New SMU Law Clinic Gives Students Hands-On Experience in Criminal Justice Reform

This fall marks the launch of the Criminal Justice Reform (CJR) Clinic at SMU Dedman School of Law. Operated by the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center, the pilot CJR Clinic program will provide students with hands-on litigation and policy opportunities, as they work with some of the nation’s foremost criminal justice experts.

Professor Pamela Metzger, executive director of the Deason Center, called the partnership “an exciting opportunity to bring the Center’s national reform work into the SMU Law curriculum.” She continued, “CJR Clinic students will have the unique opportunity to implement real-world reform projects, gaining firsthand experience in the complex work of transforming the criminal legal system. Metzger and Deason Center staff attorney Nathan Fennell will serve as instructors for the CJR Clinic.

In the 2026-27 academic year, the CJR Clinic will focus on protecting the rights of arrested people during the earliest stages of criminal cases. Class instruction will include on-site court observation, policy meetings, practitioner roundtables and preparing reform litigation. Clinic students will work with a range of clients, including people accused of crimes, lawyers developing institutional reform strategies, and groups seeking broader changes to their local criminal justice systems. 

The CJR Clinic builds on more than 75 years of SMU Law students providing legal services and advocacy to the Dallas-area community and beyond. SMU Dedman School of Law offers nine clinical programs spanning areas from federal tax law to criminal defense.

Professor Mary Spector, associate dean for experiential learning, said she is “thrilled about the addition of the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic to our terrific line-up of clinical offerings.”

The collaboration between the Deason Center and the legal clinics will “give students experience working with seasoned advocates to address the most urgent problems within the criminal justice system,” Spector said. “The CJR continues the Clinics’ tradition of service and advocacy.”

The inaugural clinic will include two students, Max Boyd (SMU Law 3L) and James Bruner (SMU Law 2L). Boyd and Bruner previously worked with the Deason Center as criminal justice fellows and will draw on that experience in their clinical work..

Boyd said practicing under the supervision of Deason Center attorneys will add “a richness and depth to what I've already learned at the Center.”

Bruner, who worked as a court clerk for several years before law school, called the opportunity to practice law through CJR Clinic “a little surreal,” praising “the opportunities that you have to get your hands directly on the work [and] to achieve the greater good.” For Boyd and Bruner, the inaugural year of the CJR Clinic allows to them to move beyond studying criminal justice reform to take an active role in advancing it.

To learn more about the Deason Center’s reform work please visit: https://deasoncenter.smu.edu/