Justice Catalyst and Immigrant Justice Corps have chosen eight recent NYU Law graduates as 2020 fellows. Five graduates, Kimberly Fayette ’20, Nahuel Fefer ’20, Elizabeth Lewis ’20, Christopher Owens ’20, and Priya Sreenivasan ’20, will receive fellowships through Justice Catalyst, a nonprofit aimed at supporting innovative legal work in the defense of marginalized communities. Jonathan Greenspan ’20, Allison Mandeville ‘20, and Joanna Rothchild ’20 have been selected as Justice Fellows through the Immigrant Justice Corps, where they will work to support immigrant populations.
Justice Catalyst fellowships provide one year of funding and support to recent graduates working on self-designed public interest projects through partnerships with nonprofit organizations around the world.
The Immigrant Justice Corps awards two-year fellowships, which include full salary and benefits, to recent law school graduates, matching them with host organizations involved in immigration rights and community advocacy.
“These fellowship awards are a reflection of our students’ hard work and dedication to using their legal education to improve our society,” says Assistant Dean for Public Service Lisa Hoyes ’99. “We couldn’t be more proud of them. We are also incredibly grateful to the Immigrant Justice Corps and Justice Catalyst for supporting this important work.”
Justice Catalyst Fellows
Kimberly Fayette, a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar, will work through the New York City Commission on Human Rights (NYCCHR) to address race discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture. Fayette will work to enforce the City Human Rights Law, which recognizes hair discrimination as a form of racial discrimination. She will also aid NYCCHR in addressing racial discrimination in access to justice issues caused by COVID-19.
Nahuel Fefer will work with the City Defenders in St. Louis, Missouri, on racial justice issues.
Elizabeth Lewis, a Hays Fellow and former co-chair of OUTLaw at NYU Law, will work through the Community Activism Law Alliance and Beyond Legal Aid, in Chicago, Illinois, to help LGBTQI+ immigrants and their families safely access legal services and community programming.
Christopher Owens will partner with Al Otro Lado's Border Rights Project in Tijuana, Mexico, where he will work to preserve the asylum system and defend the rights of asylum seekers through strategic litigation and individual representation. At the Law School, Owens was a senior articles editor for the Journal of International Law and Politics.
Priya Sreenivasan, a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and former staff editor for the NYU Review of Law and Social Change, will work through Project South in Atlanta, Georgia, to challenge immigrant incarceration, focusing particularly on the use of private prisons to imprison people for immigration violations before they are transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Immigrant Justice Corps Justice Fellows
Allison Mandeville, a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar, will work with the Bronx Defenders to provide representation for detained and non-detained clients in immigration proceedings. At NYU Law, Mandeville was a student advocate in the Immigrant Rights Clinic and held internships with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Safe Passage Project, and Brooklyn Defender Services.
Jonathan Greenspan will work with Brooklyn Defender Services, assisting clients on issues such as removal defense; U and T visas, which are granted for cooperation with law enforcement; and obtaining asylum. Before law school, Greenspan worked through a local legal services nonprofit in Ecuador to provide support for refugees from Colombia. He later served as a resettlement expert with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Uganda.
Joanna Rothchild will partner with Brooklyn Defender Services, working on its youth and communities team. Previously, Rothchild interned at American Friends Service Committee’s universal immigrant representation program, The Legal Aid Society’s immigration unit, and the Immigrant Defense Project.
Posted August 11, 2020