Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is pleased to share updates from our outstanding experiential programs. As part of our law school curriculum, we offer a wide range of clinics, externships, and, for our Online Hybrid students, immersive simulation courses.
In our Experiential Programs, law students immerse themselves in real-world practice settings, taking the lead on working with real clients on cutting-edge legal and policy work, and challenging themselves to master the full range of legal practice and advocacy skills.
Whether on the frontlines of advancing environmental protection and justice, building a clean energy future and sustainable food systems, securing the release of detained immigrants, or guiding disadvantaged Vermonters through difficult legal proceedings, our students are making an impact.
Experiential Program News
After January’s Association of American Law Schools conference in New Orleans, VLGS is honored to announce that Professor Beth Locker will serve as co-chair of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education for the coming year, following her recent tenure as a member of the Section Executive Committee.
This fall, we welcomed the two inaugural Parenteau Climate Action Fellows, both of whom join VLGS from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are working alongside faculty and staff in our environmental clinics.
In November, VLGS experiential faculty and students presented on three panels at the New England Clinical Conference at Boston University:
- “Experiential Readiness and Contingency Planning” with Professor Beth Locker
- “Scaling Legal Education for Small Businesses” with Professor Nicole Killoran JD/MELP’12 and VLGS students Marina Carulo and John Stockham
- “From Error to Advocacy” with Professors Stephanie Kupferman LLM’15 and Mary Mason
Also in November, Associate Dean Christophe Courchesne joined a national conference of environmental law clinics at Elisabeth Haub School of Law of Pace University, presenting to colleagues on the work of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic and other VLGS environmental clinics and on climate law topics.
VLGS Clinics’ Pro Bono Contribution to Vermont (2024-2025)
Value of Pro Bono Services: $20,399,377
Total Pro Bono Hours: 37,051
Total Student Clinicians: 121
VLGS recently prepared a summary of its clinical programs’ economic impact on the State of Vermont.
Click here for our year-end “Spotlight on Clinics, Field Studies, and Externships at the Environmental Law Center.”
Program Updates
Center for Justice Reform Clinic
One of Vermont’s only pro bono providers of immigration removal defense legal services, the Center for Justice Reform Clinic (CJRC) is serving more than 100 clients annually from more than 80 countries and every Vermont county. In the CJRC, students represent non-citizens in removal proceedings, often receiving the matter when clients are experiencing their worst day. To support their clients, students must distill complex and fast-changing immigration laws while also swiftly building trust and rapport with their non-citizen clients.
The hard work of the CJRC student clinicians and faculty over the last several months has been profiled by local and national media, including:
- Release on bond of a Migrant Justice advocate and his stepdaughter following their arrest by ICE as they were delivering food to farmworkers in Richford;
- Release on bond of two dairy workers during an ICE raid at a Franklin County Dairy Farm;
- Ongoing direct representation of Ugandan asylum seeker and pastor Steven Tendo through multiple high-risk ICE check-ins;
- Ongoing direct representation of Orleans County farmworker and migrant leader Wuendy Bernardo through high-risk ICE check-ins;
- Amici advocacy on behalf of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk;
- Amici advocacy for Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi; and
- Release on bond of mother of three, Davona Williams, arrested in Manchester and transferred to Detroit.
Center for Justice Reform Clinic faculty and staff:
- Brett Stokes, Director and Assistant Professor of Law
- Christopher Worth, Visiting Professor of Law
- Catie Knight Holcroft, Equal Justice Works Fellow
- Osvaldo Viera Martiatu, Office Assistant
Energy Clinic
Energy Clinic Partners with Burke Mountain on Sustainable Energy Solutions
The Energy Clinic recently partnered with Burke Mountain Resort’s new ownership to reduce its high energy costs and explore sustainable solutions. After nearly a decade of operating in receivership, Burke Mountain Resort is ready for a dynamic revival that will reinvigorate the local economy and renew the cherished local mountain’s role as a major regional employer and tourist destination. Through this collaboration, the Energy Clinic and VLGS’s Institute for Energy and the Environment will deliver policy and legal services focused on cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy integration. Watch local WCAX coverage here, and find more information about this project here.
