2025 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: UDC’s Jeremiah Baltimore, Isabella Borrero, and John (Jack) Satti

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 University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law:

Outstanding Clinic Student or Team: Jeremiah Baltimore and Isabella Borrero 

Jeremiah Baltimore and Isabella Borrero represented a client who fled his home country with his two young sons after a local gang with MS-13 connections targeted and killed members of his family. All students of the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic were warned of the level of work, care, and dedication required for their cases, and particularly for the case of “Hector” who had his hearing set for mid-October. This meant that students assigned to that case only had two months to complete the evidentiary filing and prepare the client for his hearing. Despite knowing the monumental task ahead, Jeremiah and Isabella jumped at the opportunity and demonstrated relentless and dedicated advocacy throughout. They not only finalized an evidentiary filing of over 500 pages and a compelling brief, but they also zealously advocated for Hector* in not one, but four grueling individual hearings that included hotly contested credibility and evidentiary issues. Though the clinic continues to fight for Hector, the work, dedication, and genuine care that Isabella and Jeremiah displayed was integral in maintaining Hector* hopeful and even led the immigration judge to say that Isabella and Jeremiah “were very prepared and versed in the law. They were as prepared, if not more, than many lawyers [the judge] see[s] in [his] court. All their arguments, statements, and closing were very well-reasoned and researched.”

Outstanding Externship Student: John (Jack) Satti

John (Jack) Satti served his externship at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Disclosure Unit, whose mission is to investigate disclosures of wrongdoing within the executive branch of the federal government from current federal employees, former federal employees, and applicants for federal employment. The Disclosure Unit reviews six types of disclosures. The categories are violations of law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; a gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety; and/or censorship related to research. His major undertaking this semester was drafting memorandums researching many of the personnel actions being undertaken throughout the federal government by the Trump administration, in order to assess the legality of personnel actions and investigate potential violations of law.