CLINIC AIDS LEGISLATIVE REFORMS IN VIRGINIA

WITH THE HELP OF TWO UVA LAW STUDENTS, mental health legislation to address overcrowding in the state’s hospital emergency rooms recently became law. Two more students assisted with education bills.

Michael Ferguson ’24 and Clare Hachten ’24 of the State and Local Government Policy Clinic worked with state Sen. Creigh Deeds on bills to reform temporary detention orders, or TDOs, which allow courts to direct a law enforcement officer to take an at-risk person into custody and transport them to a specified facility for mental health treatment.

Ferguson assisted with SB 1302, which streamlines the process of securing a TDO for intoxicated individuals and allowing them to remain in a local hospital for treatment, and Hachten worked on SB 1299, which establishes a new process to reevaluate someone subjected to a TDO to see if they still meet the criteria to be hospitalized and, when appropriate, provides for their release with a discharge plan. Deeds, who has spent much of his legislative career working to improve Virginia’s behavioral health system, said the state is facing a shortage of staffed psychiatric beds, meaning Virginians who are in crisis have to wait days for any to open up. His son killed himself in 2013 after he failed to receive court-ordered mental health treatment because a hospital bed could not be found.

“Both bills will reduce the number of people waiting unnecessarily in our emergency rooms, limit unnecessary transfer to psychiatric hospitals and ensure people get an appropriate level of care,” Deeds said.

The clinic helped pass four bills this year, and a total of 14 over the past three years.

“We have a great group of students who, in a complicated political year, were able to help their legislative clients make real progress on important issues,” said Professor Andrew Block, the clinic’s director. “Clare and Michael’s work with Sen. Deeds is a great example of the impact that students can have.”

Samira Nematollahi ’23 and Ethan Young ’24 worked with Professor Katie Ryan ’92 to assist Del. Carrie Coyner on the other two bills that passed. The legislation, which was signed into law March 26, expanded Virginia Literacy Act protections and services to students in grades 4-8 and established a working group to design a data portal for parents to track their children’s progress.

“I ENDED UP externing for Athletes First, one of the premier sports agencies for NFL athletes. During my time there, I spent a lot of time working with lawyers, and seeing their skills negotiating, writing and interpreting contracts up close piqued my interest enough that I decided to study for the LSAT right after graduation—and the rest is history. They inspired me to go to law school because they demonstrated the power words have and the special work lawyers do in crafting contracts and negotiating lifechanging amounts of money for people.”

—SEAN ONWUALU ’24

“ONE OF THE accomplishments that I am most proud of is being able to serve as the original voice of the character Koko on the animated TV series ‘Chuggington.’ ... Koko is the lead female role in the show, and I always enjoyed meeting little girls who admired her for being a strong, empowering female character. ... After studying political science at the University of Notre Dame and completing three internships with the U.S. House of Representatives, I realized that law and public policy would enable me to do what I had liked most about acting on a far larger scale and in a more enduring way.”

—BRIGID HARRINGTON ’25