Jill Applegate
"I am immensely grateful for the support, mentorship, and opportunities the William Wayne Justice Center provided me in my law school career. The guidance the staff at the Justice Center offered me was invaluable, both academically and professionally. It continues to be a privilege to be part of the Justice Center community."
Jill Applegate is a Skadden Fellow at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem in New York. Her fellowship project focuses on providing direct representation for immigrants who have received deportation orders because of criminal convictions but who have the right to remain in the United States due to changes in law or constitutional defects with the underlying convictions. Immediately after graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Robert Pitman of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin.
At Texas Law, Jill participated in the Justice Center’s student advisory board and was an associate editor of the Texas Law Review, a two-year Teaching Quizmaster, and a research assistant for Professor Cary Franklin. As a 2L, she also served as co-president of the Public Interest Law Association and a co-organizer of GRITS (Texas Law's annual, student-led "Getting Radical in the South" conference).
Jill volunteered for several pro bono projects, including assisting immigrants at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center and the Karnes County Family Residential Center (both ICE detention facilities), and participated in the Immigration Clinic, Civil Rights Clinic, and Housing Clinic. She also interned with the Holistic Defense Team of the Capital Area Private Defender Service in Austin, focusing on immigration law issues.
The summer after her 1L year, Jill worked with the Detention Project at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago. The summer after her 2L year, she worked with the Immigration Defense Practice at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. Jill is a class of 2021 Chancellor, one of sixteen law students who achieved the highest grade point averages in their class through their second year.
Before coming to law school, Jill worked at The DREAM Project in the Dominican Republic helping elementary school children apply for late registration of their births.
- Texas Law Welcomes Incoming Public Interest Scholars, Members of the Class of 2021
- Students receive 2020 Baron & Budd Public Interest Summer Fellowships
- Justice in Action: Immigration Clinic Students Reunify Family of Aslyum Seekers
- Jill Applegate ’21, receives 2022 Skadden Fellowship to work with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
- Texas Law Graduates Receive Prestigious Public Service Fellowships