International Public Interest Careers

Silverman Hall Exterior, Chestnut Street Entrance

Each year, graduates from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s renowned LLM program launch impactful public interest careers working in NGOs and government agencies around the world. This year, three LLM graduates secured funding from Penn Carey Law’s LLM Post-Graduate Public Interest Fellowship Program to fight for environmental justice, protect human rights, and challenge gender discrimination.

• Phoebe Ayitey LLM’ 24 is joining the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Her work will focus on protecting African women through strategic litigation aimed at reforming discriminatory laws and increasing accountability for gender-based violence.
• Aiswarya Murali LLM ’24 will work to promote environmental justice and energy equity in the Southeastern United States at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ).
• Indumini Randeny LLM’24 is joining the Malawi resentencing project in Reprieve to work towards eradicating capital punishment in the African region.

A Transformative LLM Experience

Ayitey came to Penn Carey Law with plans to broaden her knowledge on human rights advocacy, particularly as it pertains to women’s rights in her home continent of Africa.

Phoebe Ayitey LLM' 24“Growing up in Ghana, I witnessed firsthand the hardships endured by women in my community,” she said. “Their resilience in the face of adversity, juxtaposed with the systemic discrimination they faced, ignited a fervent passion within me.”

Ayitey’s experience at the Law School was transformational. She particularly cites “International Women’s Rights” class taught by Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Senior Adjunct Professor of Global Leadership, in which she had the opportunity to attend the 87th Session of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, which exposed her to the challenges women face across the world.

“Witnessing women from diverse backgrounds leading global efforts to promote gender equality was both inspiring and a powerful reminder of the possibility of a fairer world,” Ayitey said. “It underscored that women are not only capable but are essential agents of progress in the fight for gender equality. And it will take action and capitalizing on every opportunity to effect the change we seek.”

Receiving the Penn Carey Law LLM Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowship presents an incredible opportunity for Ayitey to contribute to this cause. As a fellow with the Clooney Foundation, she will advocate for justice for women through strategic litigation aimed at reforming discriminatory laws and enhancing accountability for gender-based violence. Additionally, she will support women and girls in Africa in asserting their rights to go to school, be safe from violence, escape child marriage, and have equal rights to property.

“I am excited by the challenge that through my work with the Clooney Foundation we will be contributing effectively to Africa and the world’s development.”

Addressing Injustice Through Community

Aiswarya’s LLM journey at Penn Carey Law was driven by her profound interest and commitment to environmental justice. Throughout her personal and professional life, she witnessed firsthand the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. This experience motivated her to devise legal tools to advance environmental sustainability and social justice.

Aiswarya Murali LLM ’24Before coming to Penn Carey Law, Aiswarya worked as a human rights lawyer and later as a law clerk to a Supreme Court of India judge. These roles helped her gain a multifaceted understanding of environmental law and contribute to climate action in India.

Additionally, Aiswarya worked with Initiative for Climate Action, a non-profit that provided a platform for her to engage with communities through capacity-building activities. She also co-founded the State Clean Electricity Transition Tracker India (SCETTI), an open-access climate data platform that enables states in India to transition to clean energy.

Aiswarya joined Penn Carey Law to gain additional expertise in environmental justice and hone her skills as a climate litigator in the United States. At the Law School, she was also a Climate Leaders @Penn Fellow, a student-led interdisciplinary program that enabled her to work on capstone projects supporting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Aiswarya says her foundation in climate change and environmental law was strengthened through intellectually stimulating courses and exceptional mentorship from professors and other members of the Penn Carey Law community.

“This unique educational experience exposed me to the power of collective action and grassroots initiatives in effecting positive change,” she said.

Enrolling in courses like the Global Research Seminar allowed Aiswarya to participate in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Weekend Event as a Penn Delegate and to join Wendell Pritchett PhD’97, James S. Riepe Presidential Professor of Law and Education on a research trip to Ghana.

“The creatively curated courses offered by the professors are Penn Carey Law’s strongest pillars,” she said. “In the Women’s Human Rights course offered by Professor Rangita de Silva de Alwis, we were given the opportunity to inhabit the roles of UN Special Experts. This provided us with a flavor of the UN General Assembly Sessions and trained us to become global leaders.”

As a Legal Fellow for the Environmental Justice Team at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), Aiswarya will support impactful and transformative work by providing legal representation to low-income communities of color harmed by climate and energy inequities. Her work entails combining legal strategies with community engagement and policy advocacy to address systemic injustices and promote equity in marginalized communities.

A Renewed Commitment to Public Interest Work

For Randeny, the journey back to public interest work took a perspective change. After engaging in public interest work in varying capacities for seven years, Randeny came to Penn Carey Law with a desire to learn something new and considered shifting her focus to more commercial subjects.

But by the end of the year, she found herself even more committed to public interest work than she ever imagined.

Indumini Randeny LLM’24“I met a close-knit group of individuals from different countries who have similarly dedicated their life to public interest work,” she said. “It was apparent that everywhere, the public-spirited work was met with resistance and that each of us had faced some form of difficulties in our line of work. In spite of that, there was a passion that kept all of us going.”

That passion fueled a strong commitment to make society more receptive to change, and the constant exchange of ideas during the pre-term and different classrooms at the Law School renewed Randeny’s own commitment to her work.

“As a former judicial clerk and attorney from the global South who has worked in cases involving constitutional rights, I am alive to the realities and inequalities that people face back at home,” she said. “I noticed that some of those realities are not visible to the rest of the world. It became imperative then for me to bring that perspective to the table.”

Randeny said Penn Carey Law was a supportive platform to that end, citing seminars on International Human Rights Law and Women’s Rights Law as well as the “truly transformative” work carried out by the Transnational Legal Clinic as opportunities that offered space to mend her initial disconnect.

As a Legal Fellow with the Malawi resentencing project in Reprieve, Randeny will work towards eradicating capital punishment in the African region. She will support the team’s efforts to create a body of robust, progressive jurisprudence on issues ranging from the impact of trauma to the introduction of expert forensic psychiatric assessment as an essential component of a capital trial.

“At its core is a commitment towards holding powerful governments accountable—something that resonates with my own beliefs,” she said.

Looking back, Randeny says she’s glad her Penn Carey Law experience changed her initial plans.

“The LLM public interest fellowship opened the path for me to realize that my experience as a policy researcher on transitional justice, judicial clerk, and a litigator are transferable to the benefit of another region,” she said. “That holds a special meaning. It humbles you and also gives you more power to keep up the good fight.”

Learn more about Penn Carey Law’s support for public interest careers.