Public Interest News

Representatives of 28 government and public interest employers came to VLS to speak with students on Government and Public Interest Day on Jan. 13. The annual event’s informal format allows students to learn about the work of various government agencies and legal aid organizations and explore summer and semester internship and pro bono opportunities. Read More

Ashley Fox ’24, Adom Abatkun ’25 and Sophia Howard ’25 were selected for the first and second cohorts of a groundbreaking scholarship program created “to endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers.” The program was developed by the Legal Defense Fund and named for former Supreme Court Justice and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall and pioneering civil rights litigator and former LDF attorney Constance Baker Motley. Read More

This is the inaugural year of the AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll. Vanderbilt honorees Brooks and Parr-Carranza are among 140 students, faculty and staffers representing 58 law schools to receive this recognition. Read More

Sudeall’s scholarship focuses on constitutional law, criminal procedure and access to justice. She is currently a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law, where she is the founding faculty director of the Center for Access to Justice. Read More

The tours, sponsored by Law Students for Social Justice, included historic sites in Nashville and on the Vanderbilt campus. Read More

The event exposes incoming students to public service opportunities at VLS and in Nashville and connects them with faculty and local attorneys who work in the public interest. Read More

Procaccini was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law and taught at Yale Law. Her scholarship focuses on constitutional law, First Amendment law, federal courts and civil procedure. Read More

Hill will work with the Powell Project, offering resources and assistance to capital defense teams. Read More

Ruben will work with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy to support the development of an automated process for criminal record sealing. Read More

Wurst is working this summer at Her Justice, a New York-based legal nonprofit that connects low-income women with legal needs to pro bono representation. Read More