The high-powered law firm of Skadden Arps pays above-market bonuses to high-performing senior associates, but that is not the firm’s noblest form of generosity. It is far more famous — and justifiably so — for launching and supporting the Skadden Fellowship program.
Described as “a legal Peace Corps,” the program was established in 1988, in honor of Skadden’s 40th anniversary as a law firm. The two-year fellowships support graduating law students committed to public interest work as they embark upon specific projects at sponsoring organizations. The fellowships are viewed as the public-interest world’s version of Supreme Court clerkships or Rhodes Scholarships. So they are both public-spirited and prestigious — what’s not to like?
The Skadden Foundation just announced its 2017 class of Skadden Fellows. The 30 fellows come from 15 different law schools. Yale has the most fellows in this class, with six; Harvard, last year’s top producer, takes second place, with five.
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Congratulations to the winners of the Skadden Fellowships, and good luck to them as they start working next year at wonderful organizations around the country. For the full list of 2017 fellows and a list of which law schools have produced the most Skadden Fellows over the past nine years, flip to the next page.
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].