Past and Current Fellows
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Michael Abrams2021-2022
Michael Abrams
Before the fellowship, Michael served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Roger Gregory on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and to Judge Kathleen Cardone on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Michael graduated with honors from University of Michigan Law School, where he worked as a student attorney in the Juvenile Justice Clinic and was the Executive Notes Editor of the Michigan Law Review. During law school, Michael published research on legal and public health issues raised by the opioid overdose epidemic.
He spent his summers in Baltimore working on consumer protection and civil rights litigation. Michael received his bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland after growing up in Garrett Park, Maryland.
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Olivia Sedwick2020-2021
Olivia Sedwick
Olivia N. Sedwick, Esq. is the 2020-2021 Francis D. Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellow.
Prior to becoming the 2020-2021 Murnaghan Fellow, Olivia served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Carl E. Stewart on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before her federal appellate clerkship, Olivia was an Antitrust & Competition associate in the D.C. Office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, & Hampton, LLP.
Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, Olivia attended the Howard University School of Law where she graduated in the top fourteen percent of her class in 2018. While in law school, Olivia interned in the Voting Rights group at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and for the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In 2017, Olivia competed in the Global Antitrust Moot Court Invitational at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and earned Second Best Brief and advanced to the semi-final round of the competition. In 2018, Olivia was a student attorney in the Human and Civil Rights Clinic where she and her team authored a brief to be filed in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights detailing the implications of international human rights law on the policing of African descendants in the United States of America.
Prior to law school Olivia attended Winston-Salem State University where she graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science with a double minor in economics and history. While there, she served her campus as the Student Body President and before then, the UNC system at large in various leadership capacities.
Olivia is licensed to practice in the District of Columbia and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, respectively.
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Dena Robinson2019-2020
Dena Robinson
Dena was the 2019-2020 Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow.
Before beginning the fellowship, Dena served as the Senior Law Clerk to the Honorable Alexander, Wright Jr. of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Dena attended the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, where she graduated with honors and a certificate in Health Care Law in 2017. During law school, Dena interned with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Project HEAL, and the National Association of the Deaf. She also participated in Maryland Law’s Civil Rights of Persons with Disabilities Clinic, the Youth Justice Clinic., and served on the Executive Board of Maryland’s Moot Court Team as the Outside Competition Chair. In 2016, Dena won the Ninth Annual ABA Media Law Moot Court Competition, where she argued before the Hon. Stephen Higginson (5th Cir.), the Hon. Charles Wilson (11th Cir.), and the Hon. Sam Lindsay (N.D. Tex)
Before law school, Dena was an educator and community organizer. She taught elementary, middle, and high school English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) from 2012 to 2014 through Teach for America. She earned a Master’s in Educational Studies from Johns Hopkins University in 2014, and her Bachelor’s in Political Science and Women’s Studies from Colgate University in 2012.
When Dena is not lawyering, you can find her teaching storytelling at Wide Angle Youth Media, and facilitating workshops around racial equity, anti-oppression, and liberation.
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Ejaz H. Baluch2018-2019
Ejaz H. Baluch
Ejaz was the 2018–2019 Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow. Before beginning the fellowship, Ejaz was a judicial law clerk from 2016 to 2018 for the Honorable George L. Russell, III of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Prior to his clerkship, Ejaz attended The George Washington University Law School, where he graduated with Honors in 2016. During law school, he interned at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Public Justice Center. In addition, Ejaz participated in GW’s Criminal Appeals and Post-Conviction Services Clinic. There, he represented two criminal defendants in their appeal as of right in Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals, one of whom later had his criminal conviction successfully overturned in the Court of Appeals. He also served as an Articles Editor of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal, wrote an article published in The George Washington University Public Interest Law Forum, finished as a finalist in two moot court competitions, and won the Howard J. Rudge Prize, a law school-wide writing competition. Before law school, Ejaz taught middle school social studies in Baltimore City Public Schools from 2010 to 2013 through Teach For America. While teaching, he was involved in activism around education issues, and The Daily Record recognized him as one of Maryland’s “20 in Their Twenties” in 2013. He earned a Masters in Urban Education from The Johns Hopkins University School of Education in 2012 and bachelors degrees from the University of Maryland in 2010.
