Hayley Hahn is honored to serve as the 2022-2023 Francis D. Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellow at the Public Justice Center. In this role, she represents parties and files amicus briefs in civil rights cases related to poverty law and racial equity issues in state and federal courts.

Prior to joining PJC, Hayley clerked for the Honorable Carlton W. Reeves on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. She earned her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a Karsh-Dillard Scholar and a member of the Raven Society. During law school, Hayley participated in the Civil Rights Clinic directed by the Legal Aid Justice Center, served as the President of the American Constitution Society at UVA Law, and was the Notes Development Editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law and a member of the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. Her writing on civil rights topics has been published in the Virginia Law Review Online and the Journal of Law & Political Economy. She also won first place in the 2020 Founding Fathers Religious Liberty Student Writing Competition and first place in the 2021 Harvard Law School Law & Political Economy Writing Prize.

Before law school, Hayley received a Fulbright Student award to conduct research at McGill’s Centre for Research on Children and Families. Her work has appeared in the International Indigenous Policy Journal and on the Canadian Child Research Portal. She graduated from the College of William & Mary summa cum laude in 2017, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Beth Mellen 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. Following her fellowship, Beth spent 17 years at Legal Aid DC representing tenants in affirmative and defensive matters in D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals. She engaged in substantial legislative and agency advocacy work before the DC Council and with District agencies. Beth currently is an Assistant Deputy Attorney General in the Public Advocacy Division at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, co-leading a team of over 80 attorneys and staff responsible for litigating affirmative civil cases on a wide range of issues.

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.

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.