Goodwin, an Am Law 50 and Global 50 law firm, today announced the recipients of its 2016 1L Diversity Fellowships. The fellowships support first-year students from underrepresented categories, including students of color and LGBT students, across the United States who demonstrate an interest in spending the summer working in public interest legal positions. This year’s fellows are: Kiet Lam, UC Berkeley School of Law; Daniel Mello, Boston University School of Law; Viona Miller, New York University School of Law; Nadia Ramos, Georgetown University Law Center; Shane Seppinni, Stanford Law School; and Kevin Smith, Boston University School of Law.
Lam will be working as a judicial extern for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mello will be working as an intern for the City of Boston Department of Labor Relations. Miller will spend the summer as a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Ramos will be an intern with Mintz Levin and the Boston Attorney General’s Office through the BLG clerkship program. Smith will be an intern with Todd & Weld and the City of Boston Law Department also through the BLG clerkship program, and Seppinni will spend his summer as an intern for the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center.
Smith is also the recipient of the MassMutual/Goodwin 1L Diversity Fellowship award, which Goodwin supports in collaboration with client Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. 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.
“We are delighted to welcome our 2016 Fellows to Goodwin, and we look forward to the contributions each of these exceptional students will be making to the broader legal community,” said David Hashmall, Chairman of Goodwin.
Goodwin 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.
About Goodwin
At Goodwin, we use law to achieve unprecedented results for our clients. Our 900 plus lawyers across the United States, Europe, and Asia excel at complex transactions, high-stakes litigations and world-class advisory services in the financial, life sciences, private equity, real estate, and technology industries. We partner with our clients to practice law with integrity, ingenuity, agility and ambition. To learn more, visit us at www.goodwinlaw.com and follow us on Twitter at @goodwinlaw and on LinkedIn.
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 policy owners. The MassMutual/Goodwin 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 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.