Students in the Innocence Clinic at the Texas Tech School of Law perform as true lawyers, working to secure the release and exoneration of those falsely convicted.

The Innocence Clinic provides legal services to inmates who maintain their innocence for crimes of which they have been convicted and whose appeals process has run its course. Students in the Innocence Clinic at the Texas Tech School of Law perform as true lawyers, working to secure the release and exoneration of those falsely convicted.

As part of the Innocence Project of Texas (IPTX), Lubbock attorney and clinic director Allison Clayton and her third-year law students take on appellate cases from around the state, with each student handling about ten cases per year, just as a practicing attorney would. It is an intense and demanding learning environment that pushes students to act and perform just like they would as part of a law firm. Law student Megan Soliz states, "The Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech has provided me with real-world experience, enhanced my writing and researching skills and allowed me to interview and speak with real clients."

Since taking over in 2016, Clayton has developed the clinic into one with significant impact on the community, thanks to its intensive, hands-on, and practical approach.

"It appears to me as though a lot of the other clinics utilize law students by giving them tasks better suited for paralegals. I fear some may even been simply putting papers from one pile and putting them into another, without actually doing any litigation. That's not what we do. These students are not in school to be paralegals, they're in school to be lawyers. In our clinic, they are expected to do things and act just like licensed attorneys. It could not be more hands-on."

- Allison Clayton