Public Interest Stipend Fund
The Legal Aid Society encourages Vanderbilt University Law School students to address the needs of the economically disadvantaged and others traditionally under-served by the American legal system. The Public Interest Stipend Fund (PISF) enables students to hold public-interest legal positions during their 1L and/or 2L summers by providing stipends for selected students working with under-served populations.
The PISF is funded by various Legal Aid Society events, most notably the annual PISF Auction. Last year, the PISF was able to distribute 18 full and partial summer stipends, allowing students to serve a wide variety of public interest and non-profit organizations.
Below are a small selection of Summer 2010 PISF recipients and their experiences.
Antoine Birch – Disability Law and Advocacy Center of Tennessee
While at the Disability Law & Advocacy Center of Tennessee (“DLAC”) during the summer of 2010, I contributed to litigation in an ADA Title III litigation claim against a physician and healthcare provider who dismissed persons with disabilities from their medical care because of the need to communicate with the assistance of a sign language interpreter. Rather than visit a healthcare provider near their home, our clients were forced to travel greater distances in order to find a medical professional committed to providing effective communication.
Effective communication is one of the equal access requirements provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et. seq., and its implementing regulations. It essentially means that persons with disabilities are given an opportunity to understand communicated ideas or concepts in the same way that persons without disabilities can. For instance, where information about health related services is printed in a publicly disseminated directory, effective communication for blind persons requires that the same information be printed in a braille-encoded directory. Persons with hearing disabilities may require assistance from a sign language interpreter in service settings where communication is critical.
In preparation for litigation, I participated in client interviews, contributed to fact gathering and analysis, researched applicable points of law, completed the first draft complaint, and worked with DLAC attorneys to finalize the complaint for filing. The complaint we filed requests individual remedies for the plaintiffs and broad relief that will impact other individuals with disabilities.
In its entirety, the experience was very enriching. I have always been passionate about disability rights, however, my experience with DLAC permitted me to translate that passion into a workable and practicable strategy for realizing party specific and systemic change. In addition, I was able to work with people who take the work seriously but also provide support and mentorship with respect to research and drafting strategies. All in all, it was an A+ experience and I am very grateful that the Public Interest Stipend contributed in making the pursuit of that
opportunity possible.
Evan Brewer - International Civilian Office/EU Special Representative
Interning in Kosovo was a spectacular opportunity, and I could not have found a better place to work than the International Civilian Office. I greatly enjoyed living in the middle of Pristina, just next to the statue of Bill Clinton on Bill Klinton Boulevard (the residual love for Americans for helming the NATO campaign in 1999 remains very strong). While no one would claim that the city is conventionally beautiful, the aesthetics of a post-Yugoslav city still recovering from active conflict make for an urban setting completely unlike anything else I have encountered in my meager travels. If the city were not covered in cafes, bakeries, and young people streaming throughout the streets, the effect could be disheartening. With the vitality and continuous flux of the Pristina landscape, the ad hoc architecture and alternation of disrepair and espresso instead invigorate. If you happen to drive in Kosovo, two points of warning: other drivers will pass on blind curves and generally whenever they please, and everyone comes to nearly a full stop before the slightest of potholes or speed bumps. It's worth the time and the work was no less terrific. The ICO has a wide-ranging mandate and an oversight function for the Kosovo government matched by no American institution. Working in an agency that important to the development of an independent and self-sustaining Kosovo was both inspiring and challenging. I found it immensely rewarding to work on projects of actual value to the mission of the International Civilian Representative, for whom the ICO is support staff and the Legal Unit of which offers counsel as to legal implications. Further, the broad mandate of the organization exposed our office to problems arising from every sector of society and required the Unit to be able to quickly respond to almost any sort of legal challenge that can arise (except, for example, in copyright, as Kosovo does not yet have a copyright law, as the "Google" boutique near my apartment demonstrated). All in all, it was great.
Tiffany Nichols - ChildReach Africa, Kampala, Uganda and Advocates for Public International Law, Uganda
I definitely feel as though I benefitted a great deal from my PISF scholarship. I never would have had the means to travel to Uganda to work with ChildReach Africa had I not received a stipend.
While I was in Uganda I had the opportunity to record the stories of women and children who have been victims of both poverty and the abuses of war. I am in the process of taking the testimonies of the people I met and Uganda and putting them onto a website to help raise funds for the woman that I worked for. My supervisor, Catherine Piwang, is a single mother of four, and has taken it completely upon herself to help the women and children with their day-to-day needs and expenses. It will be rewarding when I finally have the website up and operating so that I can help her in her pursuit to provide the communities that she is helping with sustainable income.
