Digital Commons @ UM Law

Das, Sudipta

English

Jesner v. Arab Bank, PLC: Limiting the Liability of Foreign Corporations by Curbing the Breadth of the Alien Tort Statute

Wharton, Brandon K.

\u3cem\u3eGundy v. United states\u3c/em\u3e: Breathing New (And Unexpected) Life into the Nondelegation Doctrine

Buckles, Johnny Rex

Curbing (or not) Foreign Influence on U.S. Politics and Policies Through the Federal Taxation of Charities

Pendo, Elizabeth

Gatter, Robert

Mohapatra, Seema

Resolving Tensions Between Disability Rights Law and COVID-19 Mask Policies

The Erin Levitas Initative for Sexual Assault Prevention

Education Is the Most Appropriate Response to the Phenomenon of Voluntary Teen Sexting

Danchin, Peter G

Farrall, Jeremy

Rana, Shruti

Saunders, Imogen

The Pandemic Paradox in International Law

Hallowell, Taylor

Stokeling v. United States: Blurring The Line Of What Constitutes Physical Force Under The Elements Clause Of The Armed Career Criminal Act

Casual Conversations

MARYLAND CAREY LAW MAGAZINEFall 2020 20
HEALTH outcomes for people with HIV have improved signifi cantly since 
the height of the AIDS epidemic 
when Prof. Emeritus Deborah 
Weimer founded the Medical-
Legal Partnership Clinic 30 years 
ago. Still, more than 30,000 people 
in Maryland are living with the 
virus that causes AIDS. Poor 
communities in Baltimore City, 
says the current clinic director 
Sara Gold, are disproportionately 
aff ected by HIV as well as unmet 
legal needs. 
That is why the Medical-Legal 
Partnership Clinic’s mission 
remains to provide free legal 
services to clients living with 
HIV, as it has since its inception. 
The services those clients need, 
however, have changed. In the 
early days when AIDS was 
considered a death sentence due to 
a lack of treatment and prevention 
options, clients more frequently 
sought what Gold calls, “help 
preparing to die”—wills, advance 
directives, future care for children. 
Now, as people with HIV are 
able to live the same as anyone 
in the general population, issues 
continue to involve advance care 
planning and have expanded more 
into areas including employment 
discrimination, Social Security 
MEDICAL-LEGAL 
PARTNERSHIP 
CLINIC:
THREE DECADES OF SERVICE
continued on next page . . .
Djaq Rose Morris ’21 (left) and Clare O’Donnell ’21
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et al.: Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic
Published by DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law, 2020
day students offer legal services 
for people who lack access 
to justice.
Djaq Rose Morris ’21 is one 
of those students. She spent 
her 2L year learning to build 
trusting relationships with clients, 
to understand professional 
responsibility and ethics, 
and to conduct cases from 
initial interview through court 
proceedings.
In her first appearance before a 
judge in Baltimore City Circuit 
Court last fall, Morris and her 
case partner Clare O’Donnell 
’21 argued for their client to 
gain custody of her two teenage 
godsons. After extensive research, 
practice, and planning, Morris 
and O’Donnell felt ready for the 
hearing. “Prof. Gold asked every 
question that we could possibly be 
asked so that we were prepared,” 
says Morris. That work paid off 
with a successful outcome. 
Just as the clinic has adapted to 
changing legal issues through the 
years, so too has it adjusted its 
methods. When the COVID-19 
crisis hit last winter, the clinic 
quickly pivoted to remote work 
and responded as new cases 
increasingly involved the virus. 
Student attorneys helped an 
immunocompromised client, 
whose employer had required him 
to stay home without pay, return 
to work. Another team advised an 
immunocompromised client on her 
legal rights under the Americans 
with Disabilities Act to request a 
reasonable accommodation in her 
healthcare workplace to minimize 
exposure to COVID-19 patients. 
And while restrictions on face-to-
face meetings during the pandemic 
have presented challenges, Gold 
sees the shift as an opportunity 
to explore ways to make legal 
services more accessible, and 
may incorporate parts of the new 
“telelaw” model being developed 
in response to the crisis even 
beyond the pandemic. 
 
