Congratulations to second-year students Jonah C. Griego, Kathleen M. “Kit” McGean and Copelenn C. McMahon who were selected for 2022 Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowships. The fellowship program provides grants to enable law students at participating law schools to work in unpaid public interest summer law positions. Griego is working for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Washington, D.C.; McGean is working at the Western District of Texas Office of the Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit located in Austin; and McMahon is working at the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law in Washington, D.C.
Three law students served as Georgia Sea Grant Legal Fellows during the spring 2022 semester addressing legal and policy questions from Georgia coastal communities, regional organizations, state agencies and others relating to environmental, economic and social concerns affecting coastal Georgia. Recent graduates Sydney Brogden and Robert L. “Rob” Hillyer assisted with research and panel moderation regarding a regional salt marsh restoration initiative, while rising third-year student Scott A. Luis is continuing his work this summer with military adjacent communities and resilience.
The Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic recently received a $72,000 Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children grant from the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to strengthen the state's response against the sexual exploitation of youth. This is the second year in a row that the Wilbanks CEASE Clinic has been awarded funding from the council.
Since its establishment in 2014, the Community Health Law Partnership Clinic has aided more than 200 individuals. The initiative, directed by Associate Dean Jason A. Cade and serviced by law students, takes an interdisciplinary approach to immigrants’ rights through individual client representation, litigation and project-based advocacy before administrative agencies and federal courts.
The Veterans Legal Clinic, which was established in 2018, has helped approximately 430 veterans and their family members claim more than $1.5 million in additional benefits since opening its doors. The clinic – which primarily assists former Georgia military members with claims before the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – was established with a lead gift from renowned trial attorney and 1977 law school alumnus James E. "Jim" Butler Jr.