Paige Duggins, a third year student at The University of Texas School of Law, is the 2017 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.
Duggins is president of Texas Law Fellowships, and is involved in the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society, the Public Interest Law Association, and the American Constitution Society. She has been a Teaching Quizmaster and an assistant editor on the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights. She interned with Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and participated in the Civil Rights Clinic. She has worked as a Pro Bono Scholar with the Mithoff Pro Bono Program on school-to-prison pipeline issues, and participated in the Program’s 2015 and 2016 winter break trips to the Texas Rio Grande Valley. During the summers, she has worked with the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin and Husch Blackwell in Austin, where she concentrated in higher education law. After graduating from law school, she will clerk for Justice Jeff Boyd of the Texas Supreme Court.
Duggins received the scholarship April 12 in the Law School’s Eidman Courtroom during the “Color of Justice” program, the goal of which is to encourage minority high school students from the Austin area to consider law and the judiciary as career paths. Travis County Civil Court Judge Orlinda Naranjo and Travis County Criminal Court Judge Karen Sage presented the scholarship. The event was cosponsored by the National Association of Women Judges and the Travis County Women Lawyers Association with the Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, and two law firms – Law Office of Liliana Leon Flores, PLLC and Chamberlain McHaney.