The NLG National Office is thrilled to announce our 2017 Haywood Burns Fellows!
Steven DeCaprio is a Bay Area legal worker who is an expert in occupying, improving, and re-purposing abandoned properties. He is founder of Land Action, co-founder of the Association of Legal Apprentices, and principal author of the Emergency Tenant Protection Ordinance. Steven was featured in the film “Shelter: a Squatumentary” and was named one of 12 Visionaries of 2012 by the Utne Reader. As a Haywood Burns Fellow, Steven will be working with the Legal Apprentice Committee of San Francisco Bay Area NLG Chapter.
Elizabeth Horton is a 2L at Boston College Law School. Elizabeth has interned at the State Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Special Proceedings Division, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and the UN Security Counsel with the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect. This summer, Elizabeth will be a Martin Luther King, Jr. Intern at Legal Aid of North Carolina and work in a medical-legal partnership.
Morgan Moone is a 3L at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Morgan has worked with Amnesty International, U.S. Human Rights Network, Human Rights Watch, and Hebron Rehabilitation Committee. With the support of the Haywood Burns Fellowship and Refugee Solidarity Network, Morgan will be working with Refugee Rights Turkey, providing legal services to refugees and working to promote a rights-based response to humanitarian crises.
Kevin Rafael Varela is a 2L at CUNY Law, where he is President of CUNY LALSA, a Fellow for the CUNY Law Center for Latina and Latino Rights and Equality, and a member of CUNY Law Review. Rafael worked at Brooklyn Defender Services and Make the Road NY. This summer, he will work with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on economic justice, political participation, education reform, and criminal justice.
Hunter Lee Weeks is a freelance paralegal who got his start with the NLG in December 2011 while he was incarcerated. He quickly became skilled at law and began his career as a jailhouse lawyer in April 2013. He received his Certificate of Paralegal Studies in February 2015 and is now released and pursuing a paralegal career. As a Haywood Burns Fellow, Hunter will be writing a report on the current state of prison law reform.
SUPPORT OUR FELLOWS!
For over four decades the NLG has been funding the summer work of law students and legal workers committed to social justice. Inspired by former NLG president and movement lawyer, the late Haywood Burns, this fellowship provides financial support and mentorship to five committed legal workers and law students to work on social justice issues.
Each fellow receives a $2,000 stipend to help offset expenses while they work on self-designed projects or with public interest organizations engaging in essential legal services in underserved communities.
Contribute today at www.nlg.org/donate/haywoodburns