A recent NLJ story, “Law Clinic was Entitled to Recover Fees for Students’ Work” reports that a law school clinic at George Washington University has won attorney’s fees for a 2007 case handled by two third-year students.  The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Public Justice Advocacy Clinic at the law school was entitled to legal fees under a District of Columbia law pertaining to government worker disability cases.  The court, found that the students’ work, supervised by George Washington clinical professor Jeffrey Gutman, did not amount to lay representation, which would have precluded a fee recovery.  The clinic sought about $6,400 in fees.

The law students won a reinstatement of benefits for Shirley Copeland, an employee of the D.C. Department of Human Services, before the Compensation Review Board and sought reasonable attorney fees under a D.C. statute.  The law provides for fee payments to an “attorney-at-law” in government-worker disability cases.  Because the students had worked closely with Gutman, a licensed attorney, the court found that awarding the fees was warranted.  It was unconvinced by the Department of Employment Services’ argument that the clinic could not recover fee because the law students were not lawyers.  That argument “founders completely” considering the multitude of state statutes and court rules that authorize law students, under certain conditions, to represent clients in court, the court noted.