Addressing a special joint session of the Georgia Assembly on Jan. 25, Georgia’s new chief justice, P. Harris Hines, cited Georgia State University College of Law professor Clark Cunningham for his work in developing the state’s new law student practice rules adopted in 2015 by the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Georgia’s new chief justice, P. Harris Hines, cited Georgia State University College of Law professor Clark Cunningham for his work in developing the state’s new law student practice rules adopted in 2015 by the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Making his inaugural State of the Judiciary Address, Chief Justice Hines spoke passionately about the need to expand access to justice.
“I am particularly proud of a program we have developed here in Georgia under the leadership of John Sammon of the Supreme Court’s Office of Bar Admissions and Professor Clark Cunningham ...” Hines said.
Under the revised rules, Hines said more than 1,000 law students have been authorized to represent low- to moderate income Georgians who otherwise might not be able to afford a lawyer.
“It’s a win-win for both the law student and the clients, and it does not cost the clients or the state a dime,” Hines said.
The new practice rules allow supervised law students who have completed their first year to assist in representation of “any person who is unable financially to pay for the legal services of any attorney.”
Previous rules only authorized student practice by students who were in their final year and limited representation to “indigent persons,” thus excluding what Chief Justice Hines described as “working class citizens of quite modest means, the working poor … who simply cannot afford legal representation.”
The new rules originated in a proposal to expand student practice made by Cunningham, the W. Lee Burge Chair of Law and Ethics, as a member of the Access to Justice Committee of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism.
The commission approved his proposal and referred it to the Georgia Board of Board Examiners, which appointed a Student Practice Rule Committee comprised John Sammon, former State Bar president, as chair, and two former Superior Court judges, Thomas Cauthorn and Ralph Simpson.
After extensive review of student practice rules in all 50 states and multiple meetings with representatives of all five Georgia law schools, the committee recommended to the Bar Examiners a complete revision of student practice in Georgia in a set of rules intended to be a national model.
The Bar Examiners approved the draft rules and submitted them for consideration to the Supreme Court for adoption. Cunningham served as the reporter to the Student Practice Rule Committee and met repeatedly with both the Board of Bar Examiners and the members of the Georgia Supreme Court throughout this process.
Learn more about the new Student Practice Rules>>