The 2L and 3L Stein Scholars interned at a wide variety of organizations this summer, both here and abroad, where they tackled many types of injustice and served many vulnerable constituencies, all while gaining important lawyering skills. Find out where they worked, what they did, and why.
Hannah Jane Ahern
This summer I interned at Refugee Solidarity Network, a nonprofit started by Fordham Law graduate and fellow Stein Scholar Zaid Hydari ’09. My work focused on issues related to Central American refugees and asylum seekers in Mexico and unaccompanied minors in refugee situations. In addition to working at RSN, I spent three weeks in June participating in an intensive field school on transitional justice in Peru. The field school was run by the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, a nonprofit organization that conducts forensic interventions and promotes social justice in cases of enforced disappearances and other human rights violations. It took place in Ayacucho, the region most deeply affected by Peru’s internal conflict from 1980-2000.
John Bambrick
This summer I was an intern in the Special Education Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group. A longstanding interest in disabilities rights issues and advocacy led me to this internship. The bulk of the Special Education Unit’s work is providing free or low-cost legal services to low-income New York area parents who believe that their children are not receiving the education that they are entitled to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Throughout the summer I assisted with new client intake, writing and editing litigation-related documents, and researching and writing about legal questions related to present and future NYLAG special education cases. One surprising aspect of the work was the frequency with which we would work with parents who had spent a great deal of time unaware of their legal right to demand an appropriate education for their child. The take-away for me was the importance of outreach.
DeAnna Baumle
This summer I worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. NIRH is a nonprofit organization that aims to increase access to reproductive health care through policy advocacy and public campaigns; the institute works with many state and local partner organizations throughout the country. As a member of the policy department, I spent most of my time doing research and analysis on various policy and legislative issues related to reproductive rights and health care. Specifically, one of my major projects included analyzing, summarizing, and researching background information on proactive legislation in all 50 states for NIRH’s annual year-in-review report. Another major project included researching and writing a memo on state attorney general enforcement authority to help inform a best practices guide for writing effective enforcement mechanisms into civil legislation. Overall I had a great experience and learned a lot about legislative policy work.
Seth Gallagher
My summer externship at the Southern District of New York’s Office of Pro Se Litigation has been one of the most valuable experiences of my time in law school, and even more broadly, of my professional life. The office screens all complaints filed by pro se litigants in federal court in the Southern District of New York. Interns, working closely with each of the eight staff attorneys, draft and submit screening memos and judicial orders—including orders to dismiss, to amend, and to direct service—to district court judges.
Although the process of writing and researching—with invaluable guidance by the staff attorneys—allowed me to greatly improve those skills and learn substantive law, it was probably the field trips arranged by the office that had the most profound, compelling, and what I am sure will be long-lasting impact on me. These included tours of the federal Metropolitan Detention Center and the New York City Manhattan Detention Complex, both of which brought me into areas of those facilities that most attorneys will never see. From my short tour through those facilities, I was able to get an indication of how time spent there could add to, rather than solve, the problems of criminal justice. There is undoubtedly a need to detain certain individuals in order to maintain a peaceful, law-abiding society and achieve justice. But the chaotic and violent environment of the city jail impressed on me the need to find a way to keep people out of the jail/prison system—if it is at all possible—in order to further those same goals of peace and justice.
Ridhima Goya
I interned at the American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project. I mostly researched narrow legal issues and reported my findings to staff attorneys via legal memos. The work not only gave me the opportunity to improve my legal research and writing skills but also allowed me to achieve this while working on issues that I care about deeply. I also had the opportunity to attend interesting talks and meetings and to help out on smaller projects. Overall, I had an excellent summer. The attorneys at the ACLU are very generous with their time and care greatly about the future of the legal profession. Seeing impact litigation practiced firsthand was fascinating.