Kelly Donley - Irish Center for Human Rights
I interned with the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland, for the first half of my 1L Summer. The Centre is an institution affiliated with the National University of Ireland in Galway (NUIG). The professors there have legal backgrounds and teach LLM and PhD students who are studying law and human rights with individual focus areas. The professors take on undergraduate and legal interns to assist them with their own research projects. I worked mainly with Professor Kathleen Cavanaugh. I helped with the research for her Church and State in the European Union project by surveying European Constitutional and statutory law. I helped edit both "above the line" and "below the line" for her paper. I also assisted with her Minority Rights in the Middle East project by surveying middle eastern media for mentions of minority groups. Along with the other interns (about 9 were there at any given time, but people came and went throughout the summer), I was invited to attend the Centre's conferences on Minority Rights and the International Criminal Court. I would recommend that future students be vocal about the types of projects they'd like to work on. There is plenty of time to enjoy Ireland in the evenings and on weekends, and Galway is a fun city. If you clear it with your professor, you can even take long weekends to travel through the rest of Europe. I truly enjoyed my six weeks with the Centre, and it has been a great conversation-starter in interviews! -Kelly Donley, Class of 2012
Joy Anderson – Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Last summer I worked at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Family Law Unit. It was a great 10 weeks. Working with the ALAS family law unit was like working in a mini-law firm. Even though ALAS has five offices in Atlanta’s counties, I worked at the downtown office primarily with five attorneys, support staff, and one other intern. The decisions about which cases to take and assignments were all made within the unit.
The majority of time I worked on drafting petitions for divorce, child support, and custody; domestic relations financial affidavits; and general answers to interrogatories. I also sat in on client screenings and meetings. I took the lead in a couple client meetings and drafted their documents independently and gave it to an attorney to review before filing them in court.
During the summer, I also had an opportunity to represent a client in a bench trial opposing a petition for name change of a minor [Georgia Third Year Practice Act]. It was exciting and scary! But, it was a great opportunity – the case was straight forward, one issue, best interests of the child standard. (We won ).
Even though it was an unpaid opportunity, ALAS made a lot of effort to ensure its intern class had a great summer. There were about 20 of us assigned to different offices, units, or projects. We came together for group events: like a tour of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and an opportunity to meet President Carter, different CLEs, and social activities. There were also workshops we had the opportunity to attend with other public interest interns in the Atlanta area, such as securing a fellowship after graduation. Even though everyone’s unit may not have had a simple case on hand for interns to try (I got lucky!), everyone had the opportunity to participate in training and represent a client in an unemployment benefits hearing (I know several interns participated).
All in all it was a great summer, but it would not have been possible without the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society Public Interest Fund Stipend. There is just no way I could have stayed in Atlanta for a full 10 weeks without the stipend.
Raquel Stringer - International Criminal Law Bureau, The Hague, The Netherlands
As a recipient of the Public Interest Stipend, I was able to spend the second half of the summer in The Hague, serving as a Legal research assistant to Dr. Guenael Mettraux. He is Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and consultant for the Defense at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Court. I engaged in comparative research of case law from all international criminal tribunals and human rights courts, and wrote memos on cutting edge topics in international criminal and humanitarian law. Through my work, I also had the opportunity to sit in on trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
This is a great opportunity for anyone with a sincere interest in International Criminal Law, and a desire to work hard. It provides a unique way to learn about all the tribunals, as opposed to working for just one tribunal.
Mike Dreyfuss - American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee
Working at the ACLU-TN this past summer was an incredible experience. The ACLU-TN comes to Vanderbilt's 1L public interest job fair. There, I got contact information from the ACLU attorney, Tricia Herzfeld, and sent in a resume, references, and writing sample. A few weeks later I had an interview at their offices in Nashville. I made the mistake of wearing a suit to the interview, which Ms. Herzfeld made fun of me a little for doing, explaining that the office had a casual culture and dress code.
The ACLU-TN was very flexible with internship stop and end dates. I began my internship the Monday after the law journal write-on competition ended, which was really convenient. There were three legal interns at the office for the summer. We worked on a wide variety of civil liberties topics. The work concentrated mainly on legal research and writing. Generally, we were given free range to pursue and complete our assignments as we chose. Ms. Herzfeld, and the whole staff, gave us tremendous help and guidance whenever we needed it, and left us wholly to ourselves when we didn't need help. Because the Tennessee office has so many potential cases and only one lawyer, we were entrusted with responsibilities on active cases that would not be available in most other internships. Similarly, the cases relate to the immediate needs of real clients whose civil rights had been violated, and who needed an injunction or damages to protect their rights in the future.
The experience was wonderful and tremendously useful. I recommend the ACLU-TN to anyone with an interest in civil rights law and litigation.
