Goodwin Procter, a national Am Law 50 firm, today announced the recipients of its 2015 Public Interest Fellowships for Law Students of Color. The fellowships support first-year students from law schools across the country who spend the summer working in community service legal positions. This year’s fellows are: Sonam Bhagat, Boston University School of Law; Rachel Clark, The George Washington University Law School; Cindy Guan, Harvard Law School; and Amari Lynn Hammonds, Stanford Law School.
Bhagat will be working as a summer intern with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Clark will be working as an intern for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in Arlington, Va. Guan will spend the summer as a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division in Washington, D.C. Hammonds will be an intern with the New York City Law Department in its summer honors program.
Bhagat is also the recipient of the MassMutual/Goodwin Procter Public Interest Fellowship award, which Goodwin supports in collaboration with client MassMutual Life Insurance Co. This joint fellowship awards $7,500 to a first-year law student to help cover expenses while he or she works in a public interest law position during the summer.
In these positions, the students will gain trial preparation and litigation experience, handling issues such as the drafting of motions and discovery responses as well as attending depositions, trials, settlement conferences and other court experiences.
“It’s extremely gratifying to see this group of students demonstrate such a significant commitment to public service so early in their legal careers,” said David Hashmall, chairman of Goodwin Procter. “These fellowships give them genuine exposure to the practice of law while giving Goodwin an opportunity to give back to the communities where we live and work.”
Goodwin Procter created the fellowship program in 2005 to encourage diversity in the legal profession by covering students’ expenses while they work in a public interest law position during the summer following their first year of law school. Students are selected based on academic achievement, leadership, commitment to community service and interest in the private practice of law.
Goodwin Procter LLP is a leading Am Law 50 and Global 50 law firm, with offices across the United States and in Europe and Asia. Excelling at complex transactional work and high-stakes litigation, the firm combines in-depth legal knowledge with practical business experience to help clients maximize opportunities and manage risk. With more than 850 lawyers, Goodwin offers innovative counsel and delivers results through a client-centric and collaborative approach. The firm focuses on matters involving financial institutions, intellectual property, private equity, real estate capital markets, securities litigation/white collar defense, and technology/life sciences. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com. Follow us on Twitter @goodwinprocter.
About MassMutual’s Law Programs
Founded in 1851, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyowners. The MassMutual/Goodwin Procter Public Interest Fellowship award is part of a broader effort by MassMutual to provide wide exposure to the practice of law to a diverse array of students as they pursue their law degrees. Included is the company’s 1L Diversity Clerkship Program which offers a dynamic paid summer Clerkship Program that provides talented, diverse, first-year law students from top national law schools with an exceptional opportunity to gain experience and exposure to the in-house practice of law across a broad range of practice areas. To learn more about MassMutual’s first year clerkship program visit www.massmutual.com.