Our Crowdfunding Groups
The Duquesne University School of Law Public Interest Law Association (PILA) seeks your support during our 2019 PILA Fellowship Crowdfunding Campaign. PILA is a student-run association dedicated to increasing awareness of public interest law and providing opportunities for students to gain experience in the public interest field. Members of PILA promote public service careers, present students with opportunities to participate in public service, and secure the funding to support the PILA Fellowship program.
The PILA Fellowship is awarded to students working with organizations that provide direct legal services to low-income and underserved clients. Law students apply for consideration in the spring, and those awarded fellowships work in 10-week placements during the summer. Fellows receive a $3,000 living stipend for a minimum of 300 hours of service. Placement sites have included the clinics offered at Duquesne, such as the Civil Rights Clinic, Education Law Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Juvenile Defender Clinic, and Veterans Clinic, as well as various non-profit advocacy organizations like KidsVoice, Neighborhood Legal Services Association, Fairshake Environmental Legal Services, and the Disabilities Rights Network of Pennsylvania.
The PILA Fellowship program is supported by fundraising efforts and administered through Duquesne Law’s Clinical Legal Education office. All donations made to PILA are tax deductible.
Any contribution is greatly appreciated. This year, we set the Giving Levels low to show how one small sacrifice can lead to a big change in someone’s life. Please consider supporting our law students, local nonprofit advocacy organizations, and the communities in which they serve.
Garrett Rine, JD Candidate 2019
My name is Garrett Rine. I am currently a 3L day student set to graduate in May. I came to law school after graduating with my B.A. and M.A. in Criminology and worked as a professional for approximately five years. When I applied to Duquesne I had my heart set on a career in the field of environmental law. During my 2L year, I had the opportunity to participate in the law school's Public Defender Clinic, taught by the Director, Deputy Director and Deputy of the Trial Division at Allegheny County's Public Defender's office. At the same time, I had the opportunity to briefly work with a fantastic environmental law firm, and found that I really had undergone a change of heart and wanted to focus my energy on criminal defense.
Upon finishing the year-long clinic, I decided to see if there were any openings for my final summer of law school at the Public Defender's office. There were opportunities, but as every law student knows, I also had to consider the financial aspects over the summer. The PILA scholarship allowed me to pursue a public interest internship, while also providing a stipend to help keep me afloat for the summer. It truly was an invaluable experience. Due to my prior work experience, I was asked to assist in a specific type of court called Phoenix Court. I was able to represent clients daily and I was treated like a practicing attorney. I worked in this capacity for the majority of my summer internship, and due to my performance, was offered and accepted a full-time clerk to attorney position at the Public Defender's office upon graduation and passing the bar.
I can honestly say that without the PILA scholarship I would not have had the opportunity to spend my final summer before graduation in the placement that I truly wanted. It is a distinct benefit that Duquesne offers its students that not every law school provides. I would encourage my fellow law students to apply for the PILA fellowship if there is a Public Interest job placement that you are passionate about and I ask others to donate to this year’s crowdfunding campaign in support of the PILA fellowship.
Megan Rothermel, JD Candidate 2019
I came to law school to advocate for individuals with special needs. During my first year of law school, the Director of Career Services, Maria Comas, recommended that I apply to work with Disability Rights Pennsylvania [DRP] after my second year of law school. I anxiously awaited their job posting and immediately applied.
Disability Right’s motto is: “protecting and advancing the rights of people with disabilities.” I was honored to be a part of providing free advocacy services to Pennsylvanians this past summer. The individuals with DRP truly care about Pennsylvanian’s with disabilities and want to make a change. To create large systemic changes, there needs to be teamwork and collaboration. While I physically worked at the DRP’s Pittsburgh office this summer, I was also constantly communicating and brainstorming with DRP’s offices in Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
Working at Disability Rights affirmed my desire to advocate for individuals with special needs. One of my favorite parts of working at DRP was conducting live intakes. Each day, DRP has staff members monitoring a toll-free intake system which is available to all Pennsylvanians. The staff gives legal advice, advocacy, or information and referral to each of the callers. A lot of the calls were for special education law, and I was able to use knowledge I had learned in Duquesne’s Education Law clinic to assist the callers. I really appreciated the direct-client contact, especially since this is hard to get as students. The staff at DRP not only mentored me but also trusted me enough to have this client contact. DRP also has many resources on their website which anyone can access for free at any time. I was able to apply my research and writing skills that I learned in my first year Legal Research and Writing course to adequately research and write comprehensive self-advocacy guides for the website. Some of the topics I wrote about were special education, housing, and service animals.
This PILA fellowship meant that I was able to pursue my passion and follow my dream. I was truly able to practice in the field that had inspire me to come to law school. The fellowship also allowed me to experience public interest work; a field that many young attorneys cannot access. I am incredibly grateful for the PILA fellowship and those who funded it, for allowing me to follow my heart and make a change.
Sarah Eileen Linder, JD Candidate 2020
I am a second-year law student and recipient of a PILA Fellowship last summer. I decided to pursue a degree in law because of my devotion to public service. I hope to use my education and privilege to represent clientele who have historically been disenfranchised in their access to justice. When not at school, I work at Neighborhood Legal Services as a Bankruptcy student, and regularly perform improvisational comedy with my team “Ted City Yodelers.”
