Alexa Rosenbloom '10 and Peter Barker-Huelster '12 selected as 2012 Skadden Fellows

Alexa Rosenbloom '10 and Peter Barker-Huelster '12 are both recipients of 2012 Skadden Fellowships. Established in 1988 by the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the prestigious two-year fellowships support graduating law students and judicial clerks who wish to pursue public interest work, providing a salary, fringe benefits and tuition-debt assistance to awardees as they pursue personally conceived projects at their chosen public interest organizations.

Rosenbloom (right) will be working at Greater Boston Legal Services, where she will provide direct legal representation and advocate on behalf of disabled individuals denied accessible care and reasonable accommodations by medical providers, neighborhood clinics and HMOs.  She will also be collaborating with disability rights organizations in Massachusetts and elsewhere to devise best practices.

Barker-Huelster (left) will be joining MFY Legal Services in New York, where he will establish the Low-Income Bankruptcy Project to help New York's working poor obtain debt relief and rebuild their financial lives. Barker-Huelster will also be helping with Chapter 7 filings and advising debtors seeking Chapter 13 protection in order to save their homes from foreclosures.

“I’m thrilled that Peter and Alexa were awarded Skadden Fellowships and that they will have the opportunity to serve low-income clients in the crucial issues of bankruptcy and disability," said Deborah Ellis '82, assistant dean for public service. "With the severe decline in legal services funding of the past few years, the Skadden Fellowships are more important than ever in their dual role of  providing much-needed legal assistance and in launching public interest careers."

This year's 28 Skadden Fellows hail from 16 law schools, of which only seven had multiple fellowship awardees. In the past few years, graduates of NYU Law have also received Skadden Fellowships to work at organizations including the Legal Aid Society, Advocates for Children of New York, The Door, and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Posted December 13, 2011