Washington D.C.

Key Cases

Garza v. Idaho (U.S. Supreme Court)

Access to Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court has long urged that “[t]he need for forceful advocacy does not come to an abrupt halt as the legal proceeding moves from the trial to appellate stage.” Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 85 (1988). This case concerns one of the clearest instances in which a client has been abandoned by his...

Williams v. Louisiana (U.S. Supreme Court)

Wrongful Conviction

Corey Williams was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder as an intellectually disabled 16-year old child, and spent 20 years in Louisiana prison for a crime that he did not commit. We represented Mr. Williams in a petition for certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court and obtained his immediate release from prison through a settlement with the State of Louisiana.

Lacaze v. Louisiana (U.S. Supreme Court)

Wrongful Conviction

The MacArthur Justice Center filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on behalf of Louisiana death-row inmate Rogers Lacaze, challenging his conviction based on serious issues of juror misconduct and judicial bias. Our brief laid out the split among the circuit courts and state courts of highest resort on these issues and urged the...

In the News

Argument analysis: Court skeptical that a lawyer may unilaterally countermand client’s instruction to file a criminal appeal

SCOTUS blog October 31, 2018

Career Opportunities

Washington, DC

Appellate Attorney

The MacArthur Justice Center (MJC) is accepting applications for an appellate staff attorney position in its Washington, D.C. office. Working in collaboration with four other MJC offices, the Washington D.C. office is part of the firm’s Appellate Project, which seeks to advance criminal and racial justice through litigation before federal and state courts of appeal and the Supreme Court of the United States. MJC is looking for an attorney who is passionate about both criminal justice issues and appellate work. The successful candidate will work on appeals that concern a broad array of issues, including prisoner and detainee rights, police misconduct, constitutional rights of accused persons, and religious discrimination at the border.

Washington, DC

Summer Internship

The MacArthur Justice Center’s Appellate Project is accepting applications from students who are interested in spending the summer working on appellate litigation and are passionate about criminal justice issues. Students will work principally on appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal circuit courts, or state courts of appeal, which raise important issues related to civil rights and the criminal justice system. Students will have the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the office’s ongoing appellate cases, including performing research and drafting legal analysis for briefs that will be filed in federal court.

MacArthur Justice Center

777 6th St. NW

Washington D.C. 20001