2018 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowship Honorees

The Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowships are supported by a generous multi-year gift from Stephanie Whitehurst and Bill Whitehurst, ‘70. Each summer, the Whitehursts name the fellowships for lawyers and others they admire in hopes that the recipients will be inspired by the honorees’ work in the public interest.

Summer 2018 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowship Honorees

 

The Terry Brooks Public Interest Law Fellowship

Terry Brooks earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois, and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin before beginning his legal career in 1980 in Baraboo, Wisconsin. His practice consisted largely of appointments to serve as counsel for indigent criminal defendants through the state’s appointed counsel program.

Later, Mr. Brooks served on the staff of the American Judicature Society in Chicago, then joined the staff of the American Bar Association in 1985. In 1989, he was named the Director of the ABA’s Division for Legal Services, and Chief Counsel to the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid & Indigent Defendants (SCLAID).

Since 1989, he has lead the ABA staff department providing legal counsel, project management and logistical support for 10 standing committees and commissions which collectively serve the public by improving access to justice for the poor and those of modest means, and serve the profession by assisting lawyers with key professional and personal issues.

As SCLAID Counsel, Mr. Brooks has developed projects to: (1) gather and analyze information about national resources supporting delivery of civil and criminal legal services for the poor, (2) provide leadership, produce resource materials and put forth policy/legislative proposals on assistance with educational debt and recruitment and retention of lawyers in public interest careers, (3) support leadership and policy support of the organized bar for an effective right to counsel in the context of both civil and criminal matters, (4) develop and promote clear guidelines for effective systems and programs to provide civil legal services and indigent criminal defense services to the poor, and (5) advocate for increased state and federal funding for civil legal aid and indigent criminal defense services.

During his career at the ABA, Mr. Brooks helped to develop several major policy pronouncements or projects by the Association, including:

The Terry Brooks Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Terry Brooks do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.

The Karen Burgess Public Interest Law Fellowship

Karen Burgess is a trial lawyer who earned her J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in Austin. Before practicing law in Austin, she received her B.A. in Economics, Spanish, and Policy Studies from Rice University where she had the opportunity to study at the Universidad Catolica in Valparaiso, Chile. Karen is AV rated by her peers, and she is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Karen’s practice ranges from trade secret disputes to securities, contract, insurance, real estate, oil and gas, partnership and fiduciary litigation. She is a frequent speaker on litigation topics and has served as course director for the University of Texas Page Keeton Civil Litigation Seminar and Texas Bar CLE’s Business Disputes Course. She has co-chaired and spoken at the Austin Bench-Bar conference

As an active member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Karen serves as the elected treasurer of ABOTA’s National Board of Directors. She is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an honor limited to 500 lawyers in the United States, and she was recently appointed to the Executive Committee of its Board of Directors. The Lloyd Lochridge American Inn of Court has named Karen its President-Elect for 2018-2019, and she is a co-chair of the Austin nominating committee for the Texas Bar Foundation.

Thomson Reuters has named Karen a Super Lawyer and has included her as a “Top 50 Women Super Lawyer” as well as a “Top 50 Central & West Texas Super Lawyer” in multiple years. The Travis County Women Lawyers Association named her Litigator of the Year for 2012. In 2011, Karen was selected a “Winning Woman” by Texas Lawyer, a designation reserved for only twenty attorneys in the state of Texas. Lawdragon has repeatedly named Karen one of The 500 Leading Lawyers in America and The Best Lawyers in America® listed Karen as a Best Lawyer for Commercial Litigation for 2017.

Volunteer Legal Services calls on Karen for complex cases, and she has had the privilege to represent clients like George Ketcham, an advisor at Texas School for the Deaf, and Evelyn Austin (https://youtu.be/SrkV0mnCt1w), when their homes were on the line. Karen has also assisted when Austin Tenants Council needed help (https://goo.gl/tu8oFQ).

Karen is active in the community. She is the immediate past President of the People’s Community Clinic Foundation Board. Karen serves on the Foundation Board for the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, has done committee work for the Paramount Theater, and is an elder of the Westlake Presbyterian Church.

Karen is married to a commercial transactions attorney, Brian Burgess. Karen and Brian have two teenagers.

The Karen Burgess Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Karen Burgess do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.

The Maya Guerra Gamble Public Interest Law Fellowship

Maya Guerra Gamble received her B.A. in 1992 and her J.D. in 1996 from Yale University. She spent her first year at the University of Texas School of Law where she was selected for Law Review. Following graduation, Maya clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Maya joined the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney participating in all aspects of False Claims litigation. Returning to Texas in 2001, she served as an Assistant Attorney General prosecuting sexual assault and child pornography cases. She received The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Law Enforcement Award, and the Texas Attorney General’s Awards for Exceptional Merit and Exceptional Service.

After twelve years in private practice representing parents and children in all aspects of Child Protective Services litigation, she is now a candidate for District Judge in Travis County.

