Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2025
Abstract
Late on a Sunday night, the conference table in Mercer Law’s Habeas Project classroom was buried under transcripts, cases and drafts of a soon-to-be finished appellate brief. Third-year law students Chyna Carter and Valerie Pallos sat shoulder-to-shoulder, tightening arguments, double-checking citations and calculating word counts yet again. They’d spent weeks working with classmates, meticulously researching their client’s case and poring over a voluminous record, in preparation of filing a habeas appeal with the Supreme Court of Georgia.
“We thought we had a convincing argument and just needed to get it reflected on paper,” Carter, now an associate at McLain & Merritt, P.C., remembered. “We were there all day, working and writing and laughing. A few months later, we learned that the court had granted exactly what we’d asked for. In the middle of bar prep, learning that our client had obtained relief and that it was because of work we had done—that was motivation."
Recommended Citation
Meagan Hurley, Last Chance Lawyers: Mercer’s Habeas Project and Lessons Learned from a New Generation of Service Learners, YLD Review, Vol. 67, Issue 1 (October 2025).