Equal Justice Works Fellows are extraordinary group of lawyers. Many create new streams of funding so that projects continue beyond the two years of their fellowships. Others assume leadership roles in nonprofit organizations or find other ways to integrate their projects into their work. The exponential impact of the Fellowships is impressive and has helped to ensure a sustainable pipeline of lawyers engaged in public service.

Here are just of a few of the lawyers who began their careers as Equal Justice Works Fellows and went on to become nationally prominent leaders in their causes.

• Rachel Meeropol, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York
• Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
• Christopher Nugent, Senior Counsel with the Community Services Team
  of Holland & Knight LLP
• Robin R. Runge, Director, ABA Commission on Domestic Violence
• Tirien Steinbach, Executive Director, East Bay Community Law Center
• The Honorable Steve Tobocman, Michigan House of Representatives.
• Wynona Ward, President & Founder, Have Justice – Will Travel

Rachel Meeropol, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York
At 29, Rachel Meeropol (Equal Justice Works Fellow, 2002-2004) is already at the forefront of national civil rights litigation; thus, she was named to the National Law Journal’s “40 under 40” list in 2005. She is a member of the litigating team in Doe v. Bush, a case seeking legal representation for the unnamed detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. She was a researcher on the recent Supreme Court cases Rasul v. Bush, another Guantánamo case, and Wilkinson v. Austin, which challenged due process at super maximum-security prisons.

Meeropol is currently lead counsel in Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a class action on behalf of Muslim men held in immigration sweeps following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, currently before the Eastern District of New York; Walton v. NYDOCS and MCI, a suit against New York state and the phone company MCI Inc. over MCI's monopoly contract on phone calls made from prison, on appeal in New York state court; and Daniels v. The City of New York, a racial-profiling class action against the New York City Police Department, which settled two years ago and resulted in modified training for police officers. In addition, Meeropol is the co-vice president of the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; a co-editor and primary author of the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook, a reference guide for prisoners without an attorney to learn their rights; and the editor of America's Disappeared: Secret Imprisonment, Detainees, and the "War on Terror."

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Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
Shannon Minter (Equal Justice Works Fellow, 1993-1995) works for transgender people throughout the United States, representing them in cases to gain their rights and assisting other attorneys who represent transgender clients. Minter has drafted and helped other groups draft local and federal legislation that grants transgender people civil rights. In Portland, Oregon, he helped develop non-discrimination policies against transgender prisoners, and in San Francisco, he and other community members succeeded in a campaign to secure equal health care benefits for transgender city employees. Shannon was lead counsel for same-sex couples in the marriage equality case recently decided by the California Supreme Court.

In 1993, during his Equal Justice Works Fellowship, Minter founded NCLR’s Youth Project, the first legal-advocacy group to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. He now supervises the Safe Homes Project at NCLR, which helps LGBT youth who face discrimination and problems in foster care, group homes, or the juvenile-justice system. Shannon is one of the nation’s experts on transgender issues, writing on the issues and speaking in forums, hearings, and gatherings around the country. Shannon has authored numerous articles and books on LGBT legal issues, including Transgender Rights (University of Minnesota Press 2006) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Family Law (West Publishing 2008) and has taught as an adjunct or associate professor at Boalt, Stanford, Golden Gate, Santa Clara, and the University of San Francisco Schools of Law.

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Christopher Nugent Senior Counsel with the Community Services Team of Holland & Knight LLP
Christopher Nugent’s fellowship project focused on establishing a program to address the myriad of problems the indigenous farm worker community is facing by creating real world, sustainable solutions to those problems. Chris’ project, based out of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF) in Oceanside, aimed to improve the economic self-sufficiency and quality of life for the indigenous farm worker population. Chris’ project trained and coordinated indigenous farm workers as day care providers; by training farm workers as community interpreters to ensure equal access to the courts and state services; by creating a network of farm worker-owned and operated community gardens for improved nutrition and to supplement the farm workers’ incomes; and by creating a farm worker-owned credit union that will help workers establish and maintain economic security through small business development and other mechanisms. During the fellowship, he learned that his work was not just a job…it is a mission.

Prior to his fellowship, Chris was involved in an Equal Justice Works (formerly NAPIL) summer program. After the fellowship, he became the Executive Director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (AZ) and later served as Director of the ABA Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice and Pro Bono. In 2003, he joined Holland & Knight.

Currently, Chris works as Senior Counsel with the Community Services Team of Holland & Knight LLP in Washington D.C. He is responsible for developing cutting-edge immigration-related pro-bono projects and trainings for firm offices and undertaking complex domestic and international casework involving immigration and public policy. At 3,000 hours per year, Chris still calls it his “dream job.” He calls his projects “beautiful and impossible.”

