The Family Violence Clinic completed its last case in November 2020. Over 28 years, generations of Mizzou Law students achieved legal remedies for impoverished and domestic and/or sexually assaulted adults, children and elders.
In this case, the students undertook representation in the case over 10 months ago and persevered despite numerous obstacles and the semester ending to achieve adoption of a 14 -year-old formerly abused /neglected child. When asked why she wanted to be adopted, the child responded “Because I love them. They are the best thing that’s ever happened in my life.” Kelli Reichert and Tori Schafer are but one team of dedicated law students who worked without credit to finish difficult cases that did not end on the academic calendar.
Clinic students prevailed in cases of first impression, last resort, and complex intercontinental or interstate cases, gubernatorial clemency and pardon as well as wrote multistate laws. It was the privilege of all involved to access justice for marginalized persons famously exemplified when Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Covington babysat her sick granddaughter in her office so that her law student daughter could litigate (successfully) a civil protective order for a poor abused woman. Years later, Family Violence Clinic students were the first law students to argue in the Missouri Supreme Court.