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Ms. JD has awarded Fellowships to 11 law students. Fellows were selected based on their academic performance, leadership, and dedication to advancing the status of women in the profession.  The winners reflect a full range of diverse interests and backgrounds, with women pursuing opportunities in public interest, academia, and private sector in every region of the country.  More than half of the recipients come from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in the legal profession. 

The 2012 Ms. JD Fellowship Winners are:

Joanne Caceres, Harvard Law School

Kristen Corpion, Berkeley Law

Maya Diamant Lentz, Northwestern University Law School

Lauren Fried, Northwestern University Law School

Sri Kuehnlenz, Yale Law School

Jane Levich, Berkeley Law

Shanita Nicholas, Columbia Law School

Sonya Passi, Berkeley Law

Patricija Petrac, University of California Davis Law School

Raychelle Tasher, Florida A&M University Law School

Ms. JD created the Ms. JD Fellowship in order to promote mentoring and professional development for future female attorneys. The mentors are taken from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Award Winners and Commissioners. In addition to receiving financial support and invitations to ABA and Ms. JD events, each Fellowship winner is being paired with a mentor. Participating mentors include:

Lauren Stiller Rikleen, The Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership

Elizabeth Cabraser, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP

The Honorable Arnette Hubbard, Circuit Court of Cook County

Joan Hall, Jenner & Block

The Honorable Delissa Ridgway, United States Court of International Trade

Raymond Ocampo Jr., Samuri Surfer LLC

Brooksley Born, Arnold & Porter

Marna Tucker, Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell

The Honorable Marsha Berzon, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

The Honorable Peggy Quince, Supreme Court of Florida

The Honorable Ruth Burg, Private Mediator & Arbitrator

The Ms. JD Fellows commit to working together on a project during the year of their fellowship.  Look for more information about the fellows, their project ideas, and the project they ultimately chose on the Ms. JD blog in the coming weeks!

Please join us in congratulating Ms. JD's 2012 Fellows and their Mentors!

Joanne Caceres

Originally from Washington Heights, New York, Joanne graduated with a B.A. from Princeton University, where she majored in Religion.  Joanne then worked as a Marketing Analyst at Morgan Stanley Investment Management for three years before entering Harvard Law School as a J.D. candidate.  On campus, Joanne is active in Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the Women's Law Association, and the Journal of Law and Gender. She spent the past summer interning with the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women, and is currently a summer associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP.

Kristen Corpion

Kristen Corpion graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Florida (USF) with a double major in Political Science and Anthropology. While at USF, she served as the Chief Justice of the Student Government Supreme Court, founded and served as the President of the Mock Trial Program and was awarded the USF Outstanding Senior award. Kristen is a third-year law student at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. During her time at Boalt, Kristen has served as Executive Editor for the Berkeley Business Law Journal, a Law Clerk for the East Bay Community Law Center—assisting “green” worker co-operatives with various legal matters—and as a member of the Moot Court Board. She recently competed in the ABA Labor and Employment Law Student Trial Advocacy Competition, taking home a Regional Championship and National Runner-up title. With over nine years of mock trial experience, Kristen hopes that her chosen legal practice will afford her significant time in a courtroom.

Maya Diamant Lentz

Maya is a third year candidate in a joint JD and LLM in International Human Rights program at Northwestern Law School. There, she served on the ACLU board and as President of the Public Interest Law Group. She is the current Managing Editor of the Northwestern Law Journal of Law and Social Policy. Maya recieved her undergraduate degree from Barnard College at Columbia University in sociology, and was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in New York City. This summer, she is working at the ACLU of NJ and is an Equal Justice Works summer corps member at Equip for Equality working in special needs education law. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, reading and cooking.

Lauren Fried

Lauren Fried is a rising 3L at Northwestern University School of Law. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Anthropology. This past summer she was a summer associate at Cooley, LLP in San Francisco. In addition to her academic pursuits, Lauren is currently the Development & Symposium Editor for the Journal of International Law and Business. She is also the former Barrister's Ball Chairman and the current Co-Chair of the Graduation Committee. In her free time, she enjoys watching Pac-10 basketball games and playing tennis.

