Washington, D.C.: The Patrick Malone & Associates law firm is giving away $20,000 in scholarships in 2019 to twelve law students, in the fourth year of the firm’s “Representing Real People” law school scholarship program.
Two students are each receiving $5,000, and ten others are receiving $1,000 each, to be applied to law school tuition and fees. This is a record amount in the firm’s scholarship program.
The winners of $5,000 scholarships and their schools are:
Destiny Lopez, Yale Law School. Ms. Lopez is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and the first in her family to attend college and professional school. She has interned in public defender offices and is aiming toward a career defending the accused.
Hayley Roth, Georgetown Univ. Law Center. Ms. Roth has done human rights reporting in migrant camps on the Turkish border and has done impact journalism work for the Community Development Bankers Association telling the stories of loan recipients in distressed areas across the United States. She hopes to become a public interest lawyer.
Runners-up who each will receive $1,000 are:
Margaret Bott, Indiana Univ. Maurer School of Law. Ms. Bott has worked in a domestic violence shelter and for women prisoners returning to the community. She aims for a career in criminal justice.
Victoria Breese, Catholic Univ. of America Columbus School of Law. Ms. Breese is interested in employment law especially on behalf of minimum wage employees, having worked many such jobs herself.
Rosalie Capps, Brooklyn Law School. Ms. Capps wants to represent individuals in immigration cases, especially asylum seekers, having gone to college in Egypt and working at a refugee resettlement center in Cairo.
Miriam Domer, Cornell Law School. Ms. Domer is a special education teacher pursuing law as a second career. She is a single mother who put herself through college and now law school.
James Gooding, Georgetown Univ. Law Center. Mr. Gooding has worked at non-profits in India and elsewhere and hopes to become a civil rights lawyer.
Sarah Kolick, George Washington Univ. School of Law. Ms. Kolick has learned three East Asian languages and is looking toward a career in human rights and empowerment of women.
Mariya Komartsova, CUNY School of Law, Queens. Ms. Komartsova, a daughter of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, works in banking consumer rights enforcement during the day, attends school at night and raises a toddler.
Edward Leaf, American Univ. Washington College of Law. Mr. Leaf is a professional musician, a graduate of the Peabody Institute, who is changing careers to represent immigrants, the disabled and others in need.
Marisa McConnell, Georgetown Univ. Law Center. Ms. McConnell has advocated for children as a volunteer at domestic violence shelters and hopes to make a career in child advocacy.
Amy Tamayo, American Univ. Washington College of Law. Ms. Tamayo has worked in farmworker and immigrant clinics and hopes to work in economically vulnerable communities advocating for the disadvantaged.
“We expanded the number of runners-up’ awards this year because the applications were so numerous and worthy,” Patrick Malone said. “At first we planned to give only the two $5,000 scholarships, but we quickly saw the need to do more, so we’ve done two or three or four runners-up scholarships each year. But this year was really extraordinary, so we went to ten.”
The “Representing Real People” scholarships are intended for students committed to a career representing individuals, especially those of limited means. Suitable fields of law include immigration, tenant rights, employment (for individual employees and unions), family matters, disability rights, estates and trusts, criminal defense for indigents, and public interest law focusing on individual rights.
“Thousands of Americans every day go into courthouses with no lawyer to represent them, and they face major and sometimes devastating consequences to their lives,” Patrick Malone said. He noted that the only people who have a constitutional right to a lawyer are those facing felony criminal charges, but the civil courts conduct proceedings that can uproot a person from their home, job, and family, and cause financial ruin. “We want to encourage young people to go into careers helping these individuals.”
More information about the Malone scholarship program, including eligibility and application details, can be found at: http://www.patrickmalonelaw.com/patrick-malone-associates-scholarship/
