On August 23 at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Urbana, College of Law students were sworn in by the Honorable Eric I. Long, United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of Illinois, to participate in the Federal Civil Rights Clinic. The Clinic will allow these students, working in teams of two, to represent pro se litigants in federal civil rights trials in the United States Federal Courthouse in Urbana.

This year's student participants in the Clinic include Juan Bernal, Kathryn Campbell, Andrea Carlson, Greg Dickinson, Stephanie Freismuth, Matthew Goldman, Julie Holdener, Katy Karayannis, Lindsey Lusk, Audrey Thompson, Brittany Trainer, John Torre, Katie Yudi Wang, and Gabriela Zamfir. Under faculty supervision, law students will work with their clients to prepare and try a civil jury trial during the 2016-17 academic year.

The students will be instructed and supervised by 2001 College of Law graduate and adjunct professor, Andrew Bequette, who is a shareholder in the Urbana law office of Beckett & Webber, P.C. The students will meet in the classroom once per week in the fall and spring semesters, and as needed at other times. The students are selected on the basis of spring tryouts and are provisionally admitted to the trial bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.