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Laura Hannon L’24, SP2’24 and Brian Thomas L’24 have been awarded Equal Justice Works Fellowships.
Two recent University of Pennsylvania Carey Law graduates—Laura Hannon L’24, SP2’24 and Brian Thomas L’24—were awarded Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellowships as part of the nonprofit organization’s Design-Your-Own Fellowship program.
Since 1986, EJW has brought together law students, lawyers, advocates, legal services organizations, and supporters to promote a lifelong commitment to public service and equal justice. The Design-Your-Own Fellowship program gives lawyers the opportunity to “transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service,” while forging their own paths in addressing specific issues with communities and organizations they care most about.
The prestigious program will fund Hannon and Thomas’s public interest projects—in Seattle and Philadelphia, respectively—for the next two years at their host organizations.
Laura Hannon L’24, SP2’24
Hannon’s Fellowship is hosted by the Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP) in Seattle, Washington alongside the Washington Pro Bono Council’s Dementia Legal Planning Program. The project seeks to expand advance legal planning for seniors with dementia in Washington, with the aim to protect indigent seniors’ fundamental rights to age with dignity, autonomy, and self-determination by expanding access to less restrictive alternatives to guardianship and supporting appropriate protective arrangements.
With the number of seniors with dementia expected to double in the next 25 years in the state of Washington, Hannon’s work seeks to bridge the gap in the provision of advance legal planning services to better prevent elder abuse and fraud through unwarranted guardianships.
Seniors with marginalized identities are at an even greater risk, and Hannon’s project targets seniors with limited English proficiency and those living in rural areas, providing individualized legal assistance while expanding Dementia Legal Planning Clinics in those communities throughout the state.
Hannon’s project will also address the lack of federal and state data collection on guardianships through educational outreach and plans to develop a comprehensive report to help stakeholders better understand and evaluate the state of guardianship proceedings in Washington.
“I’m ecstatic to spend two years with ELAP learning from public interest and pro bono attorneys and advocating for less-restrictive alternatives to guardianship for Washington seniors,” she said.
A native of rural Idaho, Hannon has firsthand experience with the impacts of dementia in caring for her grandparents. She graduated from the University of Idaho with degrees in Psychology and Public Relations and a minor in Political Science.
Before she came to Penn Carey Law, Hannon worked for Idaho’s Center on Disabilities and Human Development where she engaged in statewide disability advocacy and accessibility projects. At the University of Idaho, she led initiatives for accessible mental health services, mandatory inclusivity training, and lobbied for healthcare expansion. At an internship with the Idaho Human Rights Commission, she helped fellow Idahoans begin civil rights investigations.
Hannon also worked as an election campaign manager and intern in the U.S. Senate, where she discovered a passion for equity in healthcare, education, and employment access. She was on the board of If/When/How and the Student Public Interest Network (SPIN) at the Law School and a proud member of Penn Carey Law’s public service community. She was also Online Editor of the Journal of Law and Social Change.
“My experiences at Penn Carey Law prepared me well for this fellowship project,” she said. “Taking ‘Health, Disability, and Justice’, with Professors of Law Allison K. Hoffman and Jasmine Harris, completing an internship at Temple Law’s Center for Public Health Law Research, and participating in the Medical-Legal Partnership Pro Bono project all encouraged me to explore the overlap between health law and disability justice.”
“These opportunities gave me the tools and perspectives I needed to develop my project in a way that would be both sensitive and thorough. I’m also very grateful for OCS, Professor Harris, and the Penn alumni-network for all the help and feedback they provided during the application process.”
Brian Thomas L’24
Thomas designed his Fellowship in partnership with Disability Rights Pennsylvania, where he will work to increase access to education and mental healthcare for young people with disabilities in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system through direct-client representation. He also plans to work in coalition with other community organizations to advocate for more robust alternatives to detention for young people in the justice system. His project is supported by Comcast and Duane Morris.
“I came to law school hoping to continue working with young people impacted by the justice system here in Philadelphia, even though I was unsure what that would look like at the outset,” said Thomas. “Working with the Youth Advocacy Project—a pro bono effort under the supervision of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project—helped deepen my understanding of the juvenile system’s impact on young people, especially those with disabilities who are disproportionately represented.”
Thomas shared that hearing directly from young people about the challenges they faced while in custody directly led to developing this project, which will also include work alongside community organizations in Philadelphia to not only drive awareness about the legal rights of children with disabilities in the justice system but help create alternatives to detention.
The Fellowship will conclude with a report on Thomas’ project, chronicling issues these young people face and solutions to reduce recidivism and allow them to reach their full potential.
A West Chester, Pennsylvania native, Thomas came to Penn Carey Law after graduating from Ursinus College where he majored in English and Politics. He helped build Beyond the Bars — a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that interrupts the cycles of violence and incarceration through music education programs—teaching music to incarcerated teens in adult prisons in Philadelphia.
At Penn Carey Law, Thomas, a Toll Public Interest Fellow, was on the board of the Youth Advocacy Project and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Law and Social Change. During law school, he worked with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Community Legal Services’ Employment Unit.
“My hope is that at the end of this project, not only will more kids have access to the services they need to thrive,” Thomas said, “but also that fewer kids are held for unnecessarily long periods and that there are more robust, community-based alternatives to detention.”
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