Two of the 25 newly-named national winners of Skadden Fellowships are from the UW Law School. Samantha Webb Kading, a third-year student, and Jessica Shoemaker, a 2004 graduate, have each won one of the Fellowships, presented annually to students or judicial clerks who have shown exceptional promise in the field of public interest law.
Skadden Fellows provide legal services to the poor, elderly, homeless, and disabled, as well as those deprived of their civil or human rights. Jessica and Samantha's two-year fellowships will begin in fall 2005.
Samantha and Jessica join recent UW Law School graduates Victoria Selkowe (2003) and Barbara Zabawa (2001) as winners of this prestigious national fellowship. This is the second time that two UW Law students have won in the same year: in 1993, Gabrielle Lessard and Ricardo Soto were both winners.
"We are delighted that Jessica and Samantha were selected and that they will be able to contribute their skills to communities in need of legal services," said Dean Kenneth B. Davis, Jr. "We are very proud of them and honored that not only one but two of the coveted Skadden Fellowships went to those from the UW Law School. This is a testament to our excellent students and the faculty who teach and inspire them. I know that the work that Samantha and Jessica will do with their Skadden Fellowships will be a true credit to the UW Law School and an invaluable benefit to the people they assist."
Both Jessica and Samantha are former legal externs in the Land Law and Tenure Security program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jessica will work with the Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she will provide legal services to poor farmers struggling to make a living. She will educate farmers about potential legal remedies to land-related issues and ensure that farm communities have full access to the legal system. Using her experience as a Skadden Fellow, she hopes to craft a sustainable solution to the problem of farmers' legal needs going unmet.
Samantha will work with UW's Land Tenure Center to educate landowners in Wisconsin's 11 tribal communities about the problem of fractionation, where land is divided among heirs of each succeeding generation in smaller and smaller fractions until no single owner has more than a tiny interest in an allotment. Tens of thousands of Indians have undivided trust interests valued at less than $50, which makes it difficult to use the land in ways that are productive and beneficial. Samantha will help owners consolidate landholdings through estate planning tools, and she hopes to engage more attorneys in pro bono efforts in areas of Federal Indian Law.
As legal externs in the Land Law and Tenure Security program in 2002 and 2003, respectively, Jessica and Samantha worked in the Department of Interior Office of Hearings and Appeals in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Hearings and Appeals office hears all probates of decedents who owned trust land at the time of their death. The externs reduced the backlog of probate cases and researched possible exchanges or gifts of property in order to consolidate the complex fractionated ownership pattern of trust property.
The Skadden Fellowship Foundation, established in 1988 by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, each year awards 25 fellowships to graduating law students and outgoing judicial clerks. Fellows are provided a salary and fringe benefits package, with the expectation of renewal for a second year. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation is governed by a 12-member board of trustees composed of seven distinguished persons not affiliated with Skadden, Arps, four partners from the firm and a second-year Fellow.
Submitted by on December 6, 2004
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