Michigan Law
During the first week of March, the Legal Alternative Winter (LAW) Breaks program gave two groups of Michigan Law students the chance to apply their legal training to real-world scenarios through weeklong experiential learning trips.
In collaboration with Michigan Law’s Office of Experiential Education and Pro Bono Programs, LAWBreaks, a student-run group, began offering such trips in 2011. After a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, students eagerly resumed LAWBreaks service projects in February 2024.
“It’s been exciting to help revive LAWBreaks and see the student interest grow again,” said Sarah Portwood, 3L, LAWBreaks president and a 2024 site leader. “I’m hopeful that, in the years to come, the program expands so that students can contribute to pro bono work in an even wider variety of legal practice areas.”
Austin Wu, a 1L, recommends that any student interested in gaining pro bono experience participate in LAWBreaks, no matter the role.
“Helping to grow the organization is important right now, whether by contacting different host sites or identifying the topics students are most interested in working on,” he said. “Doing more now so students can gain this experience in the future is integral.”
—————
Wu was the site leader for a group of Michigan Law students who traveled to Chicago. They assisted The Exoneration Project, an innocence organization providing free legal services to people who have been wrongfully convicted.
“When I was an undergrad at the University of Iowa, I participated in alternative spring break trips,” said Wu. “I found the trips enjoyable, helpful, and informative, so I was interested in doing that again but in a legal context.”
Throughout the week, Wu’s group conducted client intake screenings, wrote letters to the Exoneration Project’s clients who are still incarcerated, and observed court proceedings at both a state appeals court and a federal district court. The group also had lunch with Robert Johnson, whose conviction was successfully overturned through the Exoneration Project’s work after 28 years and 10 months of wrongful incarceration.
“Everything we were assigned offered a humanistic perspective,” Wu said. “We saw how life-altering the errors in the justice system can be to wrongfully convicted people as well as the good the Exoneration Project can do to bring them justice.”
—————
Mario Campos, an LLM, and Michael Zhao, a 3L, co-led their group of five students in assisting Waterkeeper Alliance in New York City. Waterkeeper Alliance is a global network designed to unite more than 300 community-based environmental organizations and affiliates, focusing citizens’ action on issues that affect waterways.
Waterkeeper Alliance represents the interests of more than 150 groups and their more than one million members who live and work in or near waterways severely impaired by pollution in the United States. It also protects nearly six million square miles of rivers, lakes, and coastlines on six continents.
The group was tasked with researching policies and laws addressing pollution caused by per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are widely used long-lasting chemicals in many consumer, commercial, and industrial products. They are also known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down easily in the environment.
Working with Waterkeeper Alliance allowed Campos, who is from Argentina, to use his fluency in Spanish to research the legislation regarding environmental law enforcement in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.
Another group member, Ishan Chowdhury, a 1L, was assigned to the Bangladesh division because he speaks fluent Bengali.
Throughout the week, the group conducted in-depth research on state-level policies, regulations, and statutes related to PFAS pollution, analyzed legislative efforts at the federal level, and prepared summaries and reports on their findings. This included preparing public comments for the Federal Register that addressed human health standards related to PFAS contamination and focused on the dangers of sludge.
“I’m deeply grateful for the chance to draw on the lessons and skills I honed at Michigan Law and to use those experiences to help drive advocacy efforts that foster a safer, healthier environment for people around the world,” said Campos.
Zhao added, “A trip like this offers more than pro bono work experience; it also offers new friendships, networking, and an opportunity to learn about legal work you might not have known you’d be interested in.”
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Three-County & Full Pass also available
