The Advocate

Law Students Devote Summers to Public Interest,

Thanks to Stipend Programs

DePauls Vincentian identity calls upon us to engage inservice to others, with a special concern for the deprivedmembers of society. 1 This mission of furthering humandignity and social justice has long distinguished DePaulUniversity from other educational institutions. Manystudents at the College of Law help to further DePaulsservice-based mission by dedicating their summers tounpaid social justice work and public interest advocacy.The Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL) and the PublicInterest Law Association (PILA) awarded stipends to 32students to help subsidize their summer living expenses in 2013. This issue of The Advocate shares a few of thosestudents' public interest work experiences.

Summer interns provide an invaluable resource tounderstaffed and underfunded nonprofit legalorganizations. Internship positions are almost guaranteedto be unpaid, and law students are confronted with thedilemma of pursuing public interest summer work whilestill finding a way to make ends meet. Fortunately formany DePaul students, summer funding has becomeincreasingly available thanks to the fundraising efforts ofCPIL and the proceeds of the annual DePaul Law Auctionsupported by generous donations from alumni and otherdistinguished members of the Chicago-area legalcommunity.

CPIL supports summer stipends primarily through adonation from the Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund, but also through two endowments for the Lawrence X.Pusateri Fellowship and the Helen M. Cirese Fellowship, a foundation gift from the Albert & Anne MansfieldFoundation, and additional fundraising efforts. Mostrecently, the Office of Mission and Values startedsponsoring two partial summer stipends. CPIL FacultyDirector Leonard Cavise and Executive Director ShayeLoughlin believe that all students should have guaranteedfunding for summer public interest work, and are alwaysseeking additional avenues for financial support to makethis belief a reality.

The PILA student leaders are driven by the same fundinggoals. The 17th Annual DePaul Law Auction, sponsored by PILA and organized entirely by a team of studentvolunteers, raised more than $28,000 this past January.Dean Gregory Mark is extremely supportive of the auctionand was able to secure a generous anonymous donor whomatched the amount raised the night of the auction. A grand total of $56,000 funded public interest stipendsfor summer 2013. The event attracted law students,faculty, alumni and community members for an evening at the Chicago Cultural Museum. CPIL honors scholarRobin Wagner (14) served as auction chair andsupervised the volunteers throughout the months leading up to the auction.

As the College of Laws largest annual fundraising event forpublic interest summer stipends, the success of the auctionis vital to the College of Laws ability to award stipends tostudents working in unpaid public interest jobs. Without theauction and fundraising efforts of CPIL, far fewer DePaulstudents could hope to secure funding for summer work.

At present, DePaul cannot fund all students working inpublic interest law over the summer. The reality for thestudents who secure competitive public interest internshipsis that they also must face the challenge of securingsummer funding. The College of Law sponsors informationsessions and advertises external funding opportunities.Many students accept externship credit to receive summerloans in order to finance public interest law summer work.

The importance of the College of Laws internal stipendprograms and its continued support of public interestopportunities for students cannot be overemphasized.DePauls commitment to foster a growing stipend programhelps ensure that its students are helping respond to thenational legal services crisis. With secured funding, studentscan commit their summers to working in such areas ascriminal defense, housing, public benefits, immigration,child and family law, disability and elder law, and humanrights advocacy. Students not only gain valuable lawyeringskills and experience, but also help meet the ever-presentneed of legal services for low-income clients who otherwisewould have no access to the justice system.

FALL 2013

Center for Public Interest Law

25 East Jackson BoulevardChicago, IL 60604-2219

COLLEGE OF LAW

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C E N T E R F O R P U B L I C I N T E R E S T L AW

By Megan Davis (14)

From left: DePaul law students Cindy Bedrosian (14),Megan Davis (14) and Ana Valenzuela (15), with fellowNorthwestern intern Abigail Leinsdorf, enjoy their last dayof work at LAF.

