In my experience, students understand that joining the legal profession is a privilege and that that comes with a responsibility to help others and to give back to the community and to really just help improve the world around them however they can we have a number of clinics and externship programs for clinics. We've got our low income tax clinic, a domestic violence clinic, our Habeas project, we've got a civics field placement. We just have a lot of opportunities for students to sort of apply what they've learned in their core classes of law school so far to some kind of practice.
Mercer Law has a clinic called the Habeas project. It's actually Mercer's oldest and longest running clinic here at the law school, and we are essentially a post conviction defense clinic, which means that we provide pro bono representation to men and women who have been convicted of crimes and who are serving, often pretty extreme prison sentences. We represent people who we believe have been wrongfully or unjustly convicted. We're the only law school in the state that has a similar post conviction program, and there are few clinics in the country that exist like ours. It's something really special that Mercer has, and it's an opportunity that students at a lot of other law schools will never get to have that our students do.
I was taking criminal law, and I had heard about the program, and I was really interested in the post conviction area of criminal defense, and so when there was an opportunity to actually serve clients my third year, I was really excited about that opportunity. The habeas project has really taught me the importance of including empathy in your legal career. It's about doing the best that you can for your client and showing that client empathy and respect. These are people that have been wronged by the system, and they are still worth advocating for, being taught by people who have those same ideals, I think is really important and has helped shapes me into the lawyer that I want to be.
There's a whole bunch of reasons the Habeas project really prepares them for those post grad opportunities. The students are actively involved in every single part of our post conviction process. They are certified by the Supreme Court of Georgia to actually appear in court on behalf of clients. They sign their names to briefs and motions. When we go to court, if we have an evidentiary hearing, they are typically examining witnesses. They also gain tremendous experience with very specific legal research, with legal writing, client communication skills. Everyone that comes through the clinic gets to litigate in some capacity.