Sri Kuehnlenz

Sri Kuehnlenz is a third-year law student at the Yale Law School, where she is a student director of the Legal Services in Immigrant Communities Clinic and a student representative for the Class of 2013.  She has previously served on the boards of Yale Law Women and the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism.  While in law school, Sri interned at the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General and was a summer associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.  Originally from Cold Spring, New York, Sri graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 2010 with a B.A. in American Studies and minors in Economics and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Jane Levich

Jane Levich is a third-year law student at UC Berkeley. She graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a B.A. in History. While in law school, Jane has been active in the intellectual property program. She currently serves as the Senior Annual Review Editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, has participated in the Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology and Public Policy, and was a research assistant for Professor Peter Menell. Jane also served on the Board of the Boalt Hall Women’s Association. Jane externed for the Honorable James V. Selna last summer and is currently a summer associate at Harvey Siskind LLP.

Shanita Nicholas

Shanita Nicholas is a rising 3L at Columbia University, where she is pursuing a JD/MBA. She serves as Operations Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review and VP of External Relations for the Black Business Students Association. Shanita received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University. Prior to attending law school, she was an IT Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia.  Shanita is currently interning at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and will be splitting part of her internship with the JPMorgan Chase in-house legal department. She has interned at the Port Authority of NY/NJ and with several small start-ups based out of London and New York.

Sonya Passi

Sonya is a third year at Berkeley Law and the co-founder of the Family Violence Appellate Project (FVAP), a new nonprofit organization that provides appellate representation to victims of domestic violence in California. She has worked as a law clerk in the domestic violence unit of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and chaired the Berkeley Law Stop Domestic Violence Group. Additionally, she has served as an articles editor for both the Berkeley Technology and Law Journal and the Berkeley Journal of African American Law and Policy. Before coming to law school, Sonya earned her B.A. and MPhil. from the University of Cambridge where she was a member of Trinity College. At Cambridge she founded the Cambridge Domestic Violence Action Group which educated college students about issues of domestic violence. She also founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Cambridge Undergraduate History Journal. During her college summers she worked in the UK Houses of Parliament, the US House of Representatives, and on the 2008 Obama for America Campaign. She is currently enjoying a summer associateship at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP and will be spending her third year of law school at Harvard.

Patricija Petrac

Patricija Petrac graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Political Science and is currently a third-year law student at University of California, Davis School of Law. Prior to law school, she worked at UCLA's Center for the Study of Women and researched drug and crime policy for Professor Mark Kleiman at UCLA School of Public Policy. She was also an integral leader in a young start-up, Philanthro Productions, a non-profit whose aim is to inspire philanthropy in young adults by connecting them with leading non-profits. While in law school, she served on the board of the school's chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Lambda Law Student Association (including co-chair 2011-12), and Coalition for Diversity (including co-chair 2012-13). She is most proud of co-founding and serving as co-chair of the King Hall Women's Law Association. In addition, she participated in the school's phenomenal immigration law clinic, in which she represented a client using the Violence Against Women Act. She has had the privilege to work as a research assistant to Professor Lisa R. Pruitt and law clerk for the UC Hastings Center for WorkLife Law.

Raychelle Tasher

Raychelle Tasher is a dedicated and humble first generation Trinidadian-American from Silver Spring, Maryland. She is a political economist with a Bachelors degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics. Her many experiences include international intelligence analysis, financial planning, and legal apprenticeship. Raychelle is currently a rising 3L law student at Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando, Florida. Most notably, she was recognized by The Florida Bar Association's City, County and Local Government Law Section as an "Outstanding Local Government Law School Student". During her 2L year, Raychelle was a member of the 1st place Client Counseling Team for the Region 5 Competition on Education Law in Macon, GA. Her leadership includes senior class president of her undergraduate class, Student Bar Association secretary and active membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Raychelle is also the student representative for the National African American Drug Policy Coalition-Florida Chapter, under the national leadership of Senior Judge Arthur Burnett. Most recently, Raychelle was elected National Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Law Student Division 2012-2013. Raychelle hopes to pursue a legal career in Bankruptcy, Housing Law and Urban Development. Her personal focus through legal education is to empower women and minorities. She also enjoys traveling, writing, reading and community service.