Skip to main content

Penn Law student and graduate awarded Equal Justice Works Fellowships

May 04, 2015

As Equal Justice Works Fellows, Valerie Baron L'12 and Rick Mula L'15 will work on projects specifically focused on communities in need o...
As Equal Justice Works Fellows, Valerie Baron L'12 and Rick Mula L'15 will work on projects specifically focused on communities in need of legal assistance.
Valerie Baron L’12 and Rick Mula L’15 were awarded Equal Justice Works Fellowships to fund their work on innovative projects for communities in need of legal assistance.

One Penn Law student and one recent graduate, Valerie Baron L’12 and Rick Mula L’15, recently received Equal Justice Works Fellowships to fund their work on innovative projects for communities in need of legal assistance.

These two-year fellowships provide recipients with a competitive salary, loan repayment assistance, connections to sponsors, and training throughout their tenure. Baron and Mula are two of the 61 fellows chosen this year for the competitive program.

“We are incredibly proud of the work that Valerie and Rick have done, and these fellowships will give them the opportunity to continue the important public interest work they started at the Law School,” said Arlene Rivera Finkelstein, Associate Dean for Public Interest Programs and Executive Director of the Toll Public Interest Center. “These fellowships show that there is a real need for the kind of dedicated, talented lawyers that we train here at Penn Law.”

Baron, the Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by the Animal Welfare Trust, will work with the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action group headquartered in New York City, on factory farm issues.

Mula, the Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by the Mansfield Family Foundation, will work with the Southern Poverty Law Center to address through education and advocacy the discrimination and violence that LGBT youth face in schools, foster care, group homes, juvenile detention centers, and homeless shelters, focusing on the states of Tennessee and Alabama. 

Baron and Mula are just two of the latest Penn Law students and graduates to receive fellowships to further their public interest careers. Earlier this year, Tara Grigg Garlinghouse L’14, Katrina Cohen L’15, and Nina Martinez L’15 were awarded Skadden Fellowships, and Britney Wilson L’15 was awarded the Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellowship from the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Founded by law students in 1986, Equal Justice Works is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice. By providing training and skills, Equal Justice Works enables lawyers and law students effectively represent underserved communities and causes.

The Toll Public Interest Center is the hub of public service at Penn Law. This academic year, TPIC celebrated its 25th anniversary with a year-long series of lectures, workshops, and conferences on the power and impact of public interest lawyering. Established in 1989, the public service program at Penn Law requires every student to complete 70 hours of pro bono work prior to graduation. That requirement, to this day, remains the most rigorous in the nation.