Raffaela Alvigi

The Mary Louis Academy

Class of 2024

Interned with Harden & Pinckney PLLC on a life-changing case.

Collaborated with top law professors and experts to prepare an expert witness for trial.

Advocated for an issue of national importance that directly affects the client and the criminal legal system on Capitol Hill congressmen, senators, and congressional officials.

Raffaela Alvigi is a student that attends The Mary Louis Academy. In the fall she will be a sophomore. She will be enrolled in honors math and science classes.

Raffaela enjoys playing and watching sports. She currently plays on a volleyball team and competitively dances. This year she completed 27 hours of community service as well as applying for a home room that will help incoming freshman for another way of service. During Raffaela’s free time she enjoys being with friends and going to the beach.

Raffaela is very excited about the Advanced Law and Trial Internship. For many years Raffaela dreamed of becoming a criminal justice lawyer and many people have recommended it to her. She hopes to become a lawyer in the future and that this internship will help her along that journey.

My Law & Advocacy Training

Throughout the internship, I developed skills to effectively advocate to congressional officials. To prepare for my meetings, I developed informative briefing materials, which focused on improving the criminal legal system with my team. We highlighted a pressing issue in the criminal legal system that affected our client and advocated for possible solutions to critical issues.

My team and I worked to ensure we had facts, statistics, and compelling stories to share with our representatives in order to inform them of what is currently happening within the criminal legal system. We also presented possible solutions, in hopes that they would support our goals for reform.

My Congressional Advocacy

I had the opportunity to work with advocacy experts such as Professor Heather Aryani of Northwestern University, Gerald “Chip” Kunde, Senior Vice President of Institutional Affairs & Corporate Communications at Ferrero North America, and Capitol Hill Interns to perfect my congressional advocacy presentation. We practiced our presentation multiple times to ensure that we were prepared to speak with members of Congress.

During our meetings, I spoke confidently about the issues our client is facing in incarceration and will face after his release. Meeting with multiple members of Congress allowed us to demonstrate the importance of the challenges our client and those in similar situations have to endure. Being able to meet with a congressional staff member was a unique opportunity for our team to broaden our perspective and learn how much we can accomplish together. It was also a great privilege to see and participate in the political process.

Expert Witness Preparation

The Basics of Witness Preparation

I had the unique opportunity to work with a mitigation & social work expert who will testify on my client’s behalf at his compassionate release hearing later in the year.

The expert will be able to testify to my client’s rehabilitation and ability to reenter society.

I learned about direct and cross-examinations from real lawyers and was able to work with my peers to develop strong lines of questioning.

How We Prepared Our Witness

At the end of the internship, I had the opportunity to prepare the expert witness for the compassionate release hearing by conducting my direct and cross-examination with my peers.

I questioned the witness about different aspects of my client’s rehabilitation and educational background.

This is important because now the witness is able to go to the hearing with an idea of the questions that will be asked and the best answers that she can provide.

The witness will now go into the hearing with a better idea of the lines of questions asked by the counsel and the proper and most effective answers after our important witness preparation.

Throughout the internship, I learned about different aspects of being a lawyer. I learned that writing is a significant part of the legal profession. As a legal intern, I wrote a compassionate release briefing to help support my client.

As part of a compassionate release briefing, I sifted through legal documents, exhibits, and case precedent. I compiled pertinent information to put into a comprehensive briefing about the reasons my client should be released on a compassionate release.

Brandi Harden and Heather Pinckney of Harden & Pinckney PLLC walked me through how to write a proper briefing in legal formatting.

My Compassionate Release Brief

Internship Highlights

National Reentry

Courtney Stewart, who chairs the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens in Washington, D.C., is a prison reform advocate who was released from prison in 1985.

Courtney exposed our team to the idea of the school-to-prison pipeline and the ‘War on Drugs’ that targets people and children of color, especially Black individuals, to a greater extent than others in our society.

Courtney's vision is to reinvest in safe and healthy communities, create more living-wage jobs, permanent housing, and economic self-sufficiency for returning citizens.

He brought with him recently released inmates who spoke out about their criminal history and their lived experiences before, during, and after prison.

FAMM

Daniel Landsman, the Deputy Director of State Policy for Families of Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), is an advocate for criminal legal reform within sentencing policies.

Daniel expanded my team’s knowledge about sentencing laws across the United States and the lack of judicial discretion due to mandatory sentencing on certain convictions.

Daniel also shared the importance of sentencing reform, especially for non-violent offenses such as drug offenses.

He shared his experiences advocating for sentencing reform in state legislatures and the federal system as well as recent reforms that have been implemented.

Legal Experts

Michael Cedrone

Professor Michael J. Cedrone’s teaching and scholarship are rooted in the belief that professional identity is formed when law students must reason, act, and reflect as lawyers do. He is currently the chairperson of Legal writing at Georgetown University.

Premal Dharia is the founder and director of the Defender Impact Initiative, an organization that works to transform the criminal system through strategic engagement with public defenders. Premal also serves as the inaugural executive director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School.

Premal Dharia

Professor Sarah Stiles is a Provost and Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University who specializes in the intersection between society and the law. Professor Stiles’ instruction includes subverting the dominant paradigm of social inequality and environmental degradation by educating, inspiring, and supporting young adults.

Sarah Stiles

Brandi Harden

Brandi Harden is currently a Managing Partner at Harden & Pinckney, PLLC, a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Harden is also an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law, where she coaches the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Team and an Adjunct Professor at American University-Washington College of Law (WCL).

Ms. Harden has served as a trial attorney and a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), Chair of the Criminal Practice Institute, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the United States Department of Labor, and the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division–Computer and Finance Section.

Heather Pinckney

Brandi Harden is currently a Managing Partner at Harden & Pinckney, PLLC, a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C.

Outside of the firm, Ms. Pinckney has also served as a guest lecturer at Howard University School of Law, American University School of Law, the David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC), and the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.

Ms. Pinckney’s service includes her work as deputy chief of the Trial Division for the PDS for the District of Columbia and eight years as a staff attorney. She has also worked for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and TransAfrica.