The University of Wisconsin Law School marked a triple achievement this winter in the competitive field of public interest law fellowships. UW law students were the national winners of three prestigious fellowships: both of the Fried Frank Fellowships and one of the Skadden Fellowships.
There are only two Fried Frank Fellowships awarded each year, making the two Wisconsin awards a "sweep" of the field. "We were amazed when the selection committee came up with both winners from Wisconsin," commented Christine Kendall, a representative of the firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Schriver and Jacobson, which awards the annual fellowships. This achievement by students from the University of Wisconsin Law School places the UW Law School's public interest program in the company of those at top schools such as Harvard, Columbia and Yale, which have dominated the fellowship competition in past years.
Skadden Fellowships, similarly, are one of the top honors awarded to students entering the field of public interest law. This year, 26 Skadden Fellowships were awarded nationally, and only four to students from universities in the Midwest. This is the second time in three years that a UW Law School graduating student has won a Skadden Fellowship.
The three UW Law School students receiving the awards are: Jenigh Garrett, winner of the Fried Frank/NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Fellowship; Carlos Becerra, winner of the Fried Frank/Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund Fellowship; and Victoria Selkowe, winner of the Skadden Fellowship. All are third-year law students, graduating in May 2003.
Fried Frank Fellowships:
Fried Frank Fellows participate in a two-part program, in which the recipient works for two years at Fried Frank in New York City, followed by two years at the fellowship's designated public interest firm supported by funding from Fried Frank. Jenigh Garrett's second two years will be spent at the national NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) office as a staff attorney. Carlos Becerra will work with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), the nation's leading Latino litigation, advocacy and educational outreach organization.
The criteria for selecting Fried Frank fellows arise from the uniqueness of the two-part fellowship, says LDF Assistant Counsel Janai Nelson. Recipients are screened for ability to be a strong litigator, background of work experience, commitment to public interest work, leadership qualities, and tendency to "challenge themselves" by having a breadth of experiences in multiple areas of law.
"It's quite a coup for the UW Law School to have both national winners," says Becerra.
Garrett's goal for the years that follow her Fried Frank experience is "to impact society as an advocate for the poor and disadvantaged," including such spheres of activity as work in the legislative and judicial branches of government as well as working as a professor of law, in the hopes of educating future leaders. At Fried Frank, where she will work in the litigation department for two years, her first year will include a small percentage of assigned work in public interest law, and the second year will increase the percentage of public interest work, in preparation for the next two years devoted to public interest work at NAACP/LDF.
For Becerra, "One of the most appealing parts of the fellowship is that Fried Frank provides excellent training in litigation, and to take that training into the public interest world will be pretty powerful. If I'm not experienced in litigation now, I will be by the time I finish!" Becerra expects to focus on voting rights and employment discrimination in the fellowship's second half, when he will be working at MALDEF. In addition, he is interested in how law and education converge: "Education is becoming very politicized. School choice, vouchers, bilingual education, school funding ? all these issues are of special concern to Latinos, and they?re issues that in the future will be litigated."
Skadden Fellowship:
The Skadden Fellowship Foundation, described as a "a legal Peace Corps" by the Los Angeles Times, was established in 1988 by the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, to support students who have shown exceptional promise in the field of public interest law. The two-year fellowship gives Fellows the freedom to pursue their interests in public interest work, providing legal services to the poor, elderly, homeless and disabled, as well as those deprived of human rights or civil rights.
Fellows create their projects before applying. Vicky Selkowe's project will be to represent low-income Dane County workers on issues including employment discrimination, unpaid wages, Family and Medical Leave Act, and access to public benefits. She will develop and conduct training programs and educational materials for local advocates and low-income workers, partnering with Madison's new Workers? Rights Center.
Director of the Skadden Fellows program, Susan Butler Plum, comments, "Wisconsin has long been regarded as a social laboratory for exploring innovative responses to the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities, and Skadden Fellows from Wisconsin have taken the lead in representing those communities. By sharing their unique experiences and expertise with future public interest lawyers, Wisconsin's Skadden Fellows also further the program's goal of building ?a public interest law firm without walls? to assist communities nationwide."
Selkowe credits the UW Law School's Neighborhood Law Project (NLP), directed by clinical professor Juliet Brodie, as having a significant impact on her. "NLP has allowed me to serve individual low-income clients facing employment, housing and consumer problems as well as giving me a forum to connect with local advocates, service providers and policy makers on the larger, more systemic issues facing Madison's low-income workers," she says.
Other current or former Skadden fellows associated with University of Wisconsin are Barbara Zabawa (completing the second year of her fellowship), Ricardo Soto, Gabrielle Lessard and UW Law School faculty member Catherine Albiston. Ricardo Soto is now Deputy General Counsel for the San Diego Unified School District, and Gabrielle Lessard is employed by the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles.
Submitted by on February 27, 2003
This article appears in the categories: Articles
