The Certified Legal Intern Fund

HELP VICTIMS OF CRIME!

Sponsor a Certified Legal Intern on Give Miami Day!

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office (SAO) is in desperate need of prosecutors and Certified Legal Interns (CLI, prosecutors in training).  In the last three years, 206 prosecutors have resigned.  Last summer, 113 of the SAO’s 349 prosecutor positions were unfilled (over 32%!).  Our pipeline to recruit prosecutors is the Interns, who train in the SAO during law school and sign on when they graduate.

Please contribute whatever you can to our Certified Legal Intern Fund at the Miami Foundation to sponsor a part-time CLI for $4,000 and full-time CLI for $8,000.  

No prosecutors = no protection for victims of crimes!

The Miami SAO

We are a Smart Justice office that seeks to rehabilitate those we can while incarcerating those we must.  Our strategic approach has dramatically reduced our reliance on incarceration while contributing to a more than 75% drop in the community’s property and violent crime rates during the past 30 years.   

Unfortunately, we are grossly underfunded.  We are having trouble recruiting new attorneys and current prosecutors are resigning in droves due to our unreasonably low salaries as noted above.

Our Safety is at Risk

Our inability to recruit, hire, and retain attorneys and staff threatens public safety.  Because of attrition:  

1. Prosecutors are handling case volumes far in excess of their capabilities, due to lack of experience. Most of the prosecutors handling high-level cases, like attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, and armed robbery, have less than three years’ experience and some of them have participated in only a handful of jury trials.
2. We are unable to staff positions in critical units like public corruption, gun violence, gang, and career criminal.
3. Victims and their families must deal with a constant rotation of lawyers on their cases, forced to relive the trauma and victimization they endured each time, often giving up, and causing cases to be dropped. 
4. We struggle to control our caseload.  For example, our felony caseload is up 18% since pre-pandemic levels.
5. Cases are delayed, making them harder to prove.

Certified Legal Interns (CLIs) May Provide a Partial Solution

Third year law students who participate in their respective law school’s Clinical Program may be certified to practice in court under the supervision of licensed attorneys.  These CLIs help prosecutors investigate and manage their cases, coordinate victims and other witnesses, and prepare for court.   They also may call morning calendars, argue motions, and even try cases.  Their assistance is particularly important during times like these when staffing is critically low.   

Traditionally, our CLIs worked for free since we provide them with top notch training and experience.   However, a couple of years ago, most other government agencies began paying them.  Unfortunately, we cannot afford to do the same.  In a county that ranks as one of the three most expensive places to live in the country, our inability to pay our CLIs is crippling us.   Pre-COVID, we typically had more than 40 CLIs per year.  In 2023, we had 18.  We expect that number to drop even further as other agencies are increasing CLI pay.  

YOU Can Help

Your support would be greatly appreciated and, more importantly, allow us to better protect the community and people we love so much.  Thank you for your consideration.