Two graduating students, Sacha Mount and Phoebe “Coco” Sprague, will work as public defenders in southern public defender offices funded by Texas Law Gideon’s Promise Fellowships.
Texas Law participates in the Law School Partnership Program sponsored by Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit that works to reform indigent defense through training and support of public defenders. Through the partnership, Gideon’s Promise helped Mount and Sprague secure their positions and will provide three-years of intensive training. The Texas Law fellowships will fund Mount and Sprague for one year after which they will move into long-term positions with their offices.
Sacha Mount ’17 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 the Criminal Defense Clinic. In 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 ’17 will work as a public defender at the Law Offices of the Shelby County Public Defender in Memphis, Tennessee. At Texas Law, Sprague participated in the Juvenile Justice Clinic and the Criminal Defense Clinic, and was active in the Women’s Law Caucus and the 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.
“We are very proud that Sacha Mount and Coco Sprague have been selected as Gideon’s Promise fellows,” said Eden Harrington, director of the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, which administers the program at Texas Law. “We are confident both of them will be outstanding public defenders, and Texas Law is pleased to have the opportunity to help launch their careers.”