Congratulations To The 2021 Skadden Fellows

During times like these, we need lawyers committed to public service more than ever.

Skadden Arps (photo by David Lat).

Our nation is going through difficult times, as the coronavirus pandemic worsens, millions of Americans remain unemployed, and racial injustice and inequality persist. The need for us to help our fellow citizens runs especially high.

During a period like this, it’s heartening to see how the legal community has stepped up to the plate. For example, during the recent National Pro Bono Celebration, thousands of lawyers and law students across the country participated in volunteer events.

Some lawyers go even further, doing not just occasional pro bono work but dedicating their entire careers to working in the public interest. And hundreds of these lawyers — more than 900 of them, to be more precise — have started their legal careers doing public interest work with the support of Skadden Fellowships.

As we’ve explained in the past, these prestigious fellowships, the public-interest world’s version of Supreme Court clerkships or Rhodes Scholarships, allow their recipients to pursue public interest work on a full-time basis for two years. Skadden Arps started the program in 1988 to commemorate its 40th anniversary as a law firm, and more than 30 years later, it continues to provide its generous support.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Skadden announced its 2021 class of fellows. These 29 graduating law students and judicial clerks will work in 18 cities in 14 states across the United States, focusing on such issues as education equity, gender-based violence, housing, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ+ rights, police accountability, voting rights, and workers’ rights.

For the 2021 class of fellows, Harvard led the way with nine fellows, UC Berkeley produced five fellows, and UCLA minted three. The remaining law schools each placed one graduate into the program — including one newcomer to the list, the University of Kansas School of Law.

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Congratulations to the new Skadden Fellows — and thanks to them, as well as Skadden Arps, for all that they do in service of the public interest.

(Flip to the next page for the complete list of the 2021 Skadden Fellows, as well as a list of the law schools that have produced the most Skadden Fellows over the years.)

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