The Notre Dame Law School Exoneration Justice Clinic (EJC) will welcome three law students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to its summer internship program. The students will work on wrongful conviction cases while gaining hands-on experience in criminal justice advocacy.
Beginning June 1, 2026, the UNAM students will spend four weeks at the University of Notre Dame collaborating with students from Notre Dame Law School on cases involving Mexican nationals wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit. The work will be conducted through the Program for the Defense of Mexican Nationals (PDM), a dimension of the EJC that provides legal assistance to Mexican nationals facing criminal charges or wrongful convictions.
“This is an exciting development that distinguishes the EJC from other law school innocence clinics in the country,” said Professor Jimmy Gurulé, founder and director of the EJC.
The participating UNAM students include Diana Estefanía Bolaños Cuevas, Griselda Carina Santos Garnica, and Juan Gerardo Talavera Cervantes. The students were selected by Dr. Imer Flores, research professor of law at the UNAM Faculty of Law. They will join two students from Strathmore Law School—Notre Dame Law School’s partner institution in Nairobi, Kenya—who will participate as EJC/PDM summer interns for three weeks.
Since 2021, the EJC’s summer internship program has hosted diverse cohorts of students from Notre Dame Law School, Strathmore Law School, and undergraduate programs at the University of Notre Dame and St. Olaf College. The interns work primarily on intake cases, reviewing several requests for legal representation and recommending whether to accept or reject cases based on a rigorous screening process. They also assist in ongoing EJC/PDM cases, gaining firsthand experience investigating claims of innocence and understanding the process of building a case.
By adding UNAM law students, the EJC’s summer internship program expands its international collaboration while strengthening the clinic’s ability to serve clients whose cases span languages and cultural contexts. The program also advances Notre Dame Law School’s strategic priority of building ties with leading international legal and academic institutions and educating students to serve clients in an increasingly interconnected world.
“The future of legal practice is not confined by national borders, and our students must be prepared to serve clients and communities across cultures and legal systems,” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean of Notre Dame Law School. “Welcoming students from UNAM into the work of the Notre Dame Law School Exoneration Justice Clinic reflects the Law School’s commitment to forming lawyers and leaders dedicated to justice. This collaboration advances our mission by combining rigorous legal training with the pursuit of justice in a way that is deeply consistent with our Catholic tradition.”
The collaboration builds on existing connections between the two institutions. Gurulé previously spoke at the UNAM Faculty of Law—Mexico’s largest law school—in October 2025, where he discussed the PDM as well as the importance of law school clinics and the pedagogy of clinical education. He emphasized the value of hands-on legal experience in preparing students for the practice of law.
The addition of UNAM students to the EJC’s summer internship program marks another step in the clinic’s efforts to combine experiential education with meaningful service, providing students with practical training while furthering the cause of justice.
Learn more about the Notre Dame Law School Exoneration Justice Clinic at exoneration.nd.edu.
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on April 20, 2026.