Join us on Thursday, April 16, for the final event in our spring 2026 Youth Advocacy Writing Group Working Paper Lunch Series with James Limbaugh and Hudson Patterson.
12:30-1:30
WCC 3013
Be sure to RSVP here for lunch (this event has passed).
Rehabilitation and Reality: Comparative Juvenile Justice in Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation
James Limbaugh, Harvard Law School J.D. Candidate
Paper Topic: The Cherokee Nation’s juvenile justice system reflects rehabilitative values that Oklahoma’s system claims to embrace but fails to implement. This paper draws a comparison between these two systems and draws normative conclusions regarding best practices in juvenile justice.
Biography: James Limbaugh is a 3L from rural Oklahoma. James came to law school after teaching and coaching in Oklahoma City. That experience pushed me toward youth-focused legal work. At HLS, James advocated for students in the Special Education Law and Youth Advocacy Clinics and is currently representing juvenile clients in the Criminal Justice Institute. James spent his 2L summer at the San Diego Juvenile Public Defender’s office representing kids facing delinquency proceedings. After school, James plans to be a public defender in either Oklahoma or Colorado.
Innocent Until Proven Adult: Childhood Innocence as an Exclusionary Legal and Social Fiction
Hudson Patterson, Harvard Law School J.D. Candidate
Paper Topic: Most of us take it for granted that children are naturally “innocent,” and that protecting that innocence is one of society’s most important responsibilities. But that social idea of “childhood innocence” is far less natural, and far more political, than it first appears. This paper explores how the construct of childhood innocence shapes who receives compassion, mercy, and a presumption of rehabilitation in our criminal justice system, and how a science-backed approach to youth-advocacy would be more effective, and less exclusionary, than advocacy based on innocence.
Biography: Hudson is a 3L in the Y-Lab Fellows Program interested in criminal justice and youth public defense. Hudson graduated Yale with a degree in Psychology. After college, Hudson gained youth-facing experience by working as a teacher and an extern with public defense offices engaging in youth advocacy in California and Washington D.C. While in law school, Hudson has participated in the Child Advocacy Clinic and the Strategic Litigation Education Law Clinic.