2015-2016 Pro Bono Scholars

Top Row (left to right): Brian Zubay ’16, Rhiannon Hamam ’16, Paige Duggins ’17, Lochlin Rosen ’17 

Bottom Row (left to right): Leah Glowacki ’16, Karly Jo Dixon ’16, Berenice Medellín ’16

Karly Jo Dixon, ’16, is working to develop materials for a new drivers license recovery clinic, through which Texas Law students will assist individuals whose licenses have been suspended because of unpaid criminal costs and civil surcharges. She’s also served as Lead Student Counsel for the Mithoff Program’s expunction clinics. Karly is a member of the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law’s Student Advisory board and is a past Public Service Scholar. She was a summer law clerk at the Texas Fair Defense Project and Texas Defender Service, and a student in the Capital Punishment and Criminal Defense Clinics. She currently is an intern with the Capital Area Private Defender Service. She also serves as the treasurer of the Public Interest Law Association, is an Executive Editor of the American Journal of Criminal Law, and is the budgeting director for the inaugural Getting Radical in the South (GRITS) conference.

Paige Duggins, ’17, is a student leader with the Mithoff Program’s Educational Equity Project and works to support the Youth Court project and other efforts to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. She graduated magna cum laude from Southwestern University, where she majored in English and Education, with a minor in Race and Ethnicity Studies. She was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, a varsity soccer player and an intern with Senators Wendy Davis and Judith Zaffirini, the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee and the Texas Retirement System of Texas. Before law school, she went to South Africa to study human rights, conflict management, and community development, and worked on a community service project at a high need children’s home. She spent her 1L summer clerking at the Texas Civil Rights project in Austin.

Leah Glowacki, ’16, is helping to organize clinics to increase access to immigration legal services to individuals in Austin and rural Texas. During her time at Texas Law, she has participated in multiple legal aid clinics including two citizenship drives and an asylum lodging clinic. She also has a strong interest in children’s rights and is currently the President of the Mithoff Program’s Youth Court Project, which embraces a transformative justice system for school disciplinary issues by empowering youth to learn from their behavioral issues and earn a second chance.

Rhiannon Hamam, ’16, is a student leader with the Mithoff Program’s Criminal Justice and Reentry Projects, where she spends most of her time helping to run the Mithoff Program’s expunction clinic. Hamam was a summer intern at the Orleans Public Defenders Office in New Orleans and the Capital Area Private Defender Service in Austin. During her 2L year, she participated in the Actual Innocence Clinic and a nonprofit internship at the Texas Fair Defense Project. As a 3L, Hamam participates in the Criminal Defense Clinic, is a Vice President of the American Constitution Society, and is an Articles Editor for the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.

Berenice Medellín, ’16, works on projects related to probate and property law, such as the Mithoff Program’s efforts to educate students and parents about Supported Decision Making Agreements and other alternatives to guardianship. She worked with the Mithoff Program’s Educational Equity Project during the 2014-2015 academic year and supported the day-to-day operations of the Mithoff Program’s Youth Court project. Berenice also contributed legal research and writing, analyzing access to justice issues in the school system such as school enrollment issues for foster care youth. Berenice is involved in the Board of Advocates and the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students’ Association.

Lochlin Rosen, ’17, plays a lead role in organizing the Mithoff Program’s expunction clinics. During his first year at Texas Law, he helped to organize and manage the Juvenile Lifers Project. The Juvenile Lifers Project works with individuals who had been sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed when they were juveniles. Lochlin also participated in the 2015 Pro Bono in January winter break service trip. He spent the summer of 2015 working at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He is a member of the American Constitution Society and is the Vice-President of the Public Interest Law Association.

Bryan Zubay, ’16, helped organize and manage the Mithoff Program’s expunction clinics, which serve clients as they remove uncharged or acquitted arrests from their criminal records to strengthen their housing and employment opportunities. This year he is working with community partners to develop legal name and gender-marker change clinics for transgender clients. Zubay also is serving for a second year on the planning committee for the Pro Bono in January winter break service trip. He has clerked at the Texas Fair Defense Project and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, and has been a student in the Immigration and Civil Rights clinics.