Thomas Griffith
I interned this summer for the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, working in the criminal defense division. I performed a variety of tasks, from writing motions to investigating incidents, trailing attorneys, and observing trials. Perhaps my favorite experience was speaking with a client and trying to convince him, against his (and our) initial instincts, to plead guilty. It was an illuminating experience, as we had to balance many different considerations, particularly that he was being charged with misdemeanor larceny based upon a favorable write-up of the complaint. However, we understood that the complaint could, at any time, be written up as a felony robbery, simply by changing the manner in which the facts were presented, which brought a simmering urgency to our discussions. Such a result could have potentially escalated the sentence, meaning the difference between ninety days and five to seven years. Discovering mid-interview that the client had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia only heightened our anxiety. Fortunately we were able to secure a positive outcome, after sharing examples of similar situations that had turned out badly. I learned important lessons of hyper-vigilance and persuasion through compassion that I hope to carry forward in my career.
Jake Hays
Although I was a summer associate at Goodwin, I was afforded the opportunity to work on a couple pro bono matters at the firm in both litigation and corporate. On the corporate side, I helped a client form an S-Corp for her small business that provides daycare services in the Bronx. For the pro bono case I worked on this summer, we represented the American Bird Conservancy in an attempt to protect the piping plover, an endangered shorebird, from feral cat communities at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. Apart from the legal research and memo writing on the Endangered Species Act, I was given the opportunity to attend an initial conference with the judge at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Divisional office in Central Islip on Long Island. This case is in the early stages of litigation, but the controversy has already been widely covered in the media
Lorena Jiron
This summer I worked at the civil rights practice group at Newman Ferrara. Although I still aspire to be a public interest lawyer, I discovered a love of litigation in law school that I wanted to be able to explore. Civil rights litigation seems like the perfect fit of litigation coupled with work that is in the interest of the public. I focused on a case of police brutality that is unique, where officers killed the person they were called on the scene to help. It’s the kind of case that is heartbreaking yet shows how much of an impact lawyers can have in bringing some justice to a system that appears broken. The case feels particularly relevant in light of the recent killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. I hope to be able to continue doing this kind of work after I graduate.
Frank Kearl
I spent my summer working with the legal team at Demos, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on democratic justice, economic justice, and racial equity. The legal team was actively engaged in several lawsuits challenging states for failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. I spent most of my time working on the highly publicized case against Jon Husted, Ohio’s secretary of state, who has been illegally purging tens of thousands of registered voters merely for their failure to vote. In addition to researching and writing memos, and helping draft sections of the briefs for both the district court and the Sixth Circuit, I actively participated in preparations for the Sixth Circuit oral argument and drafted press releases about the case. Beyond the active litigation I also worked to help build future cases to challenge the current glut of money in politics, sat in on a remedies meeting for the Floyd v. City of New York case, and worked with the legal team to map out their next year of legal work. It was an amazing experience!
Benjamin Klein
This summer I worked for the Honorable Judge Claire C. Cecchi in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey. Throughout the summer I got to research and write legal memoranda and also observe conferences, motions hearings, and settlement conferences. The best part about the internship was the opportunity to eat lunch everyday with the judge and clerks. Sitting around the conference room table in chambers, we chatted about different legal proceedings in the courthouse. The judge often solicited my opinion about various legal issues and encouraged me to ask questions about what I witnessed in court.
I worked on a variety of legal memoranda including a claimant’s appeal of a final determination by the Social Security Administration, a motion to dismiss, and a pre-trial motion in a criminal proceeding. Working on the pre-trial motion was particularly interesting, and the level of independence given to me by the judge and clerks surprised me. A defendant requested a pre-trial hearing during which the government would be required to demonstrate proof of a drug conspiracy before alleged hearsay statements would be admissible in court. I concluded that a pre-trial hearing was not necessary to establish independent proof of the conspiracy, and that the evidence was admissible subject to a later showing by the government that they had independent evidence a conspiracy existed. After researching and writing a first draft, I worked with a clerk to edit the opinion before submitting it to the judge for her review.
Meredith McBride
I spent 10 weeks this summer interning at the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Before traveling there, I didn’t think it was my role to ‘take sides.’ I was simply eager to spend the summer abroad to learn more about human rights and humanitarian law. But the benefit of living abroad was that I got to experience what daily life is like for Palestinians: military checkpoints, airport interrogations, and a wall with sniper towers preventing me from jogging too far on my morning runs. These burdens on my daily life outside of work gave me a unique viewpoint that I simply could not have gotten working at a desk job at home. Listening to the stories of women about their lives under occupation was invaluable and reminded me that the law doesn’t end when we go home from work, but the work that we do shapes the society we go home to each night.
