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APALSA 1L Public Interest Fellowship

Rebecca Oyama 2008 Fellowship Winner	I spent last summer in Washington, D.C., at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law--a non-profit organization dedicated to civil rights litigation and advocacy, with a focus on racial discrimination. I spent the majority of my time in the Employment Discrimination Project and Voting Rights Project, where I had an incredible experience of working under accomplished civil right attorneys. I wrote various memos on research questions pertaining to current or future litigation and amicus briefs. For example, I helped to write part of an 8th Circuit appellate brief concerning discriminatory hiring practices and assisted in trial preparation for a steelworker class-action suit. I sat in on key strategic meetings among civil right organizations that sought to correct the pay disparity standard that failed Lily Ledbetter in her famous Supreme Court case. I also received intake calls from prospective clients, researched their possible claims, and assisted in determining their suitability for litigation. If it weren't for the support of APALSA and public interest funding, I would not have had this wonderful educational opportunity that greatly enhanced my understanding of impact litigation and nonprofit work.
Ivy Cheng 2008 Fellowship Winner	This past summer, I had the opportunity to work at the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) in Washington, DC. AAJC is a non-profit, non-partisan civil rights organization dedicated to the advancement of the legal and civil rights of Asian Americans. Its programs span issues relating to hate crimes and anti-Asian violence, affirmative action, immigration and immigrants? rights, voting rights, and language access, among others. My work this summer centered around the Asian American Contractor Empowerment Project of the Affirmative Action program. Toward this end, I analyzed the potential implications of various pending federal legislation for Asian American workers and business owners, and wrote memoranda proposing recommendations for the modification of those bills that would be used later in lobbying and advocacy to members of Congress. I also had the very rewarding experience of leading the drafting of AAJC's legal comment to the Department of Defense regarding an Executive Order issued by former President Bush, in which I analyzed the Title VII and Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection implications of the Order for workers of immigrant or racial minority background. My experiences with AAJC provided me with valuable insight into the federal level policy advocacy process and into the work of those national Asian American advocacy organizations that pursue it. Many thanks to the generosity of the APALSA fellowship for helping to make my summer possible.
Frances Kim 2008 Fellowship Winner	I worked for the Legal Services for Children, Inc. in San Francisco. Prior to coming to law school, I read about Legal Services for Children (LSC) in an alumni magazine and knew right away that I wanted to work there. LSC provides free direct client services to minors, specifically in the areas of guardianship, emancipation, dependency, immigration, and education. Having been a teacher before law school, I was excited to help improve the legal situation for youth, especially at LSC, which provides a unique atmosphere where lawyers and social workers work together, in one office, to represent clients. Lauren, my supervisor, was the office education expert. My responsibilities included becoming many clients’ first contact with LSC through the “warm” line, where I answered calls from potential clients, discussing their legal issues with a staff attorney, and providing references or legal advice. I also updated and created resource manuals in education matters to be used by pro bono attorneys or potential clients; researched various topics in education, especially areas where the California Education Code seemed to need improvement; and worked with clients to find low-income housing, a job, or a potential mentor. I was further able to attend immigration court to see our staff attorneys argue on behalf of youth mainly from Central America and China. My favorite experiences was representing a 17-year old Somoan high school student, growing up in one of the worst neighborhoods in the country, in his expulsion hearing. I was able to question witnesses and to give a closing statement, leading to the reinstatement of my client into public school. That was a unique and valuable experience that I will not forget. The APALSA fellowship played a large part in my ability to move for a summer to San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the US, to work for LSC. I am very grateful to the APALSA community and its supporters for allowing me to pursue a dream.
Ashwini Habbu 2007 Fellowship Winner	During the summer following my first year of law school, I served as a legal intern for the Immigrant Women Program of Legal Momentum. Initially, I was drawn to the organization’s work on behalf of immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Yet the internship was particularly attractive to me because of its legislative focus. Over the course of the summer, I helped craft and execute IWP’s legislative agenda. The now defunct immigration bill hit the Senate floor just two days into my internship. As an intern, my primary task was to research legislative histories, immigration-related scholarship, and Congressional voting trends to develop specific amendment language, as well as a legislative strategy, that would protect our core constituency: immigrant victims of violence. In addition to the immigration bill, I also was also a member on the team to reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Without the APALSA Public Interest Fellowship, I would not have been able to accept this internship. Organizations with a national legislative focus like the Immigrant Women Program are almost exclusively in Washington D.C., and this fellowship gave me the step up that I needed to get there. I sincerely thank the members and officers of APALSA, and certainly its sponsors, for making this opportunity possible.
