Announcing the 2023 NLG Haywood Burns Fellows

The NLG National Office is thrilled to introduce our 2023 Haywood Burns Fellowship recipients!

The Fellowships sponsor law students and legal workers to spend the summer working for public interest organizations across the country in order to build their legal skills, strengthen their long-term commitment to social justice, and provide much-needed legal support to under-served communities. 

This year we will send five fellows to work on projects focusing on environmental justice, immigration, right to housing, Native criminal defense, and representing social justice activists. More information on the fellowships and full bios of fellows can be found at nlg.org/fellowships.

Your contribution to this important fellowship will make all the difference for new legal practitioners to engage in movement lawyering this summer and throughout their careers. Your financial support—which provides 100% of the project income—is essential to the program. Please make a donation today!

2023 Haywood Burns Fellows

Stephanie Chavez is a first generation Latina, born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona by Mexican Immigrants. As a Haywood Burns fellow, Stephanie is dedicating her time at Colectiva Legal Del Pueblo, a local Seattle non-profit committed to providing low-bono/pro-bono legal services, community education, advocacy and organizing. Currently, Stephanie is a law clerk for the Washington State Bar Association APR 6 Law Clerk Program. This program is a four-year alternative to law school designed for law clerks to learn through practical experience and traditional studies.

Charlotte Colantti is a mother and 1L at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she is pursuing a certificate in Native Law and Sovereignty. Through the Haywood Burns Fellowship, Charlotte will be working at the Regional Native Defense Corporation, a non-profit criminal defense firm in rural northern Minnesota that represents tribal members from Leech Lake and White Earth reservations charged with crimes in state court.

Sarina Larson is a 2L in Jackson, Mississippi, in training to become a movement lawyer. As a Haywood Burns Fellow, she will support a radical defense attorney who has defended movements around the world for over four decades: Stanley Cohen. Sarina founded and co-organized the NLG chapter at her law school in Jackson and is an active member of the NLG Mass Defense Committee (MDC).

Alyssa Meurer is a 2L at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Through the support of the Haywood Burns Fellowship, Alyssa will be spending the summer with the Racial Justice team of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, fighting for the right to housing, the end to police brutality, and the empowerment of communities impacted by the criminal penal system.

Michael Ohora is a 2L student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, interested in environmental law. As a Haywood Burns fellow, he will be working with the Environmental Justice Initiative / New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. He is committed to public interest law and holding capitalists responsible for climate change while helping vulnerable communities adapt to future climate threats.

Posted in Announcements, News.