Goodwin Procter, a national Am Law 50 firm, today announced the recipients of its 2014 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: Della Fok, Harvard Law School; Brian Jones, Cornell Law School; Nikki Leon, Stanford Law School; and Marsha Louis, Vanderbilt University Law School.
Fok will be working as a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. Jones will be working in the Office of Pro Se with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Leon will be working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
Louis is 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. Louis will be working in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Worcester, Mass.
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.
“I’m delighted to see these students make such a strong commitment to public service as they set forth on their promising legal careers,” said Regina M. Pisa, chairman of Goodwin Procter. “These fellowships provide an opportunity for them to gain real-world experience while allowing Goodwin 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.
About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is a leading Global 100 law firm, with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The firm provides corporate law and litigation services, with a focus on matters involving real estate, REITs and real estate capital markets; private equity; technology companies; financial institutions; intellectual property; products liability and mass torts; and securities litigation and white collar defense. 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 policyholders. The MassMutual/Goodwin Fellowship award is part of a broader effort by MassMutual to provide wide exposure 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 across a broad range of practice areas. To learn more about MassMutual’s first year legal program visit www.massmutual.com.