Three Chicago-Kent students named 2018 Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Summer Fellows
Chicago-Kent students Joanna Martin '19, Carl Sessions '19 and Rebecca Spira '19 have been awarded 2018 Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Summer Fellowships. The students have received $7,000 each to support their public interest work this summer.
"The fellowship seeks to promote the public interest and social justice values that have characterized Justice Stevens' work throughout his long career," said Chicago-Kent Professor Nancy S. Marder, who clerked for the justice from 1990 to 1992.
Professor Marder explained that when Justice Stevens retired from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, his law clerks decided to expand the number of schools offering Stevens Fellowships. Chicago-Kent was one of the first schools to participate in that expansion. When Justice Stevens gave a lecture at Chicago-Kent in 2012, he was able to meet the Stevens Fellows and to hear about their work. Since 2011, 17 Chicago-Kent students have been selected as Stevens Fellows.
Stevens Fellowships are open to first- and second-year Chicago-Kent students who have secured public interest legal positions at either not-for-profit organizations or governmental entities for the summer. Stevens Fellows are selected based on their commitment to public service and their potential for excellence throughout their legal careers.
Joanna Martin will work for the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project in Los Angeles, which provides direct representation to detained women and children involved in immigration removal proceedings who are unable to afford legal representation. She was previously a fellow at the National Immigrant Justice Center and an intern in the Federal Defender Program in Chicago. Before law school, she graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s University with a bachelor's degree in political science.
Carl Sessions will spend the summer at the Lake County Public Defender's Office in Waukegan, Illinois, where he will work primarily in the Felony Division as well as in Lake County's Mental Health, Drug and Veteran's Court. He most recently worked as an intern for the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing and the Legal Council for Health Justice. He completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Grinnell College.
Rebecca Spira will be a law clerk in the Immigration Unit of the Public Defender Services in Washington, D.C., helping to advise non-citizen clients of the immigration consequences of potential convictions, as required under Padilla v. Kentucky (2010). Her recent experience includes working as a law clerk for Kriezelman Burton & Associates and as an Equal Justice America intern for the Legal Assistance Foundation in Chicago. She earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy with distinction from Colorado College.
Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.
