2024-2025 Fellows
Giulia Garofalo, LLM '25, is an LLM student at NYU School of Law, focusing on civil liberties, human rights, and criminal justice reform. She holds a law degree from the University of Milan, a PhD in Public Law, Criminal and International Justice from the University of Pavia, where she graduated with highest honors, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Milan. She received the Dean’s Graduate Award, a merit-based scholarship from NYU School of Law.
Before joining NYU, Giulia practiced as a criminal defense lawyer in Milan, specializing in white-collar crime, corporate liability, and systemic misconduct. She litigated in high-profile criminal trials, including the Genoa Bridge collapse case—one of the most complex and significant cases in recent Italian legal history. Through her work at a defense firm affiliated with Innocence Project Italy, she deepened her engagement with wrongful conviction cases and structural miscarriages of justice. Alongside litigation, she served as a legal consultant on legislative reform proposals, advocating for the protection of constitutional principles against overcriminalization and punitive expansion.
At NYU, Giulia has engaged in a wide range of advocacy initiatives. She supported research on the underfunding of indigent defense with the Transformative Justice Project at the Bernstein Institute and contributed to early-stage research on pretrial detention with Justine Olderman, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Center on Race, Inequality and the Law. Through the Ending the Prison Industrial Complex initiative, she joined Court Watch NYC as a pro bono court watcher and contributed to the Criminal Law 101 Project, a legal education resource for incarcerated individuals in New York. She also served as a fellow and blog editor with the Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, and collaborates as a volunteer consultant for YouThemis, an AI-driven access-to-justice initiative that helps laypeople navigate legal systems.
As a Public Interest Fellow, Giulia will join the Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), a leading organization in New York with over four decades of experience in advancing transformative justice. She will support legislative advocacy to promote judicial accountability and advance structural reforms aimed at ending mass incarceration and criminalization by empowering justice-impacted communities.
Luke Elborough LLM '25 completed a Master of Laws in International Legal Studies at NYU School of Law as a Fulbright Scholar and Dean's Graduate Awardee and also holds a Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Luke began his legal career with a judicial clerkship at the High Court of New Zealand before working as a trial and appellate litigator for a number of years, first as a public defender and then as a junior barrister, where he gained recognition for his particular expertise in appellate litigation. His primary areas of practice are criminal law and human rights, and his other work interests and academic writings include public law and judicial review, counter-terrorism and emergency powers, and environmental litigation.
At NYU Luke's studies have involved strategic litigation, decision-making on appellate courts, wrongful convictions, human rights and international law, including international criminal law and humanitarian law. While at NYU Luke supported the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers in preparing thematic reports on contemporary international legal issues and individual claims of human rights violations such as arbitrary detention and unfair trials. He was also a research assistant for the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, working on climate change and human rights issues in domestic and international law.
As an LLM Public Interest Fellow Luke will join the Policing Project to work on achieving police accountability and public safety that is rights-consistent, focusing on strategic civil litigation and regulation of surveillance technologies and artificial intelligence.
Olivia Collin LLM '25 holds a Master of Laws in International Legal Studies from NYU School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Cambridge.
Prior to NYU, Olivia was an Associate in the International Dispute Resolution Group and Commercial Litigation practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in London. Her practice focused on international arbitration, multijurisdictional litigation, and public international law, and she maintained an active pro bono practice.
At NYU, Olivia was awarded the Dean’s Graduate Award and supported the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers through NYU’s Legal Empowerment and Judicial Independence Clinic. She also served as an LL.M. Graduate Editor for the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics. As a Human Rights Scholar with the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, she worked with the Racial Justice Initiative, contributing to advocacy on slavery and the slave trade, and with the Prevention Project, which focuses on strengthening global practices to prevent mass human rights violations. Post-graduation, she continued her work with the Prevention Project as a Junior Research Scholar.
As a Public Interest Fellow, Olivia will work with Physicians for Human Rights, supporting legal and policy research on international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law. Her work will contribute to PHR’s advocacy and investigative efforts on conflict-related sexual violence, torture, and other grave violations, including through reports, legal briefs, and advocacy submissions to UN bodies.
Snehal Dhote holds an LLM in International Legal Studies from NYU School of Law and a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai. Prior to NYU, she worked at Project 39A, a criminal justice research and litigation center at National Law University, Delhi (now called The Square Circle Clinic at NALSAR, Hyderabad). There, she engaged in empirical research related to the death penalty in India, analyzed sentencing orders and legal developments on harsher punishments, and delved into debates around judicial discretion and sentencing guidelines. During COVID, she was a remote volunteer with a Netherlands-based think tank, Foundation The London Story, for a project on online hate speech.
Snehal came to NYU as a Dean’s Merit Awardee and with additional support from the Tata Trusts, India and the Maharashtra State Government. She was a Student Advocate and then a Research Assistant with NYU’s Global Justice Clinic on the Indigenous People's Land Rights in Guyana Project. She contributed to research and advocacy, particularly through the UN Special Rapporteur system, on the recognition of community-based monitoring in Guyana (documentation of environmental harms and rights violations by Indigenous peoples on their lands caused by extractive activities) as an indigenous justice system for its strategic use in land title extension claims. She also worked with the partner organization's women's group and drafted facilitation guides for the adoption of their gender and sexual harassment policies, as well as for women's livelihood and leadership training workshops. Additionally, Snehal was a Transitional Justice Scholar and a Human Rights Scholar with the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice's Prevention Project Team. She was also a staff editor with the NYU Review of Law and Social Change and served as an LLM representative on the NYU Women of Color Collective Board. Having briefly managed Project 39A's social media and external communication projects, Snehal took a filmmaking class at NYU Tisch School of the Arts to further explore storytelling for human rights advocacy.
As an LLM Public Interest Fellow, Snehal will work with Landesa, a Seattle-based nonprofit that promotes land security for women and marginalized communities globally. She will primarily work in Landesa's Center for Women’s Land Rights team.