PUBLIC RIGHTS PROJECT ANNOUNCES SECOND COHORT OF ATTORNEYS FOR NATIONAL MID-CAREER FELLOWSHIP
35 Government Lawyers From Across The Country Selected To Participate In 2020 Affirmative Leaders Fellowship
Oakland, Calif. — Today, Public Rights Project announced the second cohort of its Affirmative Leaders Fellowship, a program created to help attorneys in state and local governments across the country expand their capacity to protect residents’ legal rights. The 2020 fellows began their one-year program with a two-day virtual convening and training June 9-10, 2020, which featured sessions around leadership and community-based enforcement.
After searching across the nation, Public Rights Project selected a talented and diverse cohort of fellows from 32 state and local government offices in 15 states, the District of Columbia, and the Navajo Nation. 63 percent of fellows identify as women and 37 percent identify as people of color. Fellows are alumni of 26 accredited law schools. Nearly 30 percent occupy senior leadership positions in their offices and 50 percent have been in government service for six or more years. Approximately 33 percent have 10 or more years of legal experience overall. The full list of 2020 fellows is below.
Public Rights Project believes that communities are safer and healthier when the laws written to protect the most vulnerable among us are faithfully and equitably enforced. State and local government offices have the power to enforce laws that protect individuals’ abilities to maintain housing, gain equal access to a job, work in safe conditions, invest in their education, and drink clean water. This fellowship aims to empower state and local government lawyers to use their tools more effectively and to direct those resources toward communities of color, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups.
“We are thrilled to welcome our second cohort of the Affirmative Leaders Fellowship. They are immensely talented, passionate about social justice, and engaged in crucial work in their communities,” said PRP Legal Director Jonathan Miller. “Our program pushes these lawyers to see beyond their perceived limits of government advocacy. They will acquire knowledge and skills to bring back to their colleagues and develop connections with lawyers from across the county. When combined, these experiences result in more rights enforcement, more collaborative and creative advocacy, and better community-connected work.”
Fellows will receive one year of training and professional development aimed at strengthening and applying skills in impact litigation, coalition-building, community engagement, doing racial justice work, and public leadership. They will hone tools and strategies to work on a range of civil rights, economic justice, and environmental protection issues that directly impact vulnerable populations in their communities and across the country. This support will enable fellows to initiate, expand, or deepen the impact of their office’s equitable enforcement efforts.
"I am very excited to join a cohort of government attorneys committed to protecting public rights,” said Nailah Freeman, Assistant Corporation Counsel at the Boston City Law Department. “The opportunity to participate in a fellowship aimed at cultivating an affirmative litigation skill set while also gaining practical and experiential insights from other government attorneys who are at various stages of their career is particularly attractive to me.”
The 2020 Affirmative Leaders Fellows are as follows:
Austin, Texas City Law Department
Sara Schaefer | Assistant City Attorney
Baltimore City Law Department
Jane Lewis | Assistant City Solicitor
Boston City Law Department
Nailah Freeman | Assistant Corporation Counsel
California Dept. of Fair Employment & Housing
Kaitlin Toyama | Staff Counsel
California Department of Justice
David Pai | Deputy Attorney General IV
Rose Goldberg | Deputy Attorney General
Cameron County, Texas, Civil Legal Division
Daniel Lopez | Litigation Counsel
Chicago City Department of Law
Rebecca Hirsch | Assistant Corporation Counsel
Cincinnati City Attorney Office
Erica Faaborg | Chief Counsel, Assistant City Solicitor
Columbus City Attorney’s Office
Richard Coglianese | Solicitor General
Dallas City Attorney’s Office
Evan Farrior | Community Prosecutor
Delaware Department of Justice
Jillian Lazar | Director of Investor Protection
District of Columbia Attorney General’s Office
Michelle Thomas | Chief, Civil Rights Section
Argatonia Weatherington | Assistant Attorney General
El Paso County, Texas Attorney’s Office
Jed Untereker | Senior Division Chief, Civil Division
Illinois Attorney General’s Office
Aaron Chait | Assistant Attorney General
Shareese Pryor | Chief, Civil Rights Bureau
City of Jersey City
Jake Hudnut | Chief Prosecutor
Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office
Danielle Vappie | Deputy County Counsel
Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office
Meryum Khan | Assistant Attorney General
Marin County, California Counsel
Sarah Anker | Deputy County Counsel
Minnesota Attorney General’s Office
Caitlin Micko | Assistant Attorney General
Navajo Nation Department of Justice
Jason Searle | Litigation Unit Attorney
New Jersey Attorney General’s Office
Eve Weissman | Deputy Attorney General
New Mexico Attorney General’s Office
Jennie Lusk | Civil Rights Bureau Chief
New York City Commission on Human RIghts
Luisanne Liz | Agency Attorney
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs & Worker Protection
Kenny Minaya | Chief of Staff
New York City Law Department
Melanie Ash | Senior Counsel
Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office
Ryan Smith | Deputy Attorney General
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office
Danielle Newsome | Assistant District Attorney & Labor Liaison
Philadelphia City Law Department
Lydia Furst | Deputy City Solicitor
Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office
Dan Sutton | Deputy Chief of Policy, Special Assistant Attorney General
San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project
Emma Sokoloff-Rubin | Clinical Fellow & Visiting Lecturer in Law
Santa Monica, California City Attorney’s Office
Andrew Braver | Deputy City Attorney
Seattle City Attorney’s Office
Jeremiah Miller | Assistant City Attorney
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About Public Rights
Public Rights Project is a national non-profit, based in Oakland, that builds state and local governments’ capacity to enforce their residents’ rights. Their mission is to close the gap between the promise of our laws and the lived reality of our most vulnerable communities. They work to achieve this mission by training attorney fellows to catalyze the proactive work of government law offices; providing strategic support in legal strategy, research, partnerships and data analytics to help offices develop high-impact legal cases; and designing and spreading community outreach and organizing approaches that empower community residents and advocates to be active partners in an enforcement agenda rooted in equity. Public Rights Project is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit organization.
For more information:
Web: https://www.publicrightsproject.org/
Twitter: @public_rights
Medium: @publicrightsproject
Instagram: #publicrightsproject
Media Contact:
Madison Jacobs, madison@publicrightsproject.org
