Noorulanne Jan, a second-year student at the University of Texas School of Law, is the 2020 recipient of the National Association of Women Judge’s Access to Justice Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to a female student at the Law School who has demonstrated a sustained and passionate commitment to the achievement of equality of opportunity and access in the justice system.
Jan received the scholarship February 5 in the Law School’s Eidman Courtroom during the annual “Color of Justice” program, the goal of which is to encourage minority high school and middle school students from the Austin area to consider law and the judiciary as career paths. Travis County Court at Law Judge Brandy Mueller, who serves as District 11 Director of the National Association of Women Judges, presented the award. After receiving the award, Jan spoke to the students about her background and approach to law school as well as her advice to them on tackling the challenges they will face.
At Texas Law, Jan is president of the Texas Law Muslim Legal Society, serves as a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar for Street Law, and helped lead the Karnes Team on the recent Pro Bono in January winter break trip. She worked for the Texas AFL-CIO during the spring 2019 session of the Texas Legislature and has also clerked with the Fort Bend County Public Defender’s Office in Richmond, Texas and Texas Legal Services Center in Austin. She serves as a research assistant to Professor Kelly Haragan of the Texas Law Environmental Clinic and is a staff editor of the Texas Environmental Law Journal.
The 2020 Color of Justice event was cosponsored by the National Association of Women Judges, the Travis County Women Lawyers Association, the Austin Black Lawyers Association, the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, and The Morris Law Firm, PLLC, and hosted by the Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law.