REAL Scholar Veenay Komaragiri ’24, REAL Scholar Roger Orellana ’24, and Shiva Sachdeva ’24 have been selected to participate in the New York City Bar Diversity Fellowship Program this summer. Komaragiri will spend his summer at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), Orellana at Viacom, and Sachdeva at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
The program, launched in 1991 as an initiative of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers, provides opportunities for first-year students at law schools in the New York area from underrepresented populations to spend their summer in some of New York’s leading law firms and corporate law departments.
Excluding this year’s cohort, Fordham Law has had 102 students participate in the New York City Bar Diversity Fellowship Program since 1992.
Fellows React to the News
Orellana said he was elated to learn that he was selected as a fellow, but was more excited to tell the news to his parents in Honduras. “The concept of working for a big company in a big city was always very foreign to my family, who came from humble beginnings,” he said. “It is very exciting to set this precedent.”
Orellana hopes to connect with and continue the pipeline for diversity with other students and legal professionals after the fellowship. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the attorneys who work as in-house counsel for Viacom and what their lifestyles are like, because I hadn’t met many lawyers before coming to law school,” he said.
After receiving encouragement from his peers in Fordham Law’s South Asian Law Students Association to apply, Sachdeva found that the fellowship program’s mission—to increase diversity in the corporate legal environment of New York—particularly resonated with him. “As someone who comes from a diverse background and values diversity and inclusion, I thought that this fellowship would be a really exciting opportunity for me to join a larger network, not only of fellows from my year, but also those from previous years,” he said. “As a 1L, I don’t know yet what kind of law within corporate law I want to practice. I’m excited to explore different practice areas, gain meaningful mentorship opportunities, and learn more about what it means to work in corporate law and at a firm through this fellowship.”
Sachdeva added, “I’m really grateful to have such a strong support system at Fordham Law, whether it’s through the Career Planning Center, the student affinity groups, or the 2Ls and 3Ls who have encouraged me to set my sights high.”
Komaragiri said he feels honored and humbled to have received the opportunity to work at TIAA. He thanked all the mentors who, he says, have served as inspirations to him and have been a “major factor in [his]success” thus far—including Asra Najam, senior speech writer at Fenway Strategies; Amol Sinha, executive director at American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey; and Fordham Law’s Realizing Excellence and Access in the Law (REAL) Scholars Program team.
“Director Kamille Dean, Dean Kimathi Gordon-Somers, and Jennifer Haastrup are brilliant and super supportive. The ability to go to them for their deep wisdom in the law and knowledge of Fordham Law, as well as how to be a good law student and balance everything, has been invaluable,” Komaragiri said.
Both Komaragiri and Orellana are first-year scholars from Fordham Law’s REAL Scholars Program. The program, launched in the summer of 2021, aims to expand opportunities for first-year law students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, including underrepresented racial, ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic, LGBTQ, and first-generation college backgrounds.
“My initial thought upon learning I was selected as a diversity fellow was that I couldn’t wait to tell the next cohort of REAL students about this process and try to help them get to the stage that I’m at now,” said Komaragiri.
Former Diversity Fellows Share Their Experiences
Ashley Qamar GABELLI ’20, LAW ’23
Komaragiri, Orellana, and Sachdeva also expressed gratitude to older Fordham Law students who took the time to share their advice and experiences as former diversity fellows. One of last year’s diversity fellows, Ashley Qamar GABELLI ’20, LAW ’23, said she felt honored to have represented Fordham while working at BNY Mellon.
“I was happy to go to a financial institution and implement not just what I had learned in my first year of law school, but also what I learned as a graduate of the Gabelli School of Business,” Qamar said, noting that the fellowship served as her first “substantial work experience.” “It not only gave me the opportunity to form friendships with other students—something that I really craved, especially after doing most of my first year online—but also to receive mentorship from practicing attorneys.”
Qamar added that learning the basics of certain business law practices from those attorneys came in handy last semester, the fall of her 2L year. “I realized that the work I did at the bank helped me tremendously in understanding the mechanics of corporate law,” she said. “Through taking that course in corporations, I was able to relate it back to what I was doing at the bank. I’d say, ‘Oh, I understand why this case came out the way it did,’ and was able to understand what the case meant in practice.”
Support Found Within Fordham Law
Prior to the end of the fall 2021 semester, the fellows had undergone a rigorous selection process that included a legal writing requirement, a personal statement, a faculty-led screening committee interview, and a second interview by a panel of attorneys and other law school representatives under the aegis of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers.
Associate Director of Career Planning & Diversity Bryna Beckler-Knoll oversaw the Fordham Law applicants’ processes and, along with Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Kamille Dean, advised the students about the fellowship and its opportunities.
Current and former fellows conveyed how appreciative they were for Beckler-Knoll’s constant support and assistance during the application process, from helping with submitting transcripts and setting up interview and start dates to conducting mock interviews and providing morale boosts.
“This is a well-deserved opportunity for Veenay, Roger, and Shiva. I am confident that they will represent Fordham Law in their respective summer placements with enthusiasm, hard work, and excellence,” said Beckler-Knoll. “Their legal careers are off to a great start.”
“We are very proud of all three of our students selected for this prestigious opportunity, and we are especially honored to have two of the three representatives from Fordham represent the REAL Scholars Program,” Dean said. “Their success is a testament to the innovative initiatives developed at Fordham Law to cultivate leaders who will thrive in the legal profession with a strong foundation in diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
