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Two groups of Northwestern Law students passed up sunny Mexican beaches and exotic international destinations this spring break and instead traveled to Louisiana to participate in relief efforts and offer legal assistance to Gulf Coast residents and organizations.

Eleven students spent 10 days in New Orleans as part of the Disaster Relief and Recovery Practicum, a student-initiated clinical class focused on helping hurricane victims.

Their trip was sponsored in part by the Student Bar Association and three law firms, including Kirkland & Ellis; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Prior to the trip, students met with clinical associate professor Cathyrn Crawford for weekly seminar sessions to discuss legal and social issues that arose from the disaster. In lieu of writing a final research paper, students served externships with various New Orleans agencies, including Common Ground, Alliance for Affordable Energy, Louisiana Justice Coalition, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, Innocence Project of New Orleans, and the Capital Appeals Project, providing remote legal and research services.

"One of the things I've really taken out of this is watching crisis management and being a small part of it," says Rob Wilcox (JD '07), one of the class's student founders.

In New Orleans, students met their agency supervisors in person for the first time and had an opportunity to work with the organization on site. They also participated in rebuilding efforts, attended community meetings, and met with local activists and residents. Another major project during the trip was helping interview detainees in local jails, many of whom had not yet been formally charged or had an opportunity to speak with a lawyer.

On March 11, another group of 10 students drove down to Erath, a rural town in southwestern Louisiana's Vermilion Parish Louisiana to assist in hurricane recovery efforts. They were joined by clinical assistant professors Maureen Stratton and Monica Mahan.

Katherine Henze (JD '07), president of Student Effort to Rejuvenate Volunteering (SERV), a student organization dedicated to community service, organized the trip in partnership with Southern Mutual Help Association's (SMHA) Rural Recovery Task Force.

The trip was also sponsored in part by the Black Law Students Association and two law firms, Latham and Watkins LLP and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP.

The students spent four days helping a local resident, a 74-year-old widow known as "Miss Eula," rebuild her damaged home. Though Miss Eula was at first reluctant to accept outside help, she eventually warmed up to the group and allowed them to assist in gutting the damaged walls, removing moldy refuse, and applying mold treatment to the house to prepare it for another volunteer group to start rehabbing the building.

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