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Max Tinter JD ’26 found his calling by pure luck. Seeking a meaningful way to spend his last summer between high school and college, the Atlanta native Googled “nonprofits near me” and sent out emails “with all the bold arrogance of an 18-year-old with nothing on their resume,” Tinter recalled.

He got one response — from Georgia Innocence Project — but that was all it took. Working at the organization, which has helped free and exonerate 16 wrongfully imprisoned people, ignited a passion and purpose that Tinter has pursued throughout his time at Duke Law School. “The more I learned about our criminal legal system, the more I was horrified by it,” Tinter said. “This is a system that strips autonomy and choice and self-determination from the people it takes within its grasp. And that got me started.”

Tinter entered law school with the goal of becoming a public defender, and his three semesters in the Criminal Defense Clinic have prepared him well: after graduation, Tinter will work in the DeKalb County (Georgia) Public Defender's Office through Duke Law’s Bridge to Practice Fellowship program.

“Our criminal legal system supposes it can just process people through quickly and without much resistance, and I like that I can be a thorn in the side of that supposition,” Tinter said. “I've had great success in the clinic, but even in the cases where we don't ultimately get the results we want, we are slowing the system down. We are making sure it's not happening as easily. That's a satisfying feeling.”

Tinter will join a network of clinic alumni in at least 10 states who are now pursuing careers in public defense. They’ve been trained by clinic director Elana Fogel and supervising attorney Lauren Fine in client-focused, community-centered representation for people charged with misdemeanors in Durham County.

“So often the process of bringing somebody in as a criminal defendant seeks to label and mark them as outside of the community and ostracize them,” Fogel said.

“But in our advocacy, we highlight all the ways that our clients are valuable parts of communities and fight for outcomes that allow them to remain part of the community.” 
That means not just avoiding jail time for clients, Fogel explained, but also making sure they don’t come out of court with criminal records.

“Our best outcomes are the cases where legal, evidentiary and mitigation advocacy results in somebody's life not being forever defined by association with a criminal charge,” she notes.

During his time in the clinic, Adam Golden JD ’23 handled a case in which his 19-year-old client’s possessions were searched while she was a passenger in a car. After Golden questioned the constitutionality of the search, the prosecutor dismissed charges, giving his client a second chance at a clean record. Key to his success was getting the necessary facts from his client over multiple meetings.

“To some extent, public defense anywhere is public defense everywhere. It's really the same process of building that relationship with the client, building trust, and collaborating on a defense,” said Golden, now an assistant public defender in Maryland. “I wish I could have that time with all of my clients now.”

“Our impact is, of course, in the court outcomes, but also in the way we make our clients feel seen, heard, and genuinely valued through a partnership approach,” Fine said.

“Several clients have shared that their student attorneys’ empathy and care helped ease their anxiety during objectively difficult moments, including one who said, ‘You have no idea how much it means to me to feel like I have someone truly on my side.’” 

Beyond the courtroom: tackling systemic barriers

The clinic extends its work in North Carolina through community partnerships with members of the NC Fines and Fees Coalition, who campaign statewide to end criminal justice debt. One of its initiatives, 415 Day on April 15, was coined by Fogel to raise awareness of CR-415, a form that people can fill out to request relief from fines, fees, and other monetary obligations in the superior and district courts of North Carolina.

North Carolina court fees have increased drastically over the past two decades, said Whitley Carpenter, a staff attorney at Durham-based Forward Justice who manages the campaign. Carpenter says the base cost of court has tripled from $61 to about $180, and the number of different fees a district court can assess has risen from four to 45. When people can’t pay, the debt follows them and can jeopardize employment opportunities, housing, and a cascade of other consequences.

“Research shows that when people are assessed amounts that they're actually able to pay, they’re more inclined to pay it,” Carpenter said. “But when you're charging people amounts that they cannot afford, you're trying to pull money from somewhere that it doesn't exist.” 

The clinic has been instrumental in helping to reach the campaign’s goal of filing 415 of the forms in North Carolina, she said.

In March, Duke Law clinic students working on the 415 Day project led a training for law students from neighboring schools on the criminalization of poverty, the campaign to end criminal justice debt, and how to complete and file the form and represent clients in a hearing for a debt waiver. Importantly, Carpenter says, the form doesn’t ask just for income but also includes a space where clients can describe other financial obligations, such as a recent car accident, medical crisis, or job loss that might hinder their ability to pay.

That’s the kind of mitigating information the clinic seeks to provide in all its work, and it helps courts see clients as a person, not just a case number, said clinic student-attorney Rachel Carroll JD ’27, who said she left a career in academia to have a more direct impact through advocacy. Carroll plans to be a public defender after graduation.

“Trying to understand the context and be creative about the ways that we can help the client is always at the forefront of our minds,” she said. “The clinic really focuses on addressing the factors that contributed to whatever happened and helping clients get where they need to be by keeping them in their community and connecting them with the resources they need to avoid recidivism and move forward in a productive way.”

Carroll is also interested in post-conviction work and has participated in a Bass Connections project co-led by Fine to create short mitigation videos in which parole applicants share their personal stories and describe their community support and plans for reintegration. Carroll filmed an interview with her client in prison and also reached out to his family and supporters to create a video for the state parole commission to consider. “It humanizes this person and lets them see how cherished they are and how ready they are to leave prison,” she said.

Tinter said the more clients he has worked with through the clinic, the more committed he is to carry its work forward: “I love what I get to do. In every moment, I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile.”