David Liberty and Stephanie Puente Receive 2014 Fleischman Family Awards for Excellence in Criminal Clinic
David Liberty and Stephanie Puente are the recipients of the 2014 Fleischman Family Awards for Excellence in Criminal Clinic at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
The awards, which include a cash stipend, are made at the end of the academic year to IIT Chicago-Kent students who have demonstrated dedication to the criminal defense litigation program and who have provided "zealous advocacy" on behalf of the program's clients. Recipients are selected by IIT Chicago-Kent faculty who teach in the law school's Certificate Program in Criminal Litigation. Liberty and Puente will receive their J.D. degrees on May 18.
David Liberty is a candidate for a J.D. with a certificate in criminal litigation. Liberty completed his undergraduate education at the University of Washington, where he majored in social sciences with an emphasis in law, politics and the economy.
At IIT Chicago-Kent, Liberty has served as a law clerk in the Homicide Task Force and Felony Trial Division of the Cook County Public Defender's Office. Since August 2012, he has served as a legal intern in IIT Chicago-Kent's Criminal Clinic under the supervision of criminal defense attorney and clinical professor Daniel T. Coyne.
Stephanie Puente, also a candidate for a J.D. with a certificate in criminal litigation, earned a degree in political science cum laude from DePaul University. Puente graduated magna cum laude with a master's degree in liberal studies from Northwestern University.
At IIT Chicago-Kent, Puente completed internships with the Federal Defender Program of Chicago and with the Office of the State Appellate Defender of Illinois. She has also served as a 711 law clerk in the Cook County Public Defender's Felony Trial Division. Since August 2012, Puente has interned in the IIT Chicago-Kent Criminal Clinic, under the supervision of criminal defense attorney and clinical professor Richard S. Kling.
The Fleischman Family Awards for Excellence in Criminal Clinic were established by IIT Chicago-Kent alumni and criminal defense attorneys Jack and Sidney Z. Fleischman in 2008 to recognize outstanding students in the criminal defense section of the IIT Chicago-Kent Law Offices. In establishing the award, the Fleischmans also pay tribute to the contributions made to Chicago's legal community by their late grandfather, former Cook County Circuit Court judge Philip A. Fleischman, and their father, attorney Marshall A. Fleischman.
Jack and Sidney Fleischman are identical twins who participated in IIT Chicago-Kent's criminal law clinic before they earned their law degrees in 1987. The Fleischman brothers currently are partners in their own criminal defense law firm, Fleischman & Fleischman PA, located in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Florida.
Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. IIT Chicago-Kent's Certificate Program in Criminal Litigation is designed to give students a comprehensive and balanced professional education that prepares them for the practice of criminal law.