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K'Shaani Smith2017-2018
K'Shaani Smith
K’Shaani Smith was the 2017-2018 Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow.K’Shaani graduated summa cum laude from Howard University in 2007 with a degree in Legal Communications and cum laude from Howard University School of Law in 2011. During law school, she was a Dean’s Fellow and a student attorney in the Intellectual Property and Trademark Clinic. K’Shaani also served as the Senior Solicitations and Submissions Editor for the Howard Law Journal, which published her student note, Prosecutor v. Lubanga: How the International Criminal Court Failed the Women and Girls of the Congo. 54 How. L.J. 467–500 (2011).Following law school, K’Shaani clerked on the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands for the Honorable James S. Carroll, III, and the Honorable Denise M. Francois from 2012 to 2014; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland for the Honorable George L. Russell, III, from 2014 to 2016; and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for the Honorable Roger L. Gregory from 2016 to 2017. -
Anthony May2016-2017
Anthony May
Anthony May was the 2016-2017 Murnaghan Fellow. Following his year at the Public Justice Center, he joined the firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy. Anthony graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 2015, where he served as the Executive Symposium Editor on the Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class and participated as a semi-finalist in the regional American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law Trial Advocacy Competition. He then clerked on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals for the Honorable Deborah Sweet Eyler from 2015-2016. Anthony graduated summa cum laude from the University of Akron in 2011, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He was born and raised in Akron, Ohio.
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Tassity Johnson2015-2016
Tassity Johnson
Tassity Johnson was the 2015-2016 Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellowship. She clerked on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey from 2014-2015 and on the District of Connecticut for the Honorable Janet Hall from 2013-2014. She is now at Jenner & Block.Tassity graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, where she was a Student Director of the Immigration Legal Services Clinic and a member of the Transnational Development Clinic. She graduated cum laude from Duke University in 2010 with a degree in Literature and Cultural Theory. Tassity is originally from Houston, Texas. -
Anna Jagelewski2014-2015
Anna Jagelewski
Anna Jagelewski joined the Public Justice Center (PJC) in August 2014 as the Murnaghan Fellow. Upon completing her fellowship year, Anna served as a law clerk for the Honorable Andre Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She now works at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.Before coming to the PJC, Anna clerked for the Honorable Reggie B. Walton of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and for the Honorable Florence Y. Pan of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.Anna graduated from the American University Washington College of Law summa cum laude in 2011. While in law school, she served in leadership roles in the Women’s Law Association, Lambda Law Society, and the American University Law Review in addition to being a Public Interest/Public Service Scholar. She graduated magna cum laude from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a certificate in Women’s Studies in 2004. -
Ilana Gelfman2013-2014
Ilana Gelfman
Ilana Gelfman joined the PJC in September 2013 as the Francis D. Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellow. She earned her A.B. in the Study of Religion from Harvard College in 2005 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2009. During law school, she was a co-director of the Landlord-Tenant Clinic, a student supervisor in the Domestic Violence Clinic, a co-director of the Temporary Restraining Order Project, and a co-chair of the Legal Services Organization Board. Following law school, she served for two years as a Skadden Fellow at Greater Boston Legal Services, where she specialized in post-foreclosure eviction defense. She then clerked for Judge Douglas P. Woodlock of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2011-12 and for Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2012-13.Upon completing her fellowship, Ilana began a clerkship with Justice Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.
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Jean Zachariasiewicz2012-2013
Jean Zachariasiewicz
Jean Zachariasiewicz joined the PJC in September 2012 as the Murnaghan Fellow. Before coming to the PJC, Jean clerked for the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 2011-2012, and for the Honorable Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama from 2010-2011. Jean graduated from Columbia Law School in 2010, where she was a Hamilton Fellow and a Kent Scholar. She also served as president of the Public Interest Law Foundation, as a Notes and Submissions Editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and participated in the Immigrant Defense Externship and Prisoners and Family Rights Clinic. Jean interned at a number of places during law school, including Reprieve UK doing Guantanamo defense work, the civil rights firm Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin, The New Teacher Project, New Visions for Public Schools, and Jenner & Block, LLP.Prior to law school, Jean served in Peace Corps-Ukraine as an English teacher, and worked at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. She is a 2001 graduate of the University of Virginia, earning a B.A. with distinction in French and East European Studies, with a minor in English. Following Jean's year as the Murnaghan Fellow she joined the D.C. based civil rights firm Relman, Dane & Colfax as a litigation associate. She engaged in a variety of civil rights work, including cases brought under the Fair Housing Act and the False Claims Act. In addition, she continued her representation of a client whose case she took on at the Public Justice Center in an eighth amendment suit against correctional officers in Virginia. She is currently with the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy. -
Thomas Davies2011-2012
Thomas Davies
Tom Davies joined the PJC in September 2011 as the Murnaghan Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a law clerk to Judge James L. Dennis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 2009, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. During law school, he worked for the ACLU of Michigan and the Los Angeles human rights attorney Paul Hoffman. He was also an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Following his year as a Murnaghan Fellow, Tom joined Maryland Legal Aid.As the Murnaghan Fellow, Tom drafted amicus briefs that helped to produce two Maryland Court of Appeals decisions strengthening workers' legal remedies against wage theft; argued successfully before the Fourth Circuit for the rights of a prisoner who suffered brutal treatment; and was involved in litigation that ultimately led to the enactment of laws protecting tenants and residents of foreclosed homes from extrajudicial self-help eviction by landlords and banks. -
Jessica Weber2010-2011
Jessica Weber
Jessie Weber joined the PJC as a Murnaghan Fellow following her clerkship with the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. One of the highlights of Jessie’s year as a Murnaghan Fellow was successfully representing a client in a disability rights case before the Fourth Circuit, where she participated in her first oral argument.Jessie graduated from Yale Law School in 2009 and received her A.B. in Politics, with a certificate in Latin American Studies, from Princeton University in 2005. During law school, Jessie interned with the ACLU LGBT and HIV/AIDS Project in New York and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, DC. She volunteered with the Loyola Law School Hurricane Katrina Legal Clinic and the DC Employment Justice Center. Jessie also co-directed the LGBT Rights Clinic at Yale. Prior to law school, Jessie worked at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She also interned with the American Center for International Labor Solidarity in Washington, DC, and Foro Emaús, a coalition of labor, environmental, and religious groups working to improve the Costa Rican banana industry’s labor and environmental practices. She now works at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP in Baltimore where she practices largely in the areas of civil rights and employment justice.