Sameera Haque 2007 Fellowship Winner	Last summer, I had an unforgettable experience interning for Justice Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court. Working for Justice Pariente allowed me to step into a new role, distinct from the role that my first-year courses such as Legal Practice had taught me to play. I was no longer an advocate who was expected to advance every argument that might serve my hypothetical client's interests, but rather I was a neutral party with the exciting job of analyzing opposing legal arguments in real cases, affecting real people. Being behind the scenes at the Court not only allowed me to develop a unique understanding of what makes for "effective lawyering." It also revealed to me the integral role that diversity plays in a well-functioning judiciary. Motivated by that important realization, I returned to law school with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and direction. Unquestionably, I owe all that I gained last summer to APALSA and the unique freedom that the organization offers recipients of its 1L Public Interest Fellowship to pursue whatever low-paying or unpaid, public interest job they might be interested in, including judicial internships. Recipients of other, similar fellowships, such as SFF, are prohibited from working for judges—a rule that, in my opinion, forecloses one of the most valuable learning opportunities available to law students in their first summer. Because of this, the APALSA 1L Public Interest Fellowship stands as a great example of the unparalleled support that APALSA offers to members of the U-M Law School community—support that many, including myself, will forever be grateful for.
Sumeera Younis 2007 Fellowship Winner	The APALSA Public Interest Fellowship allowed me to work for an organization that is taking significant strides to improve the lives of women in America and across the world. This past summer, thanks to the funding I received from APASLA, I was able to accept a summer internship working as a Family Law Intern for Karamah in Washington DC. At my internship, I researched and compiled a manual to be used by domestic violence agencies across the country. The manual addressed unique issues that immigrant women face when attempting to leave an abuser. The average woman who suffers from domestic violence face a mountain of obstacles and legal hurdles that prohibits her from safely leaving an abuser. Immigrant women are particularly vulnerable in the system because they face challenges which most service providers are not currently addressing. Immigrant women often fear deportation if they report abuse, or may not have the language skills to seek help. Further there are also cultural and religious barriers that may prevent immigrant women from leaving abusers. The current system lacks many of the resources to adapt changes that would make it easier for immigrant women to leave abusive partners. Thanks to the APALSA fellowship I was able to engage in work that took steps towards remedying this problem.
Andrew Woo 2006 Fellowship Winner	My name is Andrew Woo and I am a law student at the University of Michigan Law School. I received the APALSA 1L public interest fellowship last year and worked at the Michigan Poverty Law Program over the summer. I am grateful for the opportunity that the fellowship has provided both because it allowed me to work in the field of law that I believe in, and also, because it encourages law students to provide a service to the benefit of the community. Without a source of funds from sources like the APALSA 1L public interest fellowship, it would be near impossible for many students to experience work in the public sector.
Yun Yun Huang 2006 Fellowship Winner	While I was an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia, I became passionate about various human rights issues, and was actively involved in raising awareness of human rights violations by volunteering for Amnesty International. I wanted to combine my interest in human rights with law, so I jumped at the opportunity to be a legal intern for the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE) Centre and learned a great deal about the substantive human rights law in Europe. I am grateful to APALSA and the generous donors for the Fellowship I received. Without the Fellowship to defray the costs of living in London, it would have been difficult for me to pursue my interest in human rights.
Mitoshi Fujio-White 2005 Fellowship Winner	I am a multiethnic female who grew up in Hawaii. I spent my 1L summer interning at Northwest Justice Project, which provides free civil legal services to low-income people throughout the state of Washington. I also interned at the Government Accountability Project, which promotes government and corporate accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. The Fellowship helped subsidize my expenses during the summer because neither internship provided compensation, nor was I lucky enough to be an SFF recipient. Given the large population of Asian immigrants in the Pacific Northwest, I believe my work positively impacted the Asian community in Washington.
Grace Lee 2005 Fellowship Winner	I am a joint JD/MBA pursuing a career in non-profit management/public interest law. The APALSA 1L Fellowship gave me the financial flexibility to take a summer internship in the Civil Rights division of the US Department of Justice. There, I researched and wrote memoranda on issues including post-Booker sentencing guidelines and credit for federal convictions following international convictions; petit policy; and constitutionality and evidentiary questions pertaining to continuous offenses and conspiracies related to the ex post facto clause. I was also given the opportunity to participate in training workshops regarding trial and grand jury preparation, and statutes related to hate crimes, color of law violations, forced labor, and human trafficking. It was an incredible experience that really enhanced my education and professional development.

APALSA would like to thank the generosity of the following firms for helping to sponsor the 2008 Origins Cultural Show and 1L Public Interest Fellowship! Diamond Sponsor Gold Sponsors Silver Sponsors Bronze Sponsors Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP Crowell & Moring LLP Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP Dickinson Wright PLLC DLA Piper US LLP Dorsey & Whitney LLP Dykema Gossett, PLLC Goldberg Kohn Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. Shearman & Sterling LLP