Representing the Underdogs
Madeline Meth collaborates with clinic students to defend vulnerable clients in court.
Representing the Underdogs
Madeline Meth collaborates with clinic students to defend vulnerable clients in court.
Madeline (Maddie) Meth is driven to provide representation to those facing established opponents. As part of that work, she mentors the next generation of public interest lawyers.
As Clinical Associate Professor in the Civil Litigation & Justice Program, Meth aspires to “demystify the practice of law for students, mentor the next generation of public-interest lawyers, and ensure that the program is most effectively making a contribution to anti-poverty, access-to-justice, and civil-rights movements.”
Meth joined BU Law this fall from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was deputy director of the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic. While there, she supervised students working on public-interest cases in federal and state courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Meth has litigated dozens of appellate cases on behalf of vulnerable clients in areas such as consumer law, labor and employment law, and prisoner rights. The clinical cases enable collaboration with students and inform her research interests.
This semester, Meth’s clinic students are getting the unique opportunity to support her cases in the high courts. In November, they joined her for arguments at the DC Court of Appeals case in which Meth defended journalist Felicia Sonmez in Sonmez v. Washington Post. Somnez alleges that the Washington Post’s decision to ban her from reporting assignments involving gender dynamics and sexual assault are discrimination on the basis of her gender and status as a victim of a sexual offense.
Students also have supported Meth’s work on the United States Supreme Court case, Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, argued on December 6, in which a female police sergeant is claiming employment discrimination based on sex.
Meth received her BA in political science and English literature from Brown University and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she first represented clients in the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic. She shares, “I really enjoyed law school, and I think the secret to my liking the experience so much is that I took this advice seriously: don’t do things that you don’t want to do. I treated law school like a $200,000 gift that I was giving to myself… I don’t just have one piece of advice though, so come visit on the 13th floor for more!”
After law school, she was a legal fellow at AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly, providing legal services to low-income seniors living in the District of Columbia. She also clerked for the Honorable George J. Hazel on the US District Court for the District of Maryland and for the Honorable Jane B. Stranch on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
When asked about her activities beyond the classroom and courts, Meth says she likes “reading (find me on Goodreads), cooking, and I’ve been taking tennis lessons the past couple of years.”