Energy Clinic Faculty and Staff:
- Genevieve Byrne, Interim Director and Professor of Law
- Jenny Carter, Professor of Law
- Kirt Mayland LLM’05, Visiting Professor of Law
Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Advocacy Clinic Files Amicus Brief Defending Vermont’s Climate Superfund Law
On behalf of its client Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), VLGS’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC) recently filed an amicus brief in federal court defending Vermont’s first-in-the-nation Climate Superfund law, which seeks to secure funding for climate adaptation efforts from responsible fossil fuel companies. The brief explains how VPIRG fought for the law’s passage in the wake of the devastating Vermont floods of 2023 and why the law is constitutional. Read more here.
EAC Faculty and Staff:
- Christophe Courchesne, Director and Associate Professor of Law
- Rachel Westrate, Parenteau Climate Action Fellow
- Taylor Cox, Program Coordinator
Environmental Justice Clinic
Environmental Justice Clinic Empowers Communities
As a student clinician in the Environmental Justice Clinic (EJC), Charlotte Bieri JD/MELP’25 worked alongside impacted communities to advocate for equitable and lasting solutions to environmental harms. Charlotte reflected on being a community advocate and her journey to becoming committed to public interest work and community-centered advocacy. Read Charlotte’s story here.
This fall, the EJC and the VLGS Institute for Energy and Environment welcomed Energy Justice Fellow Letícia Felix Boisson, who commenced work with Professor Erica Walker at Brown University’s School of Public Health and Community Noise Lab to create a template Good Neighbor Agreement for Mississippi communities impacted by the production of wood pellets. Learn more about the EJC’s recent work in its 2024-2025 Year in Review.
EJC Faculty and Staff:
- Todd Howland, Interim Director and Visiting Professor of Law
- Lindi von Mutius JD’08, Visiting Professor of Law
- Terrence Neal, Parenteau Climate Action Fellow
- Letícia Felix Boisson, Energy Justice Fellow
- Taylor Cox, Program Coordinator
Food and Agriculture Clinic
Food and Agriculture Student Clinicians Coauthor and Contribute to Food Systems Policy Research
Food and Agriculture Clinic (FAC) student clinicians Emily Starobin JD’25 and Laura Ataa Agyekumhene LLM’25 researched “fair labor” claims on food labels for CAFS’s Labels Unwrapped project. They coauthored the issue brief “Are Fair Labor Labels Trustworthy? Unpacking the Truth Behind Ethical Claims,” with Food and Agriculture Clinic Director Emma Scott.
FAC student clinicians Whitney Roth JD’25 and Christina Karem JD’25 contributed to the research behind “Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production: A Guide to Local Policy,” a major publication of the VLGS Center for Agriculture and Food Systems that scans local policies in cities across the country that impact urban food production.
FAC Faculty and Staff:
- Emma Scott, Clinic Director and Associate Professor of Law
- Lindsey Connolly, Program Coordinator, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems
Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic
Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic Tackles Aquaculture, Line Speeds
This year the Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic (FAAC) worked on numerous projects aimed at combatting the expansion of harmful aquaculture, including producing research and white papers for national and international partners on a range of issues, including genetic pollution caused by salmon farming. Relatedly, Farmed Animal Advocacy Staff Attorney Taylor Waters presented her forthcoming article on industrial aquaculture’s genetic captivity at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School (pictured with Animal Law and Policy Institute Director Professor Delci Winders and Center for Agriculture and Food Systems Director and Professor Laurie Beyranevand JD’03).
The FAAC also continued its work to oppose faster slaughter line speeds, and Taylor and Delci Winders were frequent expert commentators on this and other slaughter-related issues.