In summer 2013, I worked for EqualityNow in Nairobi, Kenya. When I arrived inKenya I was unprepared for the red dustthat covers everything. Matatussmall,tin can-like vans with names likeRastafari, Adidas, or Steam thatblasted Enrique Iglesiaswere mytransportation to work. I had been

warned about Nairobi traffic, but naively assumedChicago traffic had prepared me for the worst. On myfirst day I arrived 1.5 hours late, sweating and covered inthe aforementioned red dust. Luckily, I quickly learnedthat mentioning the word traffic was enough to excuseyour tardiness in any situation. I also learned how tohaggle for a 50 shilling ride instead of the mzungu(tourist) price of 70 shillings.

Equality Now is an international nongovernmentalorganization (NGO) advocating for womens rights.Specifically, Equality Now in Kenya focuses on Kenyanand East African womens issues: sexual violence, femalegenital mutilation, trafficking and ratification of theAfrican Union womens protocol, commonly called theMaputo Protocol. The organizations mission is toachieve legal and systemic change that addressesviolence and discrimination against women and girlsworldwide.

Through advocacy, litigation and lawyers trainings,Equality Now addresses difficult womens issues inKenyan society that are often excused as cultural norms.Fighting against these ideas in a country newlyindependent from colonialism is exhausting work. I readand analyzed cases concerning a variety of problems forwomen in East Africa, including chieftainship rights, land

ownership rights in polygamous marriages, wartimegenocide and rape, the banishment of women to witchcamps, and the failure of police to prosecute rape casesin Nairobi.

For most of my internship, I worked on a comparativereport on legal approaches to sexual violence in threedifferent countries. The report focused on India, theUnited States and South Africa, and identified bestpractices for lawyers attempting to bring rape and sexualviolence cases in their own countries. Additionally, Iplanned advocacy events, became the offices ad hocphotographer and self-proclaimed mango juiceaficionado, wrote newsletters and social media updates,planned a lawyers training for lawyers from more than 10different African countries, and made myself available todo whatever else my supervisors needed.

Most of what I learned came from living and workingabroad alone, something I had not had the chance toexperience before this summer. Coming to DePaul, I knewI wanted to work with women in developing countries,and my summer in Kenya has solidified that goal. EastAfrica has a challenging, fast-paced legal community andit offered me a chance to understand some of what legalNGOs in Kenya are working to achieve.

Throughout this school year, I hope to continue my workthrough an internship with the ABA Africa division andalso by completing a paper on pan-Africanism and itsimportance to the feminist movement in Africa. AsanteSana (thank you) to the Patrick and Anna M. CudahyFund for supporting me in this first endeavor. I hope toexperience many more legal systems in developingcountries as I work toward my legal career.

Katie Filous (15), Equality Now, Nairobi, Kenya

1 DePaul Office of Mission and Values, available athttp://mission.depaul.edu/VincentianIdentity/Pages/ default.aspx

What are you doing next summer?That question begins to plague studentsas early as the first week of classes.Because immigration law is my passion, I knew I wanted to have an opportunityto work at a nonprofit that provides legalservices to the immigrant community. I learned of an opportunity to start

applying for a summer internship through the PublicInterest Law Initiative (PILI). PILIs internship programplaces students at more than 50 public interestorganizations. It also provides various educational andnetworking opportunities for participants. Through PILI, I was fortunate enough to secure an internship with LAF,formerly the Legal Assistance Foundation of MetropolitanChicago.

Once I secured the internship I was faced with anotherobstacle: securing summer funding. As a DePaul student, I have access to a wonderful team of career servicerepresentatives that are always willing to assist studentsin searching for various summer funding opportunities.One such opportunity is provided by our very own Centerfor Public Interest Law. Through its Summer PublicService Stipend Committee, CPIL provides summerstipends to students who are interested in working atpublic interest organizations, such as LAF.

I was selected by the committee for the MansfieldFellowship, provided by The Albert & Anne MansfieldFoundation, a foundation dedicated to social service.

Because of this fellowship, I was able to follow my passionin immigration law and work full time as a summer internwith LAF in its immigrants and workers rights practicegroup. I conducted intake interviews for potential clients,assisted in drafting and translating affidavits, preparedapplications for applicants seeking immigration relief, andresearched various immigration law issues. That was just asmall portion of what I did. The most impactful part of theexperience was connecting with clients who have had toendure some of the most tragic and heart-wrenchingexperiences I have ever heard. As the daughter ofimmigrants, I felt a sincere connection to our clients. Most clients were happy just to be able to explain theircircumstances to someone who would listen.