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Robin R. Runge, Director, ABA Commission on Domestic Violence
Robin R. Runge has been a domestic violence victim advocate for thirteen years and practiced employment law for five years with a focus on women’s rights in employment, specifically the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and employment protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Robin is a nationally-recognized expert on the employment rights of victims and speaks and provides trainings regularly on these issues. She has co-authored several articles on employment law and domestic violence, and has worked on state and federal legislation providing job-guaranteed leave from work, unemployment insurance and anti-discrimination in employment for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.

Previously, Robin was Deputy Director of the D.C. Employment Justice Center (a nonprofit founded by another Equal Justice Works Fellowship program alum) and, as an Equal Justice Works Fellow (1997-1999), she was the coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Employment Project at the Employment Law Center, Legal Aid Society of San Francisco. In these capacities, she was responsible for the development and supervision of the legal, policy, and public education components of each program.

Robin currently serves on the advisory board of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence. She is also co-chair of the board of directors of Women Empowered against Violence (WEAVE), a nonprofit agency providing legal, counseling and economic literacy support to domestic violence victims in Washington, D.C. She is currently an Associate Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School teaching Public Interest Lawyering and an Adjunct Professor at The American University Washington College of Law where she teaches Domestic Violence Law.

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Tirien Steinbach, Executive Director, East Bay Community Law Center
During her fellowship, Tirien worked to gather and organize information on the California Youth Authority and common ward experiences to develop chronologies and model arguments. Attorneys can now use this material to show that early childhood incarceration often does not rehabilitate young people; rather, it can lead to criminal behavior in the future. In this way, the information helps judges and juries reach a judgment other than death. Tirien’s project provided death penalty attorneys with a valuable tool for challenging death sentences. She cites Equal Justice Works with giving her the tools, training and experience necessary to feel that she could be taken seriously and really make a difference. She said that her fellowship shaped her future.

In 2006, Tirien was awarded the Hon. Thelton E. Henderson Social Justice Prize and served as the director of the Decriminalization of Poverty Practice at the East Bay Community Law Center. The EBCLC was founded in 1988 with the core value of equal access to justice. Since 1988, the EBCLC has become the largest provider of free legal services in the East Bay and a nationally recognized poverty law clinic. Currently, Tirien is the Executive Director of the East Bay Community Law Center. Through EBCLC, her work reaches over 5,000 clients and 100 law students per year. She is able to teach volunteers that it’s not just the work, but how it is done. Tirien promotes not just looking for a quick fix to clients’ legal problems. Rather she believes that one must look at the bigger picture and how to affect policy bring about systematic changes.

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The Honorable Steve Tobocman, Michigan House of Representatives
Representative Steve Tobocman is a committed advocate for Southwest Detroit and the citizens of his community. For the better part of a decade, he has worked in Southwest Detroit using his legal and public policy skills to help revitalize the community and improve the quality of life of community members. During his Equal Justice Works fellowship (1999-2001), Steve founded and became executive director of Community Legal Resources, an organization that provided an innovative approach to linking nonprofit organizations across the state with free legal representation from the region's most skilled attorneys and law firms. Since its inception, the program has provided legal services to over 200 nonprofit organizations. These services have been valued at nearly $1.5 million and the program has received national recognition for its leadership.

Steve's advocacy for urban economic revitalization projects is unrivaled. He is a founding member of both Community Development Advocates of Detroit and the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, the local and state trade associations for community development. Steve has received numerous local accolades, including the Michigan Housing Trust Fund's recognition as an Affordable Housing Warrior, the Accounting Aid Society's Jeanne Vogt Nonprofit Leadership Award, Crain's Detroit Business “40 Under 40“ and Hour Magazine's “Generation Next.”

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Wynona I. Ward, President and Founder, Have Justice – Will Travel
After an occurrence of domestic abuse in her own family, Wynona Ward attended law school and created “Have Justice – Will Travel” through her Equal Justice Works Fellowship. She began providing in-home consultation and direct legal services for low-income, rural Vermonters who are victims of domestic violence. HJWT is an innovative mobile multi-service legal unit that assists domestic violence victims from the initial interview to relief from abuse, all the way through to self reliance and independence.

Currently, Wynona is the President & Founder of HJWT. Since its inception in 1998, HJWT has expanded from Wynona’s kitchen into four offices which house 4 full-time attorneys, 2 legal interns, 3 paralegals/client service coordinators and an administrative assistant. HJWT has provided services for almost 10,000 women and children in 11 out of 14 Vermont Counties. The best measure of the impact of HJWT is that 90% of clients do not return to abusive relationships. As part of HJWT, Wynona has also developed the LEAP program and a “women in transition” group, which helps provide support and teach skills to women leaving abusive relationships. In addition to her work at HJWT, Wynona is also providing instructive seminars on how to implement the HJWT model in rural areas throughout the country.

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