A law clinic at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded more than $235,000 in legal fees and recognition for the "complex and legally sophisticated work" done by 34 former students.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on Friday, Nov. 19, awarded attorneys $289,011 in legal fees in a class action lawsuit involving the civil rights of Muslim prisoners at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville. The Civil Rights Clinic at the UC Davis School of Law is to receive the lion's share, at $235,267.50.

"This is the largest single award of attorney's fees that the clinic has been awarded," said Carter White, the attorney who supervises the clinic's students. "The decision is recognition by the federal judiciary that our students are doing excellent work, and so we're proud of that."

In June, after more than seven years of litigation in Mayweathers vs. Terhune et al, Muslim inmates in California prisons secured their right to practice their religion without fear of discipline from prison officials. The court held that prison officials could no longer impose any form of discipline on Muslims for exercising their religious right to attend Jumu'ah, an hour-long religious service every Friday, and to wear half-inch beards, a practice observed in the religion.

That decision, now being appealed by the State of California, made the clients of the law clinic the prevailing party and eligible to seek legal fees. Friday's decision awarding the fees could also be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, White said.

In the order, Judge Lawrence Karlton noted that the UC Davis law students "worked on a wide variety of tasks, including discovery, taking and defending depositions, legal research and writing and arguing motions in court."

Affirming the $60 per hour rate awarded for the students' work, he wrote, "Because of the nature of the action and the issues involved, the work done by the (clinic) students was more complex and legally sophisticated than work typically performed by law clerks or paralegals in law firms."

The Civil Rights Clinic can receive attorney's fees because its work involves federal civil rights. In this case, the students proved an actual violation of the prisoners' rights, and so the clinic was entitled to an award of attorney's fees.

Other fees totaling $53,743.50 will be awarded to Sue Christian, the former supervising attorney at the UC Davis clinic, as well as the law offices of Stewart Katz and the Prison Law Office, where she worked after leaving the clinic in June 2001.

In the past, White said, the UC Davis clinic has received a few awards for attorney's fees, generally in the tens of thousands of dollars. The fees are used to continue the work of the clinic.

At one stage of the Mayweathers lawsuit, the state appealed a preliminary injunction and student Shanée Williams represented the prisoners before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "I was probably scared to death, but it was such an awesome experience," she said. "I really knew at that point I wanted to be a litigator."

Williams, who graduated with a law degree in 2002, is now with the Palo Alto law firm of Dechert LLP, where she practices intellectual property litigation. "Working in the clinic was a starting point for my litigation practice. It was a big head start."

Judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ask the legal clinic to take the cases of indigent prisoners in which there is the greatest concern for the well-being of the inmate or a major question of law at issue. Under the supervision of the clinic's staff attorney, second- and third-year law students work on the cases, sometimes continuing through the appellate level. At any given time, about 12 students are working on six to eight active cases.

UC Davis also has family protection, immigration law, and prison law clinics.