Working at LAF taught me skills that I will use throughoutmy legal career, such as how to elicit specific informationduring client interviews, how to approach very delicateissues during the interviewing process, and how to besupportive of clients during frustrating and difficult times.Many of these skills are seldom learned in the classroom.

In addition to what I personally gained, I hope ourcontribution as interns was worthwhile to LAF. Out of fivesummer interns in the immigration project, three werefrom DePaul. Collectively, all five interns contributed morethan 2,000 hours of legal work to the project. As thesummer came to a close, we considered the next publicservice we could provide throughout the academic yearand opportunities next summer to further the publicinterest.

Ana Valenzuela (15), LAF

With baby boomers finally hittingretirement age, it comes as no surprisethat senior citizens constitute one of thelargest segments of the Americanpopulation. It follows that they alsocomprise a greater percentage of thepopulation vulnerable to abuse and fraud.

This past summer, I interned at the Center for Disabilityand Elder Law (CDEL), a nonprofit organization thatprovides free legal aid to low-income seniors andindividuals with disabilities. I was a recipient of the Cudahy Fellowship, which provided funding to subsidizemy work at CDEL.

CDEL tackles various legal issues concerning housing andfinancial matters, including collections, consumer fraud,and financial exploitation and abuse. CDEL also assistswith estate and end-of-life planning, including advanceddirectives such as powers of attorney, living willdeclarations and simple wills. Additionally, CDEL runs aguardianship help desk at the Probate Division of theRichard J. Daley Center.

As an intern, I worked on several CDEL initiatives to gain a better understanding of the many legal mechanismsthrough which I could help senior citizens and individualswith disabilities. Through the Senior Legal AssistanceClinic, I drafted powers of attorney for property and healthcare matters and living will declarations for seniors residingin assisted living facilities. It was rewarding to provide this

particular legal service to individuals who otherwise wouldhave been unable to afford a private attorney.

I also assisted with the Senior Tax Opportunity Program(STOP), which uses information from the Cook CountyAssessors Office to identify and contact senior citizenswith delinquent taxes from 2011 that are currently open for sale to third-party debt collectors. Through STOP, Iprovided seniors with updated information regarding theircurrent tax status, and notified them of various taxexemptions for which they can apply. CDEL also heldnumerous tax workshops to educate seniors about theirproperty taxes. Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of participating in STOP was listening to many seniorsexpress their frustration, some even breaking down in tearsover the phone, at their inability to pay their property taxwith retirement benefits alone simply because they wereunaware of their eligibility for many exemptions.

In addition, I worked at the guardianship help desk,conducted hundreds of prescreening and intake interviews,and drafted document and case summaries for CDELattorneys. My CDEL internship greatly benefitted myunderstanding and knowledge of various subjects withinthe field of elder law. The mentorship provided byattorneys Tom Wendt and Caroline Manley (11) was anadded bonus to the excellent training I received onworking with low-income seniors and individuals withdisabilities.

Aziza Khatoon (14), Center for Disability and Elder Law

This summer, thanks to funding fromLawrence X. Pusateri Fellowship, I hadthe wonderful opportunity to work at theLawyers Committee for Better Housing(LCBH). Since 1980, LCBH has beenproviding free legal services forChicagos tenants and homeowners. Its mission is to promote the availability

of and access to safe, decent, affordable andnondiscriminatory housing in Chicago through legalrepresentation, individual and public advocacy, supportivesocial services and education.

LCBH provides a wide range of services, from advocacyand intervention on behalf of tenants to litigation, such as seeking a receivership in housing court so that a thirdparty can collect the rent and necessary improvementswill be made. Work with tenants includes educating themon their rights under the Chicago Residential LandlordTenant Ordinance, condominium conversion laws, statelaws, fair housing, foreclosure and other applicable laws.LCBH operates many specialized programs to serveChicagos various housing needs, including the EvictionDefense Program, Tenants in Foreclosure InterventionProgram and Affordable Housing Preservation Program.

