Brennan Center for Justice

In April 1999,
a coalition of community activists, students, and law professors -
represented by the Brennan Center for Justice and local counsel - filed
a lawsuit in federal district court against the Louisiana Supreme Court
over the Court's amendments to Rule XX, the Court's rule governing the
practice of law by law clinic students. The federal district court
granted the Louisiana Supreme Court's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on
July 27, 1999. The Brennan Center Poverty Program appealed. On November 7, 2000, the United States Court of Appeals fo the Fifth Circuit Court heard oral arguments.

Since the Louisiana Supreme Court explicitly authorized law student
clinics to represent indigent community groups in 1989 by amending its
student practice rule, Rule XX, several law clinics in Louisiana,
including the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic (TELC), have provided
vital legal assistance to communities without the resources to hire
private attorneys. TELC fulfilled its ethical obligation to advocate
vigorously on behalf of its clients too well, however. When TELC
assisted community groups in a poor, rural community that was already
over-burdened by chemical plants to fight off plans by a multi-national
corporation to build yet another chemical producing plant in their
neighborhood, Louisiana?s governor and business leaders banded together
to silence TELC. They hoped that without TELC?s legal assistance, the
community would be unable to stop their future development plans --
even if those plans did not comply with federal law.

The
Louisiana Supreme Court acceded to the pressure of the governor and
business interests and amended Rule XX to include restrictions on law
student practice almost identical to those proposed by the business
groups. Together, the changes to Rule XX make it almost impossible for
law student clinics to represent community groups. Rule XX now bars
students in law clinics from representing clients who were contacted
initially by law clinic professors, students, or staff, for the purpose
of representing the contacted person or organization. Rule XX also
prohibits law student clinics from representing any community
organization that does not provide burdensome and divisive
documentation proving the indigence of its members.