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Monisha Cherayil2009-2010
Monisha Cherayil
Monisha Cherayil was the Public Justice Center’s 2009-2010 Murnaghan Fellow. Following her year as Fellow, Monisha permanently joined the staff of the Public Justice Center. Monisha previously clerked for the Honorable Judge Phyllis Thompson on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with honors in 2008, and from Brandeis University with honors and a joint degree in economics and political science in 2005. -
Matt Hill2008-2009
Matt Hill
Matt came to the Murnaghan Fellowship after clerking for the Honorable Deborah S. Eyler on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.Matt graduated summa cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he served as Assistant Director of Students United Mentoring Program, a committee chairperson for the Equal Justice Foundation Executive Board, and a senior member of the American University Law Review. Matt’s student comment, "We live not on what we have": Reflections on the Birth of the Civil Rights Test Case Strategy and Its Lessons for Today’s Same-sex Marriage Litigation Campaign – regarding the use of the test case strategy by the NAACP in Baltimore in the early 1900s – was selected for publication in the National Black Law Journal, 19 NBLJ 175 (2007). While in law school, Matt interned at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau working on various aspects of Maryland development law, HUD regulations, and fair housing law. As a member of his law school’s Community and Economic Development Clinic, he represented a tenants’ organization seeking to purchase and transform their building into a cooperative.Before law school, Matt taught Eighth grade for two years at Mother Seton Academy, a school for “at risk” youth in Baltimore City. Prior to teaching, he interned at the Homeless Persons Representation Project promoting the rights of day laborers and working to kill repressive panhandling legislation in Baltimore City. Matt graduated summa cum laude from Loyola College in Maryland in 2002. He now leads the Human Right to Housing project at the Public Justice Center. -
Gregory Care2007-2008
Gregory Care
Greg began his tenure as the Murnaghan Fellow after completing a clerkship for the Honorable Glenn T. Harrell, Jr. on the Maryland Court of Appeals. Greg was awarded his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law where he graduated magna cum laude and was inducted as a member of the Heuisler Honor Society. He served as a Production Editor on the Law Review and his student comment, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Long Overdue: The Evolution of a "Sexual Orientation Blind" Legal System in Maryland and the Recognition of Same Sex Marriage, 35 U. Balt. L. Rev. 73 (2005), was selected for publication as the most superior student work. Greg was also a member of the Burton D. Wechsler First Amendment Moot Court Team, reaching the quarter finals of the 2005 competition. During his time in law school, Greg interned at the Maryland affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and represented indigent clients as a Rule 16 student attorney in the University's Civil Law Clinic. He was also active in the Students for Public Interest and the International Law Society. Greg spent a summer abroad in Scotland studying comparative civil liberties. Before law school, Greg graduated magna cum laude from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Criminal Justice and was awarded departmental honors in his second minor, Legal Studies. His experience interning at the Lycoming County Public Defender's Office spurred his public interest career.Upon completion of his undergraduate studies, he returned to Maryland and began combating flipping and predatory lending practices through his work at the Community Law Center, Inc. in Baltimore. In addition to his work at the Public Justice Center, Greg has been an instructor at Street Law, Inc., teaching probationary students about their legal rights and responsibilities. He is an avid backpacker and outdoor sports enthusiast, and has led backpacking trips with at-risk and probationary youth for the STEP Program at the Lycoming-Clinton Counties Commission for Community Action. He now focuses on civil rights and employment matters at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP in Baltimore and serves as a board member of the Public Justice Center. One of Greg’s favorite briefs as a Murnaghan Fellow was an amicus in support of several Paralympians who were fighting to be treated equally by the U.S. Olympic Committee regarding benefits provided to amateur athletes including access to training facilities, equipment, and stipends. He also very much enjoyed being a legislative advocate in the reform of tax sale foreclosure rules that frequently caused unsuspecting homeowners to lose their homes over trivial amounts.
