2024 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: Drexel’s Michael Harvey Broughton and David Zisser

Each year, 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 students. 

From Drexel Kline School of Law: 

Outstanding Externship Student: Michael Harvey Broughton

Michael Harvey-Broughton’s law school experience has culminated in an outstanding externship performance with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and within the related externship seminar. Mr. Harvey-Broughton distinguished himself from his peers as an effective advocate for those who are imprisoned consistent with his value to serve whom he describes as the “most forgotten people that live on the margins of society.” Pursuing procedural justice, he synthesized complex legal authorities and volumes of documents with effectiveness: “His combination of intellect, thoughtfulness, and professionalism makes him stand out among law students I’ve supervised. If he chooses to enter the field of civil rights litigation, he would be an asset to any organization or firm in this field, and I have no doubt that he would be able to hit the ground running as a practitioner on day one,” praised his externship supervisor. For his peers within the externship seminar, Mr. Harvey Broughton leveraged his communication and reflection skills as a discussion leader and active participant on topics such as ethics, cultural competency, and the roles of lawyers; he even co-hosted a webinar, entitled “Mastering Observations for Professional Growth”. Also notable, Mr. Harvey-Broughton served the region in the Mid-Atlantic Area Consortium of Law School Externship Programs’ presentation entitled, “Making a Mentor: How to Effectively Mentor and Supervise Externship Students” offered for CLE credit; as a panelist, he addressed an audience exceeding one hundred externship supervisors. It is with a sense of pride that Mr. Harvey-Broughton can speak of his externship accomplishments.

Outstanding Clinical Student: David Zisser

We are delighted to nominate David Zisser for the CLEA Outstanding Clinic Student Award for 2023-24 based on his exceptional participation in our yearlong Community Lawyering Clinic. From the outset, David demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of gentrification and other systemic harms impacting the residents of the neighborhoods surrounding our university and the need to engage in meaningful forms of accountability and repair, especially around homeownership and affordable housing. He applied those sensibilities and his passion for social justice to every aspect of his casework and his collaborative project work. David consistently showed tremendous enthusiasm, creativity, and courage in identifying innovative solutions to novel issues. At every turn, he was highly effective in harnessing his prior knowledge and experience to inform his clinic work while also remaining open to learning new approaches.

David set the highest standards of excellence and professionalism for other students in his written work, documentation, and communications. He demonstrated strong leadership and mentoring skills while also being a great collaborator and team player. He collaborated effectively with his less-experienced teammate and showed a similar level of support and care toward every other student. We were perhaps most impressed with David’s ability to ensure his clients felt truly respected and valued while navigating often-dehumanizing legal systems. We are confident David will continue to think critically about his role as a lawyer and will use his skills and access to help address the individual and systemic injustices facing his clients and their communities.