Sean Murray
I spent this summer at White & Case. I had a very fun summer working on some very interesting cases. In particular, I really enjoyed researching case law for a brief in an asylum case. For one, I had never had an experience with immigration matters so I found the subject matter fascinating on that end. In addition, the asylum seeker herself is an Iranian Baha’i woman who is an academic. Learning her narrative and Iranian history while constructing arguments for why she qualifies for asylum was incredibly intriguing. The work this summer was definitely fruitful in developing my advocacy, writing, and research skills, as well as helping to contextualize legal arguments in a more realistic sense.
Denis Nolasco
I interned at the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels, Belgium. As part of my internship, I conducted research on forced labor conditions in the Middle East. During my internship, I learned about the Trafficking Victim Protection Act and how workers can use this statute to bring claims against multinationals for labor violations committed abroad. However, the take-away from my internship is that workers have limited access to justice against labor law violations. I will also be working for the United States Department of Labor and hope to learn how the free trade agreements are used to advocate for workers rights internationally.
Isedua Oribhabor
I interned at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, an organization devoted to genocide prevention work. My main project for the summer was to conduct research on situations in South Asia and Southeast Asia which could potentially lead to genocide or mass atrocities. I also worked with the special adviser of the UN’s counterpart office on the issue of youth radicalization. It was an unorthodox position because our clients were not individuals but other organizations and government officials, but it was a great way to get introduced to international human rights law and to learn how to apply legal analysis to macro-level issues.
Daron Ravenborg
Working with the EPA was a rewarding experience that gave me insight into both environmental law and administrative law. I worked in the waste and toxic substances branch and dealt with a range of cases including hazardous waste disposal, emergency contamination cleanup, lead-based paint inspections, underground storage tank compliance, and mercury toxic standards in the context of air pollution. As part of the intern program, we also toured different environmental-related facilities including the Sunset Park recycling plant, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site, and the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. My greatest take-away from this internship was the experience I gained with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Federal Register. The CFR is the “nuts and bolts” of the EPA’s work; it codifies all the scientific standards that are the basis for our cases. The Federal Register is another tool that the EPA utilizes and affects case priority, penalties, discretionary measures, and more. Familiarity with these two sources is a key lesson for all administrative lawyers, and I was grateful I could begin learning how to navigate them before graduating law school.
Bronwyn Roantree
I spent the summer at the ACLU’s Program on the Freedom of Religion and Belief. The office is small, so the interns were involved in all aspects of the program’s work. I had the chance to work on a number of cases, including the Kim Davis matter and a case recently granted cert by the Supreme Court on state aid to religious institutions. The range and number of cases the program was involved with at any given moment underscored the centrality of both strategy and creativity, and it was fascinating to watch the litigation process unfold step by step.
Herbie Rosen
I worked as a summer associate at Shipman & Goodwin LLP. Alternating between the New York Park Avenue office, and the Stamford, Connecticut office, I worked with a variety of practice groups including: commercial litigation, real estate, securities law, corporate/finance, school law, and arbitration. I shadowed attorneys in court, worked on depositions, met with clients, closed a real estate deal, completed research projects, wrote a variety of legal memorandums, and helped my firm understand new education policies (as a result of the Every Student Succeeds Act passed last December). I really enjoyed tackling different legal issues that I hadn’t been exposed to during law school. I came to Shipman & Goodwin because it seemed like a law firm that was dedicated to its community (Stamford, Connecticut), and because the firm has a unique school law practice. I was a teacher before I came to Fordham, and this previous experience helped me dive into and contribute to Shipman’s school law practice. I am appreciative of this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing where this experience will take me.
