2025 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: Arkansas’s Christopher Piel and Holly Benson

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 Arkansas School of Law: 

CLEA Outstanding Clinic Team: Christopher Piel and Holly Benson

University of Arkansas School of Law Criminal Practice Clinic third-year law students Christopher Piel and Holly Benson recently celebrated a victory when their client’s case was dismissed. After investigation, the team felt their client had a viable argument and that both charges should be dismissed on separate Fourth Amendment grounds. Piel spearheaded a high-level briefing and motion to dismiss the case, utilizing both state and federal authorities, including Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47 (1979). Piel and Benson prepared diligently for trial, anticipating the need to try the case if the judge rejected the Fourth Amendment arguments at the pre-trial hearing. The clinic team maintained that the client was actually innocent, regardless of the Fourth Amendment issues. Then, just before the pre-trial hearing began, the prosecutor dismissed all charges against the client.