2023 CLEA Student Awards for Clinics and Externships: Texas Law’s Anastasia Zaluckyj

The Clinical Legal Education Association invited 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 students. 

The University of Texas School of Law has selected Anastasia Zaluckyj to earn the 2023 CLEA Outstanding Student award. Anastasia participated in our Supreme Court Clinic as well as the Capital Punishment Clinic. She was nominated for the award by multiple faculty members who shared the following words.

Anastasia was a spring 2022 Supreme Court Clinic student, a fall 2022 advanced Supreme Court Clinic student, and a pro bono contributor for the Supreme Court Clinic in spring 2023. From the start, Anastasia went the extra mile on every assignment, was a team player through and through, and fully immersed herself in Supreme Court practice, not only working on cases already on our plate, but also doing split searches (“for fun”!) to look for new cases that might meet our criteria—even over summers and after no longer being enrolled in the clinic. Anastasia is always working, always identifying ways to sharpen her skill set, and always bringing her unique, effervescent energy to every project she tackles. We loved having her on our team.

Anastasia was similarly outstanding during the two semesters – fall 2021 and spring 2023 – in which she was enrolled in the Capital Punishment Clinic. She took a lead role in drafting a petition for certiorari in one of our cases in the fall 2021 semester, enthusiastically embracing the opportunity to think creatively about the legal issues in the case and fully immersing herself in the record and legal research. As an advanced student in the spring 2023, she took on several challenging assignments in a direct appeal brief, again demonstrating an eagerness to learn and improve her advocacy skills, and a determination to provide the best representation possible.

In addition to her achievements in the clinics, Anastasia participated in our Judicial Internship in the summer of 2021. She was also selected as one of three in her class to receive the Pro Bono Beacon award for having completed over 500 hours of pro bono work. Texas Law is proud to recognize Anastasia. Hook ‘em!