Elizabeth Snyder
This past summer I worked at Catholic Charities Community Services in their Center for Immigrant and Refugee Services. While there, I worked with undocumented minors from the northern triangle helping them obtain immigration relief. My work this summer reinforced the importance of highlighting a client’s humanity in interviews, asylum and SIJS declarations, and in court. Giving clients a voice and helping asylum officers or judges to connect with our clients’ humanity was deeply gratifying.
Jannon Stein
This summer I was working at Lawyers Alliance for New York (LANY), a nonprofit legal services organization that does transactional work for other nonprofits that serve low-income residents of New York City. I assisted with initial screening meetings to assess client needs, wrote memos, and engaged in legal research to address client concerns. I was able to communicate the results of my research directly in emails or calls, or indirectly, via preparing the staff attorneys. I also had the opportunity to research nonprofit law and employment law more generally, assisting staff attorneys with general education materials such as legal alerts, presentation materials, and webinar materials. I was able to observe more in-depth legal matters, especially some real estate transactions. I also participated in case management, following up on roughly 200 active pro bono cases that LANY co-counseled on. The goal of this process was to determine where each case stood, to uncover potential problems in the cases and relationships, to prod each side to continue to progress towards completing the legal work, and to collect important legal documents that might have been produced as part of the work (such as adopted bylaws, signed leases, certificates of incorporation, IRS determination letters, etc.) in order to better assist clients in the future. This work gave me broad insights into the wide variety of transactional legal issues that nonprofit organizations face in New York; it also increased my experience and confidence in engaging with clients as well as with attorneys in a professional capacity. It was quite satisfying to be able to fix problems with working relationships. The experience made it clear to me that quality assurance needs to be a key priority for any firm or legal services organization.
Rebecca Susko
My summer internship in the waste and chemical enforcement division at the US EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance was spent working in the effective, yet often overlooked, pesticide enforcement program that operates pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). FIFRA established a comprehensive registration system for all pesticides and pesticide producers. Accordingly, EPA’s pesticide enforcement program is tasked with pursuing manufacturers and applicators who fail to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements such as proper pesticide labelling, reporting of human or environmental exposure, and adequately protecting and training agricultural workers. My work primarily consisted of research projects that were used as part of the case development and settlement negotiation process. Specifically, my work included analyzing administrative case law to determine if EPA could legally pursue penalties under the agricultural worker protection standards on a per worker basis, interpreting and applying the meaning of “production” and “repackage” to a novel factual situation, determining the reporting requirements of a pesticide registrant who subsequently transfers the registration to a third party, and determining the judicial appeal process after cancellation of a conditional pesticide.
Sarah Swaine
I spent my summer at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, which operates as the primary juvenile public defender’s office in Orleans Parish, and a center for policy reform. Recently, LCCR helped pass the Raise the Age law, which keeps youth up to seventeen years old in the juvenile system. Currently, the office is working on a campaign to end extreme sentences for youth. Throughout the summer I had the opportunity to visit every secure facility in Louisiana. Speaking to detained youth taught me a lot about Louisiana’s rehabilitation practices. The use of isolation in secure care was more prevalent than I had anticipated. This realization led me to a summer-long research project on juvenile solitary confinement.
Kathy Walter
This summer I worked for Lawyers for Children. It started as a way to get some direct services experience and became so much more. The organization spends a lot of time bringing together a large group of legal interns who currently attend law school and the social work interns who currently attend undergraduate colleges. You have the usual intern pizza lunches but also an extensive amount of training on all their programs and legal skills, such as direct and cross examination techniques. I was able to go on the record for several permanency hearings, help research interesting legal issues, and write legal documents for cases, including an appeal! Our clients are kids involved in custody, neglect, foster care, and so many other painful family law issues. But one smile from any of them can change an entire week!
Among many things I learned and will never forget: “There is never a dull day in family court.” One day, you are helping a foster kid formally live with a long-lost sister; another day you watch two people who used to love each other duke it out in a drawn-out trial and another you are helping to reunite a family falsely accused of neglect. I honestly think that every person wanting to be a lawyer should spend at least a semester working on cases in family court. You have the opportunity to see the best and the worst of our humanity and watch some of the best attorneys with the biggest hearts attempt to bring closure to issues with families. We can all learn from them.
