Federal Criminal Justice Project

The Federal Criminal Justice Project’s primary mission is to zealously represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes while giving students a unique opportunity to practice in federal district court. The FCJP is the first legal clinic in the country that exclusively represents clients charged with federal felonies, and is one of only a few legal clinics that allows students to appear in federal district court on behalf of criminal defendants. 

The clinic’s cases fall into two categories.  The first category consists of cases we enter at the time of the arrest, carry through the district court to trial or guilty plea and sentencing, and then carry through appeal and beyond. The second category consists of cases we become involved in at a later stage of the proceedings because they present a novel legal issue or an issue on which there is a circuit split. We join with other defense attorneys who are litigating cases that enable us to raise the legal issue at the district court level, handle or assist in any Seventh Circuit appeals that arise on the issue, and, if necessary, litigate the issue all the way to the United States Supreme Court. 

FCJP students are generally assigned to cases in teams of two. Students interview clients and witnesses; meet regularly with clients at the federal jail; conduct and participate in bond hearings, preliminary hearings, arraignments, plea hearings, sentencing hearings, and trials; write and argue motions and briefs; negotiate with Assistant United States Attorneys and probation officers; and participate in investigations. Students learn to represent clients at every stage of a federal criminal case by attending required weekly supervision sessions that include skills exercises and simulations, as well as lectures and discussions.

Students enter the FCJP in their third year. Given the intensity and timeline of federal criminal cases, students are required to commit to three quarters in the FCJP, and they receive two credits per quarter, with a time-commitment of ten hours per week. The prerequisites are Evidence, Criminal Procedure I, and the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop. In addition, students in the clinic are required to take Criminal Procedure II: The Federal Adjudicative Process. It is strongly recommended that FCJP students take Criminal Procedure II during the fall quarter of their third year, contemporaneously with their clinic work.

Alison Siegler, the director of the FCJP, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and was previously an attorney with the Federal Defender Program.