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From clerkships to clinical assistantships to working as summer associates at firms, summer legal work helps students gain practical skills and experiences that benefit them during law school and beyond. This is the first profile in our 2014 series featuring the summer job experiences of UW Law students.

Lola Bovell

Lola Sophia Bovell '15
Legal Justice Intern
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, New York, N.Y.

Describe your summer work experience.
LatinoJustice PRLDEF works to ensure Latinos have more opportunities for political, economic, social and educational equality. As a summer intern, I was responsible for numerous research and writing projects associated with LatinoJustice's precedent-setting impact cases. These cases involved wage and hour theft, unconstitutional ordinances, and landlord and tenant issues. In addition, I participated in client and witness interviews, trial preparation, factual investigations, and I accompanied staff lawyers to court proceedings and legislative hearings.

What is the most interesting thing you've worked on this summer?

My summer has been so rich with new experiences in the realm of civil rights law that it is difficult to choose. One of my favorite assignments was covering DACA Beneficiary Georgia College Students v. University System of Georgia's Board of Regents, a case about undocumented youth and their ability to receive in-state tuition at Georgia colleges. DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a way of granting noncitizens who came to the U.S. as children temporary permission to stay in the country. I learned a lot about tuition policies around the country, and what it means to have lawful presence as a noncitizen granted DACA status.

How do you think this work experience will shape the rest of your time at UW Law School?
My time with LatinoJustice this summer has only strengthened my interest in working in the public interest field. I enjoy working for nonprofit organizations, and plan to further my understanding of how they operate. I will continue to focus my course work and extracurricular activities on my career as a public interest lawyer. I am really excited about taking Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organizations with Professor Sidel this fall. I am also looking forward to supporting the work of the UW Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic as president of the Latino/a Law Student Association

What classes have been particularly useful in preparing you for the work you are doing this summer?
My work this summer has required me to do research on equal protection claims, wage theft and immigrant rights, so classes like Constitutional Law II and Labor Relations Law, along with my work with the Immigrant Justice Clinic, have been especially valuable experiences.

Submitted by Law School News on September 19, 2014

This article appears in the categories: Summer Job Series

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