Maya has been engaged in volunteer activities since her teenage years. At Yale she created a volunteer program for students to teach skills in juvenile detention in New Haven, CT. Her career has been focused on government and public interest work with service on several Texas Supreme Court Commission on Children committees and work groups.

The Maya Guerra Gamble Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Maya do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.

The Eva Marszewski Public Interest Law Fellowship

Eva is a visionary changemaker passionately committed to social justice, and democratic values of equity, empathy and respect for diversity. She is a pioneer having generated new directions in support of women’s rights, young people and minorities, winning many awards along the way.

As Academic Affairs Director on Student Council at York University in 1970, she conceptualized and co-chaired a 3-day conference focused on systemic change for schools. Having graduated from Toronto, Canada’s Osgoode Hall Law School in 1973, Eva spent the next three decades successively working as litigator, labor arbitrator and mediator.

During the 90’s, she was engaged in the promotion and establishment of mediation, serving on the Board of Directors of S.P.I.D.R., now ACR, (Association for Conflict Resolution), Canada’s Advocates Society, and the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association,  ADR  Section. As Adult Advisor, she was instrumental in the establishment of YouCAN (Youth Organizing to Understand Conflict and Advocate Non-violence), one of Canada’s first totally youth-run charities.

In 2003, upon the enactment of Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), she established the Canadian charity Peacebuilders International (Canada), pioneering the application of Peacebuilding Circles in a restorative justice context for use with highly diverse, urban young people and communities. Through Peacebuilders, she established Toronto’s first court-annexed Restorative Justice Clinic for young people. Peacebuilders’ ground-breaking Restorative Youth Circles Program has been awarded both the City of Toronto Community Safety Award and the Toronto Community Foundation Vital Ideas Award.

In 2010, she became an Adjunct Faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School where she designed the law school’s first course on Restorative Justice. She was the first non-practicing lawyer to be awarded the Law Society Medal. Other honours include the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice through Law and the coveted Ashoka Foundation Fellowship in 2010. As one of 50 Ashoka Fellows who participated in Ireland’s 2014 Change Nation, she implemented a Circle Values Pilot Project in two inner-city Dublin school settings.

On February 3, 2015, Eva was awarded the Order of Ontario. Also in 2015, Peacebuilders’ Extra Judicial Measures Pilot Project was selected by the American College of Trial Lawyers for the prestigious Emil Gumpert Award.

Eva believes that peaceful co-existence can only be achieved through education and social justice.

The Eva Marszewski Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Eva Marszewski do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.

The David Stern Public Interest Law Fellowship

David Stern received his B.A. from Union College and his J.D. from Georgetown University. Following law school, he clerked for two federal judges in Baltimore and worked at a public interest law firm.

In 1992, David joined Equal Justice Works, then known as the National Association for Public Interest Law, to establish a postgraduate fellowship program. In 1995, he was promoted to Executive Director. For the past 26 years, David has helped to develop Equal Justice Works into the nation’s leading organization in mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice. Today, Equal Justice Works manages the largest postgraduate fellowship program in the country. Nearly all of the American Bar Association accredited law schools in the U.S. are members.

David has been recognized as a “Champion of Change” by the White House, as one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” by The National Law Journal, and as one of the “Greatest Washington Lawyers in the Past 30 Years” by The Legal Times. In 2006, the Mississippi Center for Justice honored David for bringing national attention to the legal needs of survivors of Hurricane Katrina and for creating Equal Justice Works’ Katrina Initiative, which deployed lawyers to the Gulf Coast region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

David serves on the Advisory Committee for Voices for Civil Justice, a nonpartisan communications hub advancing fairness in America’s legal system. He is also a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Leaders Council, which is dedicated to raising public awareness of the crises in civil legal aid nationwide, and a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Education.

David has also served on the boards of the Center for Responsive Politics and the Constitutional Accountability Center, and as well as the Advisory Boards of the J. Skelly Wright Fellowship Committee at Yale Law School; the National Center for the Medical- Legal Partnership and the New Voices Fellowship.

The David Stern Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like David Stern do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.

The Rebecca Webber Public Interest Law Fellowship

Rebecca Webber became an attorney in order to achieve justice for regular people who are harmed by powerful governments and corporations. Before joining Hendler Flores Law, Rebecca worked as a legal aid lawyer and public defender at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and as a civil rights attorney at the Texas Fair Defense Project. She has also worked at Public Citizen Litigation Group, at National Public Radio, in the Texas House of Representatives, and for Congressman Lloyd Doggett.

Rebecca grew up in Austin and attended the University of Texas as an undergraduate. At Yale Law School she was on the Yale Law Journal and worked in the Advocacy for Children and Youth and Prison Legal Services clinics. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2007.

When she’s not working on behalf of her firm’s clients, Rebecca’s priorities lie with her family and her community. She serves as Chair of the Austin Public Safety Commission and was a long-time member of Austin’s Citizen Review Panel, the citizen oversight board charged with reviewing police shootings and misconduct.

She and her partner, Shahin Amini, have two young children.

The Rebecca Webber Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Rebecca Webber do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career and will make a similar commitment.