On Wednesday, August 25 at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Urbana, 12 College of Law students were formally sworn in by the Hon. David G. Bernthal ’76, United States Magistrate Judge, Central District of Illinois to participate in the Federal Civil Rights Clinic. Now in its second year, the Clinic will allow these students, working in pairs of two, to represent pro se litigants in federal civil rights trials in the United States Courthouse in Urbana.  This year's student participants in the Clinic include:  Christina Alabi, Krishna Desai, Pamela Domash, Michael Klinger, Krista Nelson, Joshua Nichols, Jason Patterson, Mike Paul, Austin Pedersen, Isabel Rosa, Eli White, and Jack Zulkey. Under faculty supervision, Illinois law students work with their clients to prepare and try a civil jury trial during the 2009-2010 academic year.  The majority of cases involve an incarcerated individual alleging either excessive force or inadequate medical treatment. The students will be instructed and supervised by 2001 College of Law graduate and adjunct professor, Andrew Bequette, who is a shareholder in the Urbana law office of Beckett & Webber, P.C. The students will meet in a seminar class once per week in the fall semester and as needed at all other times, including the spring semester.  The students are selected on the basis of spring tryouts and provisionally are admitted to the trial bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.  The students receive course credit of two graded hours in the fall semester and two graded hours in the spring semester.