2025 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: Wyoming’s Miles Gilbert

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 Wyoming College of Law

CLEA Outstanding Clinic Student: Miles Gilbert

I am writing to recommend my student, Miles Gilbert, for the 2025 CLEA Outstanding Student Award from the University of Wyoming College of Law. To that end, I would like to highlight some of Miles’ particular competencies that I believe make him particularly deserving of this award.

I have had the pleasure of supervising Miles very closely for the past two years, first as a student attorney and now as the Student Director of the University of Wyoming College of Law Defender Aid Clinic (Clinic). Miles is an excellent researcher and writer. I know I can trust Miles’ research because he is thorough, conscientious, and detail-oriented. My ability to trust Miles’ research is bolstered by his incredible work ethic. Throughout this past year, Miles has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Clinic, and has taken over the day-to-day administrative duties in the Clinic office. As a Student Director, Miles often works late on grueling and thankless tasks such as responding to requests for assistance, traveling across the state to view case files, answering phones, and being available for other Clinic students whenever they require advice and assistance. Miles is also a wonderful mentor to the other students in the Clinic, and has frequently taken a first pass at edits to court documents, pleadings, and other Clinic work product.

Similarly, Miles has excellent organizational skills that has proved invaluable to me over the past year. Clinic cases often involve intensive fact investigation, including interviewing witnesses, understanding client’s personal histories, coordinating with experts who opine on certain aspects of cases, and understanding the intricacies of our client’s lives. Throughout the year, Miles has demonstrated poise and competence in talking to clients and other stakeholders that impact our Clinic’s work. In particular, Miles’ commitment to the less glamorous aspects of lawyering such as file maintenance, note-taking, and meticulous attention to detail, makes him stand out compared to his peers.

I chose Miles to be my Student Director because of his professionalism, maturity, and respect for the work that our Clinic does and the clients that it serves. Over this past year, Miles has exceeded my expectations in all of these respects. In short, Miles takes his duties to our clients seriously and understands the gravity of his student attorney role. He is fully deserving of this award.

Meredith Esser Director

Defender Aid Clinic

University of Wyoming College of Law