Practice Areas: Criminal Law

Law School students, faculty, and staff have compiled the following list of resources to guide students interested in criminal law. It is not an exhaustive list, but a place for you to begin your own research into this field. These are just some of the many opportunities and resources that you can take advantage of in pursuing your public service interest area.

Student Groups
ACLU-Law School
Criminal Law Society

The Law School has more than 50 student organizations, many which run their own public service projects. Please note that from academic year to year, new student organizations form while others may become inactive.

Programs
Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College
The Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College teaches the skills, knowledge, and insights needed to face this challenge. Instruction includes lectures, demonstrations, and small group workshops where participants work on their actual cases.
 

Office of Student Affairs
The Office of Student Affairs maintains a list of externship placement opportunities by practice area, and where available, comments from past externs.

Jobnet

• Battered Women's Clemency Project (Ann Arbor)
• Legal Aid and Defender Association (Detroit)
• Livingston County Prosecutor's Office (Howell)
• Michigan Attorney General (Lansing)
• Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council (Lansing)
• Office of the Federal Defender
• Eastern District of Michigan
• Western District of Michigan
• State Appellate Defenders Office (Detroit)
• U.S. Attorney, Eastern Dist. of Michigan (Detroit)
• U.S. Attorney, Western Dist. of Michigan (Grand Rapids)
• Washtenaw County Public Defender (Ann Arbor)
• Wayne County Prosecutor's Office (Detroit)

Organizations

• ABA Death Penalty Representation Project
• ACLU Capital Punishment Project (Durham, North Carolina)
• ACLU Criminal Justice Section
• ACLU of Northern California, Death Penalty Project
• ACLU Prisons Section
• Arizona Public Defender Association
• California Appellate Project - San Francisco and Los Angeles
• Central California Appellate Program
• The Constitution Project (Washington, DC)
• Death Penalty Information Center
• Department of Justice
• Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama
• Fair Trial Initiative (Alabama)
• Georgia Capital Defenders
• Gulf Region Advocacy Center
• Habeas Corpus Resource Center (San Francisco)
• Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights)
• Innocence Project
• The Justice Center (New Orleans)
• The Capital Appeals Project
• Innocence Project of New Orleans
• Louisiana Capital Assistance Center
• Reprieve US
• The Justice Project
• Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• National District Attorneys Association
• National Legal Aid and Defender Association
• North Carolina Center for Death Penalty Litigation
• Office of the Appellate Defender (New York)
• Office of the California State Public Defender
• Office of the Federal Defender - includes links to all Federal Defender offices
• Public Interest Litigation Clinic (Missouri, Arkansas, Wyoming, Arizona, Indiana, Idaho)
• Southern Center for Human Rights
• Texas Defender Service
• U.S. Attorneys Clinic & Internships