Fellowships

The Haywood Burns Fellowships are designed to encourage students to work in the NLG’s tradition of “people’s lawyering.” The program exists to help students apply their talents and skills to find creative ways to use the law to advance justice. Burns Fellowships provoke law students to question traditional notions of how one must practice law and to provide a summer experience that will enrich and challenge them. All 2012 Fellows have been selected. The 2013 application will be made available in the fall of 2012.

The History

The Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowship for Social and Economic Justice has its roots in the National Lawyers Guild’s established tradition of providing legal, political, and educational support to the important progressive movements of the day. In the summer of 1964, the Guild, working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, sent lawyers and law students south to provide legal support for the emerging civil rights movement in what became known as the Mississippi Summer.

In late 1972, New York State indicted 62 prisoners who survived the police assault at the Attica Correctional Facility. None of the police officers was indicted despite detailed reports of excessive force. In 1973, the Summer Projects Committee was formed in part to respond to this situation. The committee sent students to assist with the defense of the Attica Brothers, to support the growing farmworker struggles in California, and to support Native American treaty rights in the Pacific Northwest.

Over the years, the Summer Projects program has expanded to place hundreds of students with public interest organizations working to protect and further the civil rights of oppressed people in the United States. Although providing legal work under the direction of their attorney-organizers is important, the primary mission of the summer projects is to strengthen each student’s long-term commitment to promote justice and equality. Fellows have worked with groups to provide legal, political, and educational support on a wide variety of issues, including voting rights; union democracy; workplace health and safety; the death penalty and prison reform; lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans rights; defense of protesters from police harassment and criminal sanctions; and international human rights.

In 1996 the program was renamed after Haywood Burns, long-time radical lawyer, law professor, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, whose life and work created a legend to inspire generations to come.

2011 Haywood Burns Fellows

Stacy King, a second year student at American University Washington College of Law, worked with the District of Columbia Public Defender Service (PDS), assisting with the representation of indigent defendants. She assisted in the Community Defender Division of PDS with jailhouse grievances, conditions of confinement, and the PDS annual Community Reentry and Expungement Summit. The Expungement Summit assists members of the community with criminal records to have their records expunged and provides legal advice on gaining employment with a criminal record.

Shannah Kurland, a student at the Roger Williams College of Law, set up a police monitoring project in Providence, Rhode Island. The project trains community members, including members of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, to patrol “hot spot” areas with a pattern of police misconduct. Shannah’s work will include researching existing models, compiling protocols and a training package for the program, coordinating patrol volunteers, and organizing a forum to present the project’s results in the community at the end of the summer.

Samantha Leonard, a second year student at the University of Wisconsin Law School provided free legal representation in family law and restraining order cases for clients of Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) located in Madison, Wisconsin. DAIS’ mission is to empower those affected by domestic violence and advocate for social change through support, education, and outreach.

Lauren Marcous, a second year law student at Western New England College of Law, worked on a project with Prisoners’ Legal Services in Boston, a non-profit organization that provides post-disposition representation to incarcerated individuals who have civil rights complaints, specifically in the areas of guard brutality, medical/ mental health care, extreme conditions of confinement, and segregation.

Logan Perkins, a second year student at Lewis & Clark Law School, collaborated with a team of pro bono Guild attorneys providing legal support services to environmental activists in Maine who are resisting industrial-scale wind farms that threaten the local ecology and economy. Logan helped defend civil disobedience arrestees and provided Know Your Rights and Legal Observer^® trainings to an array of citizen groups that are fighting local development proposals.

You can help fund one of the 2012 Fellows by downloading the donation form and returning it to the National Office.