2023 CLEA Student Awards for Clinics and Externships: Syracuse’s Milana Casillas, Anthony Emmi, Michael Poggi, and Bill Rielly

The Clinical Legal Education Association invites law schools to nominate students as their Outstanding Clinic Student or Team and Outstanding Externship student. This series includes submissions from law schools celebrating their outstanding clinic and externship students. 

From Syracuse for the Outstanding Clinical Team: Milana Casillas, Anthony Emmi, Michael Poggi, and Bill Rielly

The four nominated students worked collectively (for nearly a year) on an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to advocate on behalf of the widow of an Army Reservist and her eligibility for survivor benefits. The case was an appeal from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which originated with the Army Board of Corrections for Military Records. In April 2023, one of the students presented the oral argument in front of the Court of Appeals.