Albany ▲Rochester ▲White Plains ▲ Long Island
Applications Being Accepted for Hanna S. Cohn Equal Justice Fellowship
Fellow Will Focus On High Priority Legal Concerns of Low-Income People
The Hanna S. Cohn Equal Justice Fellowship will be awarded to a talented, committed law school graduate at the beginning of her or his career in the area of poverty law. All applicants must be in their third year of law school. The Fellow will be placed at the Empire Justice Center in Rochester, NY and will represent low-income clients in complex areas of litigation and other types of advocacy. The fellow’s background and interests will be matched with high priority legal concerns of the poor which are not currently being addressed or that require additional resources. The duration of the Hanna S. Cohn Equal Justice Fellowship is two years; starting salary is $40,000. In addition, Empire Justice Center offers a generous benefits package, including a student loan repayment program.
The goal of the Fellowship is to increase legal advocacy for Greater Rochester’s poor people in high priority areas that are currently underserved. In addition, the Fellowship is designed to attract dynamic and talented, new lawyers to the practice of poverty law.
The Fellowship is being funded in Hanna’s memory by her family, as well as through private contributions and donations to a Memorial Fund.
The application deadline is October 15, 2008. The Fellow will be notified in January, 2009 and will begin work in September, 2009.
Former Fellows and Their Projects
Spencer Phillips
, a graduate of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, was selected as the first Hanna S. Cohn Equal Justice Fellow and concentrated his advocacy efforts on the deaf and hard-of- hearing population. His project included outreach, community education and direct legal assistance in the areas of employment, housing, disability rights, education and civil rights.During his fellowship, Phillips built an impressive practice and, working closely with the Monroe County Bar Association, helped to establish the "DEAFund", a unique nationally recognized program that connects private attorneys to high-quality sign language interpreters at discount prices. Attorneys are also reimbursed for a portion of the expenses they incur in hiring sign language interpreters for their deaf clients.
Michael Mulé, a graduate of Albany Law School of Union University, focused his fellowship on the legal needs of Spanish speaking populations. He met with numerous community groups and organizations regarding language access issues, specifically related to Spanish speakers. He became a member of the Latino Alliance, participating in the Alliance’s Health Sector, assisting in the development of a Latino Health Directory.
Michael developed a section of the Empire Justice website dedicated to his fellowship project, which provides legal assistance and resources to low-income Hispanic and Latino individuals in Monroe County. The section is dedicated to assisting those individuals whose native language is Spanish or who come from a Spanish-speaking household or that are otherwise Limited English Proficient (LEP). Upon completing his fellowship, Michael joined Empire Justice as a staff attorney where he continues to work on language access cases.