This good lawyer is a great teacher.

• Author: Downs, Mayanne
• Position: President's Page

My 17-year-old daughter, Savannah, loves the law, but I can't take credit for that. She thinks what I do as a civil litigator and the city attorney of Orlando is "incredibly boring."

But she's fortunate to attend Boone High School in Orlando, a law-magnet-public school, where Cindy Schmidt, a former assistant public defender, teaches law with such zeal that Savannah says, "I think criminal law is the most interesting law there is," causing her to consider going to law school one day.

I want to use this President's Page to feature lawyers who are passionate about the law and what they do. Ms. Schmidt's talent to make the law come alive for her young students fits the bill.

In the fall of students' sophomore year, she teaches civil law, and in the spring the focus shifts to criminal law. Students read actual cases and police reports, write briefs on cool Fourth Amendment issues, write pen-pal letters to a man they believe should not be on Georgia's death row, and conduct mock trials.

"You'd be impressed. They can handle critical thinking and legal analysis better than you'd imagine, as long as no one tells them they shouldn't be doing this at 16 years old," Ms. Schmidt says. She's right; last night I helped proof Savannah's appellate advocacy brief. I was amazed by the precision required by Ms. Schmidt. "Oral argument requested" goes on the first page, Savannah said.

Here's what my texting, Juicy Couture-wearing, Facebook queen daughter Savannah says:

"Ms. Schmidt has taught me a lot about the law. She was a public defender for a while. The main thing I hold onto, and what I love she taught, is that a lot of people say, 'How could you defend those people?' Ms. Schmidt taught us the job of a defense attorney is not to prove a person innocent, but to protect the way our laws and government work. People will say: 'How could you let someone get off on a technicality?' You know what that technicality is? Our Constitution!"

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sometimes convicted people actually are proven innocent.

In a compelling demonstration that grave mistakes can and do happen in our criminal justice system, Ms. Schmidt arranged for DNA exoneree Alan Crotzer, now on the Innocence Project of Florida board of directors, to speak to Boone High School students.

Crotzer spent 24 years, six months, 13 days, and four hours behind bars for a 1981 rape, kidnapping, and robbery he did not commit. Freed in 2006, Crotzer was compensated $1.25 million by the state in...