I worked primarily with the Eviction Defense Program,which provides high-volume defense to low-incomerenters facing eviction. In essence, it was my job topreserve housing for those whom, without our help,would likely end up homeless. I also helped operate theTenants in Foreclosure Intervention Program help desk.

This help desk provides legal advice to pro se defendantsfacing eviction because the buildings in which they areliving have been foreclosed.

My experience with LCBH could not have been better. Not only was I in court almost every day getting to arguemotions, conduct trials and negotiate settlements, but Iwas also winning my motions and trials, and settlingcases with terms favorable to my clients. LCBH gave methe training and supervision I needed in order to besuccessful in the eviction court setting. One of my mostmemorable moments came after I won a Motion forSummary Judgment on a very technical issue that is byno means well-settled law. After somehow convincing thejudge to rule in my favor, he called my supervisingattorney and me to the bench to compliment myperformance in his courtroom throughout the summer.That was one of my proudest moments as a law student.

Thanks to the fellowship that I received through CPIL, Iwas able to work a job this summer that allowed me tohave a clear and immediate positive impact on this veryvulnerable population. Without organizations like LCBH,decent, affordable housing for low-income renters inChicago would be nonexistent. Its work is the last line ofdefense for people on the precipice of homelessness byway of eviction, oftentimes due to unfortunate dealingswith unscrupulous landlords. Such work is importantbecause, without this help, there is no doubt that LCBHsclients would have been railroaded by their unfamiliaritywith the rights provided for them by our legal system.

Sam Keen (14), Lawyers Committee for Better Housing

Prior to starting law school in fall 2011, I spent a couple of years working ontransportation and environmental justiceissues at a sustainability nonprofit in the Chicago area. I decided to go to law school because I believed thatenvironmental change is besteffectuated through the legal system,

and that a career in environmental law would allow me todirectly help populations that were adversely affected byenvironmental justice issues. Given my background andinterests, I set my sights on environmental law agenciesfor my summer 2013 internship.

When I was selected as a summer student extern at theU.S. EPA, I knew the experience would give me theopportunity to see firsthand the inner workings of thecountrys most powerful environmental entity. However,the EPA is not able to offer any compensation to summerexterns, which was a huge drawback. Luckily, I wasselected to receive a summer stipend from PILA, basedon my involvement with the DePaul Law Auction, theCPIL Symposium, and my ongoing volunteer work withCabrini Green Legal Aid. The money I received from PILAmade it possible for me to take the summer position thatwould provide the best experience for me, and allow meto continue working in the public interest field.

On my very first day at the EPA, I attended a negotiationsmeeting with my boss. It was a great introduction toseveral of the issues that I would be working on, and

allowed me to see the interaction between EPA attorneysand industry groups. Besides attending meetings andcalls, my supervisor also assigned me a diverse range ofresearch assignments, helping me understand the waythat environmental statutes apply. While working onthese assignments, my supervisor put me in touch withEPA engineers, scientists, public relations professionalsand specialist attorneys, who assisted me with anyquestions that I had.

Because the EPA typically selects around 12 summerexterns, it has a well-established educational program forinterns. For the first three weeks of the internship, expertattorneys gave daily presentations on environmental lawtopics. It was an excellent way to get an overview of thestatutes that I would be working with, and to meet manyof the attorneys in the office. These sessions also allowedthe interns to get to know one another. We came from adiverse range of schools, including Lewis and Clark, Yale,Cornell, Illinois, Minnesota and more.

The work that I saw and participated in during myexternship far exceeded my expectations. I learned that the EPA fights for the public as a whole byimplementing rules and policies, and advocates forindividuals through cleaning up Superfund sites, enforcingClean Air Act regulations, and considering environmentaljustice concerns in every agency action. Because of thestipend that I received from PILA, I was able toexperience environmental law firsthand, and move onestep closer to a career in this field.

Kate Galbraith (14), Environmental Protection Agency