2025 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: Maine’s Emily Nyman

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 the University of Maine School of Law

CLEA Outstanding Clinic Student: Emily Nyman

Emily started working at the Clinic front desk in the first semester of her 1L year and never left. We quickly learned that Emily is smart, humble, and hard-working. As a volunteer, she spent hundreds of hours in the basement organizing 50 years of files before we moved to our new space. Since then she has helped the Clinic improve several internal processes.

As a Student Attorney, Emily spent two semesters in the General Practice Clinic litigating a wide variety of cases. She represented a parent who successfully reunified with her daughters; advocated for clients seeking Protection from Abuse Orders; defended clients in criminal court; litigated a variety of family matters; and led a team that filed a brief in the Law Court. She also travelled to Fort Kent to take on cases in the Rural Practice Clinic and volunteered to represent clients in the Prisoner Assistance Clinic. In all, she provided almost 650 hours of legal representation and contributed to the Clinic in a myriad of other ways. She is a problem solver and a tenacious and effective advocate. We are tremendously proud of Emily and will miss her presence at the Clinic.