Students, alumni, faculty and staff of the Boalt community joined together to celebrate the law school ‘s dedication to public interest law at a reception held at the law school on March 1. The celebration feted recently announced fellowship recipients, but highlighted the ongoing commitment of Boalt’s students, alumni, faculty and administration to serving the public. S tudents and recent graduates awarded fellowships include:
- Elizabeth Mazur ’05, who is currently clerking for Judge M. Blane Michael on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, received a Skadden Fellowship and will work at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago.
- Alma Lagarda ’05 was named a Reprieve Fellow at the Texas Defender Service, where she will work on death penalty issues for the next two years.
- Neha Desai ’06 was awarded the Zubrow Fellowship with the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.
- Chori Folkman ’06 received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to work on the Truancy Prevention Project through a nonprofit child advocacy organization called TeamChild. She will be based in Snohomish County, Washington.
- Natalie Nardeccia ’06 was awarded the Pride Law Fund Tom Steel Fellowship to work with the ACLU of Southern California and the Gay-Straight Alliance on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in areas of rural California.
- Anne Tamar-Mattis ‘ 06 received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship and will be working on the Intersex Children’s Rights Project.
- Noah Zinner ’06 was awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at Housing and Economic Rights Advocates to address the negative impact of predatory mortgage lending in Contra Costa County.
Opening remarks by Joanne Karchmer, executive director of career development, focused on the positive results of initiatives that have increased support for students as they launch public interest careers, such as the Social Justice Mentor Program, which matches 50 students and practitioners annually and the dramatic expansion of the Boalt Hall Summer Fellowship program, which funded 145 first- and second-year law students to work in public interest or public service jobs last summer. Karchmer also remarked on Dean Christopher Edley’s commitment to ensuring that existing programs are doing all they can to preserve career choice for law students, citing the student-faculty committee he charged with re-examination of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) as a recent example of that commitment.
“These initiatives, the vibrancy of Boalt’s public interest community and the supportive relationships that are developed among students, alumni, faculty and friends of Boalt Hall lay an important foundation that enables students to get their start in public interest careers,” said Karchmer.
The event was sponsored by the Dean’s Office, the Career Development Office, the Center for Social Justice and the 3L Class Campaign Committee.