Melissa Sifferman - Medical-Legal Partnership for Children
This past summer I had the opportunity to work for the Medical- Legal Partnership for Children (MLPC) in Nashville. The goal of the MLPC is to improve the health of children living in vulnerable situations. The MLPC has a medical partner and a legal partner—the Legal Aid Society of Davidson County and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital—and deals with the challenges of societal constraints on the health of children, works to eliminate challenges to pediatric healthcare, and helps children meet their basic needs and stay healthy. As I want to pursue a career in health law, this opportunity was perfect as it provided me with in-depth experience in health law.
Many of my days at the Partnership were spent analyzing legal claims of low-income pediatric patients and their families, working with clients to prepare briefs for appeals, and drafting briefs and letters for various claims. One case I worked on involved a family who had been denied FEMA assistance after the Nashville flood. I was able to interact with the client and discuss the impact of the flood on his family. I was also able to advocate for his children’s well-being by writing a FEMA appeal. Another case I worked on involved a child with a disability who had been denied her social security benefits. I wrote a brief stating why she still needed disability benefits, and I was ecstatic when I learned that my hard work paid off when she received her disability benefits again.
I had no idea how much I would learn by working at the MLPC, and because of the Public Interest Stipend Fund, I was able to pursue my desire to work in public interest. I was also able to pursue work in health law, and the experience affirmed my desire to pursue a career in health law.
Allison Davis – Federal Public Defender's Capital Habeas Unit
Because of the Public Interest Stipend Fund, I was able to spend six weeks with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. The office has a great location downtown right across from the federal courthouse. About half of the office does traditional federal criminal law work. This involves defending individuals charged with federal crimes who cannot afford counsel. The variety of federal crimes ranges, from drugs and gang crimes to white collar crime such as fraud and embezzlement. The federal public defender's office in Nashville is unique because it also has a Capital Habeas Unit (aka CHU) division. This half of the office works on habeas appeals from state inmates who have been sentenced to the death penalty. I was particularly interested in this division of the office because I had spent a semester working at the Tennessee Office for the Post-Conviction Defender, which is the state office that handles capital habeas appeals in the post-conviction stage. If you are interested in capital habeas work, I strongly suggest taking the "Litigating the Capital Punishment Case" that is offered in the spring.
At the federal public defender's office I completed typical summer associate work, including lots of research. However, I think working for any government agency gives you the ability to take on more important work earlier on in your career. For example, I did a substantial amount of work on a Sixth Circuit brief. One of the most rewarding things I did this summer was write a petition to the District Court to have a client's supervised release (aka parole) terminated early. Our client had completed a graduate teaching program after being released from prison and was not allowed to receive her teaching license until her supervised release ended. I wrote the brief all on my own and it was granted! Our client was issued her teaching license and is currently teaching special needs students. Another interesting thing about working at the office is that we were encouraged to walk over to the federal courthouse any time we had down time and watch trials or hearings that were taking place. I got to watch a variety of criminal and civil proceedings, including a pro se criminal trial that was interesting to say the least. I think working at the federal public defender's office was a great experience and I highly recommend it!
Rachel Weissharr – The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies
I spent 10 weeks working for The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, a nonprofit
organization that seeks to help Iraqis who worked with the U.S. military or government gain refugee or special immigrant status and resettle in the United States. Having worked with the Americans exposes an individual and his family to death threats and attacks from anti-American militias, so many of the Iraqis who worked with U.S. forces as translators, engineers, and in other capacities have had to flee Iraq or go into hiding. The List Project helps U.S.-affiliated Iraqis navigate the extremely complex refugee and immigration processes, and also helps them settle here once they arrive.
My summer experience was a little unusual, because I was working for The List Project, but I was doing so under the supervision of the assistant pro bono coordinator at Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, DC. Mayer Brown has taken on over one hundred List Project cases, and I assisted several attorneys with cases they were already working on. In this capacity, I developed case narratives from documentary evidence our clients had given us; helped prepare our clients for their admission interviews; drafted correspondence to government agencies; and prepared parts of refugee/special immigrant visa applications.
I had been involved with the Vanderbilt chapter of The List Project during my first year of law school, and I had started working on a Request for Reconsideration (like an appeal) for a client who had been denied refugee status and resettlement by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Over the summer (and frankly into the early fall), I continued working on this, interviewing the client several times and researching relevant statutes, case law, and Department of Homeland Security documents. My supervising attorney and I submitted the RFR to USCIS in early September.
I also did non-traditional legal work, mostly directly for The List Project staff. I prepared several “guides to living in the United States” for Iraqis and American volunteers. The director of The List Project testified before Congress in July, and I was lucky enough to help prepare some background information and research for him.
The List Project hopes to make itself obsolete by ensuring that all U.S.-affiliated Iraqis who wish to come to the United States are able to do so. In the meantime, it’s a wonderful organization that can use smart, committed law students. If you are interested in refugee or international law, this is a great way to get hands-on experience with it.