2020 Legal Education Opportunities Student Awards

Each spring, members of the Legal Education Opportunities (LEO) Program at UW Law School honor graduating students who have made exceptional contributions to the LEO student organizations, their classmates and the community. We join in recognizing the 2020 3L Student of the Year award winners, all third-year law students who have participated in one or more of LEO’s five constituent organizations.

Asian Law Students Association (ALSA)

Leakhena Au came to the United as a Cambodian refugee. Her family lived in Nebraska, California and Texas before settling in Connecticut. She earned a bachelor’s degree in conservation and resource studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s of science in wildlife conservation from the University of Minnesota. Before enrolling at UW Law, she worked as a federal biologist and administrator. In law school, she has clerked at Stafford Rosenbaum, the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, and the Governor’s Office of Legal Counsel. She also spent a semester studying international law in Italy. Her Moot Court team won the 2018 Merighe National Environmental Negotiation Competition, and she was a regional semi-finalist in the 2018 Thomas Tang Moot Court competition. She is currently interning with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Black Law Students Association (BLSA)

Bella Sobah is from Madison, Wisconsin. Her primary goal in getting a law degree is to work to dismantle oppressive systems that disadvantage marginalized communities. She hopes one day to work for an agency like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the American Civil Liberties Union or do policy or legislative work. At UW Law, she was an executive board member of the Black Law Student Association — secretary during her first two years and vice president in her final year. She was also a competitor, a coach and co-membership chair of the Moot Court team. As a coach, her team was awarded Best Brief and ranked third overall in competition. Outside the Law School, Bella chairs the Madison Disability Rights Commission, which addresses community concerns with regards to people with disabilities, reviews policies and makes recommendations to the City Council.

Indigenous Law Students Association (ILSA)

Larenda Maulson plans to work as a public defender after her graduation in May. She is an enrolled member of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Nation, where she interned for a tribal prosecutor during the summers after her first and second years of law school. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience and looks forward to applying what she has learned there (and throughout law school) in her career.

Latinx Law Student Association (LLSA)

Nancy Cruz is a California native turned Wisconsinite, and a proud Mexican American. She was the president of Moot Court, and for the last two years, she served as co-president of the Latinx Law Student Association. She is also a mentor in the Juventud Program through Centro Hispano and an advocate for detained immigrants at Dodge Correctional Institution. A strong advocate for immigration rights and the UW-Dreamers, she has traveled twice to Texas with other students to help advocate for detained immigrant families.

Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)

Dania Nadeem has been involved with MELSA since her first year of law school and has served as a treasurer for MELSA since 2018. She is also a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow at the Center for South Asia. Her primary area of interest is the intersection between policy and child welfare. She aims to use her cross-cultural communication skills to positively impact the policies and rules that impact the lives of children and families in Wisconsin. When not in the law building, she is most likely at home with her parrot, Fajr.

Additional 3L Awards

Besides the five LEO member organizations, two additional student organizations gave awards to exceptional third-year UW Law students in 2019-20.

Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA)

Joseph Beckmann is a first-generation American, born to Mexican and Colombian Jewish parents. He is the president of the Student Bar Association, co-president of JLSA, a member of LLSA, and the diversity committee chair for the Wisconsin Law Review. His commitment to supporting LEO organizations is demonstrated by his initiatives to increase diversity members’ completion of the write-on process for law journals, his regular participation in LEO events, and his dedication to broadening the connections between each group and the outside community. After graduation, Joseph will be working in hospitality and entertainment law in Chicago.

QLaw

Will Straub got involved in QLaw out of a desire to provide an inclusive and affirming space in the law school and to and to foster a more cohesive LGBTQ+ community. He joined QLaw in his first year of Law School and has been with the organization ever since. In his current position as membership chair, he plans social outings and represents the organization at fairs and events. Seeing the growth of QLaw over the last three years has been one of the best experiences of his law school career.

Submitted by Law School News on May 28, 2020

This article appears in the categories: Students