Clinic Spotlight: Sarah Zieger ’25 and Reagan Mitchell ’25

Sarah and Reagan jointly received Vanderbilt’s highest clinical honor. The Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Award goes to the students who, in his or her representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrated excellence in the practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession. As third-year students who are about to enter practice, both conveyed deep appreciation for the skills and experiences mastered during the Clinic.

During the fall, Reagan and Sarah collaborated on the amicus brief filed in the U.S Supreme Court in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. Both students were primarily responsible for every stage of brief preparation—from developing our line of argument, drafting the brief itself, reaching out to amici partners, and perfecting filings. They exhibited excellent legal research, writing, and analysis skills, meticulously attending to every part of the filings.

Sarah spent the rest of the fall semester engaged in discovery in the Clinic’s Fox case, seamlessly integrating herself into an existing three-person team, quickly familiarizing herself with a complicated factual record and evolving legal standard, and participating in the depositions of three legislative staff members and the legislator himself. Sarah wrote excellent deposition outlines and was an integral part of the extensive practice moots the student team used to prepare for the depositions. At the depositions, Sarah fearlessly asked incisive questions that yielded excellent testimonial evidence for the Clinic to use in summary judgment briefing. In turn, Regan prepared for and delivered a compelling oral argument in a defense-side anti-SLAPP case.

As advanced students in the spring semester, Sarah and Reagan helped lead a team of four students working on Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in the Fox case, persuasively marshaling facts from an extensive record that helped establish state action in the face of an evolving defense-friendly legal standard.