UCLA School of Law partners with Ho-Chunk for Tribal Appellate Court Clinic

By Tim Wohlers



For the past three months, students at the UCLA School of Law have been assisting the Ho-Chunk Nation with two of its Supreme Court cases in order to gain experience. 
“This opportunity arose and sounded like a really good partnership,” said Associate Justice Tricia Zunker.  “And that’s what it has turned out to be.” 
The students have provided law-clerking services, as part of their Tribal Appellate Court Clinic.  Such services have included researching and analyzing the issues involved in a case, writing bench memorandums and drafting opinions for the justices. 
“It’s definitely been helpful,” Zunker said, “because we are working on a lot of other things.” 
Talk about a partnership between the school and the Ho-Chunk Nation began earlier this year, when UCLA professor Carole Goldberg received notification about an alumnus who was celebrating a work anniversary. 
That alumnus was Tricia Zunker, who had just been reelected to the associate justice position. 
“I didn’t even know that she was on this court,” Goldberg said. 
After discovering the news, Goldberg reached out to Zunker to congratulate her on the reelection.  She then proposed that their two organizations form a partnership. 
“Prof. Goldberg reached out to me on LinkedIn when she saw that I had been reelected,” Zunker said.  “And she talked about this clinic, and asked if there would be any interest on the part of Ho-Chunk.” 
Zunker presented it to her fellow justices, who were both supportive of the idea.  The Supreme Court began working with the law school less than a month later. 
“Once it was presented to my colleagues and I gained their approval,” Zunker said, “we pretty much just went forward.” 
Confidentiality forms were sent to the students at the beginning of August, three weeks before the start of fall classes.  A month and a half later, they were sitting in one of Ho-Chunk’s court rooms. 
“We (moved) at a faster pace than we typically do with other things,” Zunker said. 
The Supreme Court heard two cases during the semester – one in September, and one in October.  Goldberg assigned two students to each. 
“I think they will have a better understanding of tribal justice systems as a result of having participated in this clinic,” Goldberg said.  “And all of them will have stronger writing and research skills.” 
The professor said that her students would need to have all their work completed by Nov. 20, which is the last day of classes.  She said the deadline should also allow the justices sufficient time to review the students’ work before authoring an opinion. 



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