Rising 2L Hattie Poole knew she wanted an international experience during her 1L summer, preferably in a developing country. She found it in Kampala, Uganda, where she is clerking for Uganda Supreme Court Justice Mike Chibita.
Gaining hands-on experience in Africa
“The Ugandan judiciary is focused on building their alternative dispute resolution programs in an effort to address a significant case backlog. I spent the first few weeks familiarizing myself with the Uganda judicial systems and conducting several research tasks comparing East African alternative dispute resolution systems to the United States,” Poole explains.
Now that her time in Africa is half over, Poole has been drafting Supreme Court opinions: two criminal and one civil.
“Being handed a Supreme Court file and told to read it and draft an opinion on a case in a legal system you are new to is daunting, but I can’t imagine a better way to put your writing and legal analysis skills to the test,” she says. “I’ve really enjoyed the challenge.”
Poole traveled to Africa with the Sudreau Global Justice Institute at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, which works with Ugandan advocates (similar to public defenders) to host plea-bargaining camps at different prisons throughout Uganda. She recently spent one week in Gulu Prison in northern Uganda, working with advocates to help remandees (individuals charged with a crime and imprisoned who haven’t yet had a trial) in tents in the middle of the prison yard.
“It was an unreal experience. Initially, I worked on a team of four people: myself, a Ugandan law student, a Ugandan lawyer, and an undergraduate student from Pepperdine University. We would receive a case file and review it, call the remandee and a translator (often a prisoner who volunteered to help), interview them, and discuss their options. We’d then meet with the prosecutor at the prosecutor’s tent and negotiate for a sentence length and confirm the agreement with the remandee,” Poole says. “Sometimes the negotiations went well, and we were able to get the remandee the sentence length they were hoping for. Other times the remandee would refuse the prosecution’s offer, and the plea bargaining failed.”
After the second day, Poole was handling cases from start to finish with the Pepperdine student. She says this hands-on experience wouldn’t be possible in the United States after the 1L year—and the week held some challenging moments.
“We were working on mostly capitol offenses, and often the crimes these individuals were pleading guilty to consisted of violent acts. The facts were tough. I sometimes felt conflicted arguing for a lesser sentence, but I also gained a much deeper appreciation for the balance between mercy and justice,” she recalls.
A magistrate case (focusing on minor offenses) also sticks out in her mind.
“Five remandees had been arrested for loitering and spent four months in jail without ever seeing a lawyer or appearing in court. Some of them didn’t even fully understand why they had been arrested. I was able to negotiate a deal with a prosecutor, and the five guys were able to go home that day,” she says. “I will never forget watching them wave goodbye as they walked out of the prison, free men after being arrested and thrown in prison for a crime they never should have gone to prison for.”
Deciding on law school
Beginning in high school, Poole became interested in law school but wasn’t sure it was the right path. After earning a degree in accounting from the University of Colorado Boulder, she began working at economic consulting company Analysis Group as a litigation analyst, which involved supporting expert witnesses in high-stakes litigation.
“I assisted with drafting expert reports, conducted the underlying analysis to support expert opinions, and helped prepare experts for depositions and trials. I got to witness firsthand the type of work the litigators who hired Analysis Group did, and I loved it,” she says. “It was really demanding, but it confirmed my interest in a legal career and prepared me for law school and a legal career. After a few years there, I decided to take the leap and go to law school.”
As a Colorado native, Utah Law was appealing because of its access to mountains, but Poole also liked the new building and the small class sizes.
“All of the alumni I talked to when I was deciding where to go to school spoke very highly of the faculty at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Having excellent, accessible professors was really important to me,” she says. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my classmates and my professors. The environment is very collegial, and I definitely got the sense that we’re all in this together.”
Though it took extra work to find and pursue the position in Uganda with the Sudreau Global Justice Institute, Poole also appreciates the College of Law staff and faculty who supported her and offered advice.
“I’d heard about the Sudreau program while doing law school application research and happened to connect with an adjunct Pepperdine professor, who told me more and recommended I apply, even though I wasn’t a Pepperdine student,” she says. “The College of Law was also awesome when it came to helping me find ways to fund the opportunity.”
Planning for the future
Next summer, Poole will be working at a firm as a litigation associate, which she is already looking forward to.
“Coming into law school, I was pretty sure I wanted to work as a litigator. I enjoyed the casework I did at Analysis Group and hoped to return to it, only as an attorney instead of an economic consultant,” she says. “This summer has also helped me decide that I’d like to clerk for some time after graduation. I’ve enjoyed my time clerking for Justice Chibita and would love to clerk for a judge in the U.S. at some point, too.”
Her time working in Africa has also piqued her interest in international human rights.
“I intend to find ways to use my lawyering skills to advocate for those without the resources to advocate for themselves, whether that be committing to pro bono work in my future practice or attending future prison projects as an attorney or both,” she says.