Jermaine Mercer, ‘05, interned with the Public Defender Service of D.C. as a law clerk in the trial division where he worked with a supervising attorney, Marlon Griiffith, and assisted him in preparing for his trials by conducting legal research, writing memos and other legal documents, as well as performing investigations to assist him in forming legal arguments in preparation for trial. "Overall, it was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience."

Todor Hinov, ‘05. After boning up on whistleblower protection law, Todor updated the Government Accountability Project (GAP’s) federal statutes database and case law pertaining to whistleblower protection. He then made several visits to Capitol Hill and met with key staff members of several Representatives and Senators informing them of the proposed amendments referring to the standard of review of whistleblower cases by the Federal Circuit Court, which GAP’s Legislative Director Tom Devine (ADSL, '80) has prepared. Todor met personally with Congressman Chris Van Hollen from Maryland’s District 8 and participated in a discussion with him of the same issues. He also visited the Congressional Committee on the terrorist attacks of September 11 and listened to the testimony of Bogdan Dzakovic, a client of GAP.

Under the direction of GAP’s International Program Director, John Fitzgerald, Todor was asked to work on a project sponsored by the Ford Foundation, which included an exhaustive comparison of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD) whistleblower anti-retaliatory rules with the model of protections created by GAP. To this end, Todor created a checklist and researched such items as EBRD's information disclosure policy, its self-inspection mechanisms, and its person-nel grievance systems. He then prepared a letter asking ERDB for assistance and information about their policies and future plans regarding effective whistleblower protection aimed at stimulating them to fill in the gaps in the checklist.

Todor also monitored reports of the Authorizing and Appropriation Committees related to the language the Congress has proposed for the Vienna Convention Against Corruption, followed the debates over the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, researched the official publications from the United Nations’ web page, and studied the proposed texts applicable to the whistleblower protection. He closely followed U.S. policy to help determine the degree to which the U.S. would support a strong anti-corruption Convention with whistleblower protection, staying cognizant of Congressional moves regarding the Convention and also gathering opinions of other non-governmental organizations.

Ebele Onwueme, ’04, worked as a law clerk in the Civil Division at the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. She dealt with many special education cases, and child custody issues. She also helped resolve a major neglect case, where the mother stood to lose her 3 children after one of the kids was shot by another with a gun belonging to the mother's boyfriend. She also got to do some work on a class action lawsuit involving the D.C. Dept. of Corrections and special education for incarcerated inmates. Ebele reports the clerkship involved lots of research work, client interviews, and visits to the D.C. Jail to interview clients.