central District of California•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

Every year, the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Central District of California (FPD-CDCA) offers four students an opportunity to work directly on death penalty cases in our Capital Habeas Unit (CHU). The students begin the summer with a two-week “boot camp” where they learn the “nuts and bolts” of capital habeas litigation. Over the next nine weeks of the program, we strive to involve the students in all aspects of our work: investigating the factual bases for our claims, researching discrete issues in criminal and constitutional law, drafting claims for federal habeas petitions, and writing sections of appellate briefs. During the summer students will also have an opportunity to observe case-management meetings and participate in moots for Ninth Circuit arguments. Our summer program typically provides students with many opportunities to watch trials in district court and oral arguments at the Ninth Circuit. All in all, this program provides students with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain, in just ten weeks, a sophisticated understanding of the criminal justice system and what is required to provide meaningful and effective representation to criminal defendants and capital and non-capital habeas petitioners. Unfortunately, at this time the CHU does not offer clerkships during the school year, nor do we have a post-bar program.