Small Business Law Clinic
Small Business Law Clinic Provides Essential Support to Small Vermont Enterprises
The Small Business Law Clinic’s (SBLC) students have played a small but mighty part in many of Vermont’s entrepreneurs’ stories. The clinic provides fundamental legal education to small business owners and then the clinic’s grant-funded referral network helped pay for up to ten hours (or more) of attorney’s fees to protect small business owners’ intellectual property rights, make sure they are set up properly, formalize an informal cooperative partnership, and protect their rights in an acquisition.
In two recent examples of the Clinic’s model:
- A group of local Middlebury College students with a passion for woodworking launched a successful business starting with simple, hand-carved 3D maps of Vermont ski areas–Treeline Terrains. The owners expanded quickly into custom design, scaled their business, and moved workshops twice in three years. Clinic students worked with the owners throughout the arc of the business, from conversations when they started (during the pandemic) about LLC basics, operating agreements, and commercial leases, to a discussion of asset vs. stock purchases when the founders recently sold.
- Thanks to recent federal funding targeted at supporting both capital transactions and cooperatives, clinic students had a series of educational consultations with the founders of the Fable Farm collective. These four farms host the weekly Feast & Field events each summer in Barnard that bring together live music, local vendors, excellent food, and a quintessential Vermont atmosphere. The farms have operated cooperatively for many years, and our students got to work with them as they explored questions like the structure and process of converting existing well-established farms into a registered agricultural cooperative, and tax implications on either end of this transition.
SBLC Faculty and Staff:
- Nicole Killoran JD/MELP’12, Director and Professor of Law
- Sage Kochavi, Assistant Director
South Royalton Legal Clinic
South Royalton Legal Clinic Grows Legal Assistance for Vermont Veterans
The South Royalton Legal Clinic’s Veterans Legal Assistance Project was recently awarded a renewal grant of nearly $500,000 from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This renewal follows the Project’s prior $300,000 award. Beginning this fall, the grant has already made a huge difference in SRLC’s ability to help address the unmet legal needs of Vermont’s veteran community. In October, the project welcomed a new attorney, Gabriella Miller, to serve as a legal fellow focusing exclusively on veteran related issues including VA benefit appeals, landlord/tenant matters, and simple estate planning. The grant will allow the clinic to better serve the veteran community and continue its mission of helping address veteran homelessness.
SRLC Faculty and Staff:
- Don Hayes JD’10, Director and Associate Professor of Law
- Specialties: Veterans and other benefits law, bankruptcy
- Mary Mason, Assistant Professor of Law
- Specialities: Domestic violence, family law
- Chester Harper, Assistant Professor of Law
- Specialties: Housing
- Gabriella Miller, Veterans Legal Assistance Project Fellow
- Amanda Murphy, Office Director
- Rebekah Suddens, Office Assistant
JD Externship Program
Externship Faculty Focus on Hot Topics in Attorney Wellness
In 2024 and 2025, Professor Stephanie Kupferman LLM’15 together with Colette Schmidt JD’20, an associate at Paul Frank & Collins, and formerly with VLGS’s Career Services office, co-authored blog posts on the importance of attorney wellness for the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions:
- “Holiday Stress: a Lawyer’s Guide to Balancing Work, Life, and Wellbeing–Even Beyond the Holidays”
- “Silent Struggle: Navigating Eating Disorders in the Legal Profession”
- “An Introduction to Attorneys’ Mental Health & Wellbeing–Identifying That a Problem Exists (…And So Does the Stigma)”
Their next article in the series will discuss the challenges and importance of showing up as your authentic self and delves into CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) legislation. At a time when DEI efforts are being dismantled throughout the country, their timing is propitious. Look for the article here.
JD Externship Program Faculty and Staff:
- Beth Locker, Director and Professor of Law
- Stephanie Kupferman LLM’15, Associate Professor of Law
- Tiffanny Smith, Visiting Professor of Law
- Theresa Chockbengboun, Faculty Support Specialist
