During her time at Maryland Carey Law, Allison Stillinghagan ’23 was fortunate to work as a student attorney in the clinical law program for three semesters. “I was in the Decarceration Initiative Clinic,” she said. “When I began the course, I was not sure what type of law I wanted to practice after I graduated.” However, during her first semester in the clinic, Allison had the opportunity to work on three different cases with different objectives. “I enjoyed each experience,” she said.
Between her 2L and 3L years, Allison had the opportunity of working as a summer law clerk for several of the clinical professors, which gave her experience in a variety of cases. During this time, she worked on a new case in which the client was pursuing a modification of his sentence under the Juvenile Restoration Act. “This client had been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he committed when he was a teenager and had already served more than 20 years,” Allison said. “After working with this client during the summer, I took on the case as the assigned student attorney for my 3L year.”
Allison worked on this case from start to finish, beginning with the first client introductory meeting over the summer and continuing through the client’s court hearing. “I worked with the client for months to draft and file the motion, prepare for the hearing, bring in a forensic mental health expert witness, and appear in court to argue our motion in front of the judge,” she said. “We were successful in reducing the client’s sentence. This was the highlight of my law school career.”
Allison’s experience on this case introduced her to the post-conviction legal field. “I became passionate about this career path that, prior to being a clinic student, I did not know existed,” she said.
Today, Allison is an Assistant Public Defender in the Post Conviction Defenders Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. She represents clients across the state in post-conviction proceedings. “Every day I work with incarcerated individuals and people on parole or probation who are seeking various forms of legal relief following their trial or guilty plea,” she said. “I believe I have the most rewarding, interesting, and important career that I possibly could have found after law school, and I never would have landed in this position had it not been for my invaluable experience as a student attorney in the clinical law program.”