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Janet Hostetler2006-2007
Janet Hostetler
Janet Hostetler is the Deputy Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Previously, she was Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, where she played a lead role developing national policy on civil rights in housing, how segregation limits equal access to opportunity, housing protections based on gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, and international human rights law.She also previously served as a Voter Protection Director for the Obama Campaign in 2008, organizing efforts to protect the civil rights of voters on the ground in six states and developed a database technology tool used by the campaign to track legal volunteers and any problems voters encounter around the country.Janet holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, an M.A. (International Relations) from the Australian National University, and a B.A. (Economics and Latin American Studies) from Wellesley College. -
Roscoe Jones, Jr.2005-2006
Roscoe Jones, Jr.
Roscoe Jones, Jr. was the 2005-2006 Murnaghan Fellow at the Public Justice Center.Roscoe currently serves as senior to Senator Cory Booker. Prior to accepting this position Roscoe was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Washington and a Part-Time Lecturer at the University of Washington, Law School and Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. Previously, Roscoe was Special Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and as an Appellate Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. He also was a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia. Roscoe also worked as Counsel and then Senior Counsel to Chairman Patrick Leahy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary. Roscoe was a law clerk to Judge Alexander Williams on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and Judge Carl Stewart on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.Roscoe is an honors graduate of Stanford University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law. -
Beth Mellen Harrison2004-2005
Beth Mellen Harrison
Beth Mellen Harrison joined the Public Justice Center as the Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow in 2004. Prior to serving as the Murnaghan Fellow, Beth received her B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Wellesley College, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. While in law school, she served as editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation and won “Best Team” in the 91st Annual Ames Moot Court Competition. Following law school she clerked for the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Beth is currently a Supervising Attorney in the Housing Law Unit and the Director of Legal Aid’s Landlord-Tenant Court-Based Legal Services Project. Beth represents clients in complex affirmative and defensive landlord-tenant matters in D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals. She also litigates claims before administrative bodies, such as the D.C. Housing Authority and the Office of Administrative Hearings. In addition, Beth supervises junior Staff Attorneys, Fellows, and Loaned Associates in the Housing Law Unit.
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Joshua Auerbach2003-2004
Joshua Auerbach
Joshua Auerbach currently serves as a special assistant to Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and, in that role, focuses on health- and consumer-related affirmative litigation, legislation and special projects. He previously served as principal counsel in the Office of the Attorney General to Maryland's Department of Health and as a litigator in the Office's Civil Division. Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General, Josh worked in the Baltimore City Law Department, at the Baltimore law firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy, and at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an India-based human rights NGO. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale College.
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Wendy Hess2002-2003
Wendy Hess
Wendy first came to the PJC as the Francis Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellow from 2002-2003. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Director of the Fundamental Legal Skills Program at the University of South Dakota (USD) School of Law. She also serves on the Board of Directors of East River Legal Services, based in Sioux Falls. Her research interests include: juvenile transfer, feminist legal theory, legal skills pedagogy, and law student and lawyer well-being. Before coming to USD, she coordinated the Critical Legal Skills program at the Phoenix School of Law. Wendy’s legal practice experience includes spending many happy years as an attorney at the Public Justice Center where she worked on prison reform, juvenile transfer, foster children’s educational access, and enforcement of freedom of information laws. Before her Fellowship, Wendy worked as an attorney for the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project from 2000-2002, where she was responsible for the provision of civil legal services to prisoners and pretrial detainees in Central Pennsylvania. Wendy completed two judicial clerkships—one for the The Honorable John C. Eldridge on the Maryland Court of Appeals (1998-1999) and the other for The Honorable William Nickerson on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (1999-2000). Wendy graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland in 1995, with a combined degree in Psychology and Government and Politics and a certificate in Women's Studies. In 1998, she graduated from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was awarded the Chancellor’s Scholarship, a full scholarship for academic excellence and commitment to community service. Wendy is a member of the following bars: South Dakota, Maryland, and Washington DC. -
Lewis Yelin2001-2002
Lewis Yelin
Lewis Yelin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas in 1988 with high honors in Plan II and Philosophy. Following his graduation, Lewis studied philosophy at Brown University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1998. In May 2000, Lewis earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent scholar in each of his three years. At Columbia, Lewis received several prizes and awards, and served as the Executive Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review. Immediately prior to becoming the first Murnaghan Fellow, Lewis served as a law clerk to the Honorable Betty Fletcher, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Lewis now works on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.