Six graduates of the Texas Law Class of 2017 have received prestigious postgraduate public service fellowships from Equal Justice Works, Gideon’s Promise, as well as the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the law school.
“These outstanding graduates are committed to serving the public and we are very proud of their many accomplishments,” said Eden Harrington, Director of the Justice Center. “Texas Law is pleased to have the opportunity to help launch their careers.”
Cristian Sanchez ’17
Cristian Sanchez, ’17, has been named an Equal Justice Works Fellow. He will be working with the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in San Antonio, sponsored by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. Sanchez plans to provide legal services and advocacy to asylum seekers recently released from detention to empower them to achieve legal status. At Texas Law, he headed up the Trans Name and Gender Marker Project as a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar; participated in the Immigration Clinic, Transnational Worker Rights Clinic, and Civil Rights Clinic; and was vice-president of OUTLaw.
Coco Sprague ’17 and Sacha Mount ’17
Sacha Mount, ’17, and Phoebe “Coco” Sprague, ’17, will work in southern public defender offices through Texas Law Gideon’s Promise Fellowships. These fellowships are part of the School Partnership Program sponsored by Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit that works to reform indigent defense through training and support of public defenders. Gideon’s Promise selected Mount and Sprague for their positions through a competitive process and will provide them with three years of intensive training. The Texas Law fellowships will fund Mount and Sprague for their initial year, after which they will move into long-term positions with their respective offices.
Sacha Mount will work as a public defender at the 15th Judicial District Public Defender in Lafayette, Louisiana. At Texas Law, Mount participated in the Civil Rights Clinic and Criminal Defense Clinic. During the summers, he interned with felony units of the Public Defender of the County of San Diego and the San Francisco Office of the Public Defender.
Coco Sprague will work as a public defender at the Shelby County Public Defender in Memphis, Tennessee. At Texas Law, Sprague participated in the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Criminal Defense Clinic, and was active in the Women’s Law Caucus and Student Bar Association. She interned with the Federal Public Defender in Houston, the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, and Capital Area Private Defender Services in Austin.
In addition, the Justice Center has selected two graduates to receive law school-funded Justice Corps fellowships with nonprofit organizations. The fellows were chosen by a faculty committee through a competitive process.
Brianna Perez ’17 and Anya Morgan ’17
Anya Morgan, ’17, has received the Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law, funded by generous support from Julius Glickman ‘66, to work for the Northwest Justice Project in Seattle, Washington. Her project will assist low-income transgender people by providing services and training related to name and gender marker changes, health insurance appeals, and access to public benefits. At Texas Law, Morgan participated in the Domestic Violence Clinic and Civil Rights Clinic, and helped lead pro se clinics for the Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Trans Name and Gender Marker Project. She was a founding board member of the Texas Chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, pro bono director of OUTLaw, a board member of Getting Radical in the South (the GRITS conference), and president of the Texas Law Yoga Club. She interned with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in New York and the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin.
Briana Perez, ’17, has received the G. Rollie White Trust Fellowship in Public Interest Law, funded by generous support from the G. Rollie White Trust, to work with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) in San Antonio. Her project will address the living conditions of immigrant children in family detention centers in South Texas. At Texas Law, Perez participated in the Civil Rights Clinic, the Human Rights Clinic, and the Immigration Clinic. She was a Human Rights Scholar with the Rapoport Center, a Public Service Scholar with the Justice Center, and secretary of the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students’ Association. She interned with MALDEF, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project in New York.
Lauren Loney ’17
Lauren Loney, ’17, was selected to receive the Texas Law Community Development and Environmental Justice Fellowship. The fellowship is part of a new Community Assistance Project (CAP) of the Justice Center funded through a grant from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. The CAP will provide extensive community redevelopment assistance to legal aid attorneys and communities in Texas. Loney will work closely with Texas Law clinical faculty working on the CAP and will be housed at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Austin. At Texas Law, Loney participated in the Legislative Lawyering Clinic, interned with the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau, and worked in Austin with both the Save Our Springs Alliance and the Lower Colorado River Authority. She was co-president of the Environmental Law Society and vice president of the Student Animal Legal Defense League.