Law students make strides to impact lives of Florida's poor

June 2010
by Gabrielle Davis

ORLANDO — A group of law students wanting to get a start in public interest law are getting their chance through The Florida Bar Foundation’s 2010 Legal Services Summer Fellowship.

The 40 fellows — from all 11 Florida law schools and six out-of-state law schools — are in the middle of their 11-week fellowships, which began in May.

The fellows are working on a variety cases from everything to foster care and family law to foreclosure and immigration cases at 32 Foundation-supported legal aid programs. The fellows were selected from a pool of nearly 270 applicants and their fellowships will end in August.

Since it was established in 1995, the Legal Services Summer Fellowship program has provided law students with real-world training on cases that will impact the lives of Florida’s poor and disadvantaged.

Before reporting to their fellowships, the students gathered in Orlando for a workshop where they received advice from former summer fellows who are now full-time legal aid attorneys.

The panelists started their public service law journeys as summer fellows, and then went on to be fellows with Equal Justice Works, a national two-year fellowship for which The Florida Bar Foundation provides matching funds, before working as legal aid attorneys.

Attorney Sarah Wallerstein Koren said her 2004 summer fellowship helped steer her toward public service law.

“The Fellowship program provided the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of what it was like to work in legal services and opened the doors for a career in legal services,” said Wallerstein Koren, now an attorney with Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida.

“Find out what you’re passionate about and what your community needs. Find a way to put that together and make it a valuable resource.”