Texas Law has awarded postgraduate public interest fellowships to four graduating students. Each fellow will receive funding through the law school to support their first year of employment at a nonprofit or public defense organization. A graduating student and a member of the class of 2020 also have been selected for postgraduate fellowships by the Gallogly Family Foundation.
“These outstanding graduates are embarking on careers of service, and we are proud of their accomplishments and dedication to the public sector,” said Eden Harrington, director of the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, which supports the postgraduate fellowship programs. “Generous supporters make these fellowships possible, and we greatly appreciate their commitment to launching the careers of some of our most impressive alumni.”
Maria Renteria will receive the Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law, funded by Julius Glickman ’66. She will work with RAICES (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) to represent noncitizens in Travis County who are in removal proceedings or who are at imminent risk of being placed in removal proceedings. At Texas Law, Renteria volunteered for pro bono projects and participated in the Immigration Clinic, Juvenile Justice Clinic, and Criminal Defense Clinic. She worked in Austin with the Equal Justice Center and Lincoln-Goldfinch Law, a law firm specializing in immigration.
Carly Stuart-Micocci will receive the Mike A. Myers Fellowship in Public Interest Law, funded by Mike A. Myers ’63. She will work with the Texas Advocacy Project in Austin, advocating for and educating youth in the child welfare system about intimate partner and dating violence. At Texas Law, Stuart-Micocci served as co-president of the Texas Law Disability Alliance, staff editor of the Texas Journal of Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, and auction co-coordinator for Texas Law Fellowships. She also participated in the Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Gender Affirmation Project, OUTLaw, and the Women’s Law Caucus. She interned with the Texas Advocacy Project and participated in the Children’s Rights Clinic. She spent her summers with the Child Support Division of the Texas Office of the Attorney General, as an intern to Travis County Judge Aurora Martinez-Jones, and as a Bergstrom Child Welfare Fellow at the University of Michigan School of Law.
Two students will receive Texas Law Gideon’s Promise Fellowships through a partnership with Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit that works to reform indigent defense through training and support of public defenders. Gideon’s Promise helps law school graduates secure public defender positions and provides them with three years of intensive training. Texas Law funds the fellows’ first year of work. The Gideon’s Promise Fellows are:
Ty Howorth will work with the Elizabethtown Trial Office of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. At Texas Law, Ty was involved in the Public Defense Group, Public Interest Law Association, and OUTLaw, and participated in a variety of pro bono activities, including serving on the Pro Bono in January leadership team and as a lead student counselor and a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar with the Expunction Project. Ty participated in the Capital Punishment Clinic and Criminal Defense Clinic, and interned with the Texas Office of Capital and Forensic Writs. Ty spent summers with the Texas Fair Defense Project and the Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases, both in Austin. Ty graduates with a joint degree in social work.
Simon Lu will work with the El Paso Public Defender in El Paso, Texas. At Texas Law, he helped plan both Change It Up!, Texas Law’s annual social justice orientation, and the GRITS (Getting Radical in the South) conference, and volunteered for numerous pro bono projects. He participated in the Transnational Workers’ Rights Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, Immigration Clinic, and Capital Punishment Clinic, and spent his summers in El Paso, interning with Judge Miguel Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and working with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and the El Paso Public Defender.
A graduating student and a recent alumna have been awarded postgraduate fellowships by the Gallogly Family Foundation, which generously funds these opportunities for Texas Law graduates to gain experience in public interest work and to improve access to quality legal services. These are one-year fellowships with the option to renew for a second year. The Gallogly Family Foundation Public Interest Law Fellows are:
Jess Hallam will work with Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS) to advocate for clients with mental health disabilities and substance abuse disorders who have been negatively affected in housing or employment due to participation in diversion programs or treatment courts. At Texas Law, she helped organize the 2020 GRITS conference, served as submissions editor of the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, and was a teaching assistant for the Race and the Law course and a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar, leading the Expunction Project. She participated in the Civil Rights Clinic, Capital Punishment Clinic, and Criminal Defense Clinic, and interned with the Texas Fair Defense Project in Austin. She spent her summers with the ACLU Disability Rights Program in San Francisco and NDS’s Civil Defense Practice.
Kelly Hogue ’20 will work with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in East San Antonio to fight evictions and housing discrimination. At Texas Law, she was a project lead for the Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Expunction Project, a Teaching Quizmaster, an associate editor of the Texas Law Review, a research assistant to Professor Jordan Steiker, and a Community Development Research Fellow to Professor Heather Way. She participated in the Legislative Lawyering Clinic, Housing Clinic, and Supreme Court Clinic, and clerked for the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service. She spent her summers with the Texas Defender Service in Austin and the ACLU National Prison Project in Washington, D.C. After graduating from law school, she clerked in San Antonio for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.