“As we build on the clinic’s 30 
years of work,” Gold reflects, 
“we will continue evolving to 
best train our students and serve 
our clients.” ■
Disability/SSI benefits, child 
custody, name and gender identity 
marker changes, and landlord-
tenant disputes.
As the clinic’s title reflects, its 
approach is collaborative and 
interprofessional. Through long-
standing partnerships with the 
University of Maryland Medical 
Center’s THRIVE Program for 
adults and the Pediatric AIDS 
Program (PACE), which serve 
HIV-positive patients, eight student 
lawyers a year work closely with 
healthcare providers and social 
workers under Gold’s supervision 
to provide trauma-informed legal 
services. This includes legal 
advice sessions at the medical 
clinics and representing clients 
in litigation and non-litigation 
cases. Additionally, clinic 
students participate in classes and 
interdisciplinary case conferences 
as part of the MidAtlantic AIDS 
Education Training Center’s 
Preparing the Future program, 
where they collaborate with 
students and faculty from across 
the University to develop skills 
working within interprofessional 
wellness teams. 
Many students in the clinic also 
pursue a certificate in Maryland 
Carey Law’s renowned Law and 
Health Care Program. The year-
long course is one of the clinical 
experiences approved within 
the certificate’s curriculum and 
satisfies the Cardin Requirement, 
which provides that all full-time 
left to right: Sara Gold with collaborators Dr. Gregory Taylor (UMMS, UMMC), 
Steve Eveland (nurse practitioner, UMMC), and Dr. Ila Mulasi (UMMS, UMMC).
left to right: Clinic students Alexandra Pritchard ’20, Frank Maldarelli ’20, 
and Danielle Schweizer ’20 2
Maryland Carey Law, Vol. 2020 [2020], Art. 18
https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mcl/vol2020/iss1/18


Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic: Three Decades of Service

MARYLAND CAREY LAW MAGAZINE Fall 202019
CLINIC HIGHLIGHTS
Each year, student attorneys in the Clinical Law Program log thousands 
of hours representing their clients in a variety of matters and advocating 
on behalf of the citizens of Maryland. Among many other successes, 
we celebrate the following clinic accomplishments from the 2019-2020 
academic year, several of which are responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
Mediation Clinic
Worked with the Maryland 
judiciary and government 
agency partners to deliver 
and develop best practices for 
online mediations. 
Medical-Legal Partnership 
Clinic
Represented a client in a complex 
Social Security hearing resulting 
in the continuation of the client’s 
SSI benefits that were wrongly 
terminated in 2016, entitling the 
client to monthly benefits and the 
forgiveness of an over $20,000 
overpayment.
Public Health Law Clinic
Tracked and summarized the 
coronavirus bills passed in the 
Maryland General Assembly and 
wrote a policy brief on gaps in 
food access for children, which 
included information to help 
ensure that children displaced from 
school during the pandemic get 
daily meals. 
Youth, Education, & Justice 
Legal Theory and Practice Class
Participated in coalitions to 
develop and implement strategies 
to raise awareness of the plight 
of incarcerated people at risk of 
contracting COVID-19 and build 
support for their release. 
Criminal Defense Clinic
Drafted fact sheets for clients, 
families, and others to explain 
COVID-19 related emergency 
orders from the Court of Appeals 
regarding the handling of criminal 
cases.
Economic Justice-Consumer 
Clinic
Represented a client who was 
illegally evicted from her home 
and being sued by her landlord. 
The case was dismissed. 
Environmental Law Clinic
Wrote briefs and argued a long-
standing zoning case involving a 
coal ash landfill in the Maryland 
Court of Special Appeals.
Gender Violence Clinic
Secured release from prison for 
two medically fragile clients.
Immigration Clinic
Won permanent residency for 
the mother in a family with two 
teenagers who had never known 
another home than the United 
States.
Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic
Helped low-income taxpayers 
and taxpayers who have not filed 
in the last two years to file their 
tax returns to receive their 
economic stimulus checks under 
the CARES Act.
Andryse Leukey ’20 (left) and Matt Galey ’19 (right) 
with an Economic Justice-Consumer Clinic Client
1
et al.: Clinic Highlights
Published by DigitalCommons@U  Carey Law, 20


Clinic Highlights

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