The Career Services Office (CSO) at The University of Texas School of Law is pleased to announce that second-year students Maritza Sanchez and Jessica Johnson, and first-year student Colleen Murphey are the 2014 recipients of $4,000 Study Break Public Service Stipends. The stipends are donated by sponsors of an annual CSO event called Study Break, and are intended to support unpaid summer internships in the public sector.
“Our most loyal law firm and corporate recruiters once again supported our students in a meaningful way,” said David A. Montoya, assistant dean for career services. “Through their generosity, we were able to fund three summer fellowships for students to develop their legal skills in public sector internships.”
Jessica Johnson, ’15, will be splitting her summer between the Texas Advocacy Project and Disability Rights Texas. Prior to law school, Johnson graduated from the College of William and Mary and served as an intake intern with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. During law school, she has interned with the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Travis County Mental Health Public Defender. She currently serves as a staff editor for the American Journal of Criminal Law. Johnson is committed to a career in public service and looks forward to the work she will be doing this summer.
Colleen Murphey, ’16, will be interning with the North Texas Regional Office of Disability Rights Texas. She graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University with a B.A. in political science. During college, she interned for U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and worked as a research intern for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Murphey is excited to spend her summer working to advance the rights for the disabled community in Texas.
Maritza Sanchez, ’15, will be interning with the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office. A graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in psychology and cultural anthropology, she spent three years as a Teach for America Corps Member prior to law school. She worked last summer as an intern to U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo in Laredo and volunteered last spring with the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project. Sanchez considers a career in criminal law to be her calling and values the opportunity this summer to give back to the community where she grew up.
Special thanks to the following for their contributions to this year’s CSO Study Break:
Outline Sponsors: Andrews Kurth LLP; Bracewell & Giuliani LLP; Locke Lord LLP; McKool Smith PC; Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; Sidley Austin LLP; Strasburger & Price LLP; and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Study Group Sponsors: Baker Botts LLP; Baker & McKenzie; Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry; Cox | Smith; Gray Reed & McGraw PC; Haynes and Boone LLP; Jones Day; Norton Rose Fulbright; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Thompson & Knight LLP; and Winston & Strawn LLP.
Casebook Sponsors: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; Beck Redden LLP; Fish & Richardson PC; Hogan Lovells; Jackson Walker LLP; K&L Gates; Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore/Anadarko; King & Spalding LLP; and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.