In my capacity as a PILA Fellow, I worked at ACTION Housing, Inc., Pittsburgh’s largest non-profit real estate developer and provider of affordable housing services. I completed a variety of legal tasks, under the supervision of in-house counsel, including drafting sales agreements, board resolutions and company polices. My long-term assignment was to identify every property ACTION Housing has an interest in currently, and since its inception in 1957, and compile a comprehensive file of all the necessary incorporation documents with a breakdown of each corporate entity, while defining ACTION Housing’s interest in the entity. ACTION Housing ultimately had interest in over a hundred different entities and/or properties. I also accompanied employees on job sites, property management operations, and in magisterial court arbitration as well as the Allegheny County’s Court of Common Pleas Mortgage Court Program.
I look forward to interacting with my colleagues at ACTION Housing through a summer internship at Neighborhood Legal Services, then graduating from law school and getting married in May of next year. I am deeply grateful to all those who have supported public interest legal work.
Steven Reddy, JD Candidate 2020
I came to law school because I realized I was not cut out to be a pharmacist. However, an unfortunate experience in the form of Honors Chemistry II in high school changed my outlook on my career prospects. Back to square one, I realized I greatly enjoyed writing and research. I also noticed that I was interested in crime and police procedural novels and television shows. After some research, the career of a criminal attorney piqued my interest. In undergrad, I dual majored in Criminal Justice and Psychology, and was able to intern with the Honorable Debra A. Pezze on the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas. My experiences there cemented my interest in a career in criminal law, and motivated me to apply to law school.
Through a PILA Fellowship, I was able to work with the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel, which provides criminal defense to indigent defendants after a conflict of interest is discovered with the Public Defender’s Office. During my time at the office, I was able to interview clients, review discovery materials, construct motions, and write part of an appellate brief to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. I greatly enjoyed my experiences with the office, and it was especially rewarding knowing my work was helping our clients face criminal charges intelligently and honestly. Given that this is a public interest career, any internship I would have received would have been unpaid. Receiving the PILA Fellowship allowed me worry less about paying my bills and focus more on helping our clients. I am very grateful for receiving such an opportunity.
Mark Stevens, JD Candidate 2020
Before law school, I spent more than a decade working at newspapers in Ohio, Michigan, and Pittsburgh. My experience in journalism was amazing, but when the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ceased its print publication in 2016, I decided to finally pursue something I had been considering since I was in my teens: a law degree.
I chose Duquesne University School of Law partly because of the Civil Rights Clinic, and I spent the summer after my first year working side by side with Professor Tracey McCants-Lewis in the clinic. With my placement at the clinic, I had an unbelievable summer. I drafted hundreds of expungement petitions for low-income clients. I participated in every step of the pardon process, from completing applications and interviewing clients to preparing clients for their public hearings in front of the Board of Pardons—hearings I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. I had a tremendous amount of client interaction early in my legal career, and I was able to attend many other types of events alongside Professor McCants-Lewis: meetings of the city’s Equal Opportunity Review Commission, protests downtown, and events for the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice. I even got to participate with the professor as she consulted with the writers of the TV show “How to Get Away with Murder,” and I used my journalism experience to help prepare her for an on-camera interview with for a local news broadcast.
The PILA Fellowship gave me the opportunity to have these experiences, while also being able to earn much-needed money. I would not trade my summer experiences for anything, and the generosity of PILA made sure that I not only had that chance but also that I was able to afford to accept the position.
Paige Thomas, JD Candidate 2020
Hi there! My name is Paige Thomas and I am currently a second-year law student at Duquesne University School of Law. I attended college at Penn State University where I majored in psychology and received a minor in business. My family is from about forty minutes north of the city, so I have always been a Pittsburgh girl and have loved growing up in such a great community. I love how Pittsburgh offers city living but is still small enough to feel like home.
Unlike many other law students, I wasn’t sure about coming to law school throughout high school and college. I always had it in the back of my mind but was never sure that I could commit. When I chose psychology after switching my major three or four times, I knew I didn’t exactly want to be a psychologist or psychiatrist. It was then that I decided that I didn’t want to go either route. The thought of law school crept back into my mind, and after spending one summer interning with a family court judge, I was committed.
After my first year of law school, I interned with the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in the Family Division working with the Legal Advice Clinic (LAC). LAC provides free assistance to pro se litigants (i.e. those who do not have attorney) to help them prepare pleadings and to offer legal advice. I worked hands-on with real clients every day and got to meet many attorneys over the summer. I was able to sit-in on motions court every day, where both pro se litigants and attorneys appear and have a “mini-hearing” on specific issues. The experience I gained by working with clients and sitting in on court proceedings was invaluable.
The PILA Fellowship helped me lessen the financial burden I would have otherwise felt during the summer. Although public service internships are valuable and important, most do not typically pay. The PILA Fellowship allowed me to pursue an area of law that I am passionate about and gain valuable insight into the daily life of a practicing attorney. I wouldn’t have been able to accept a summer internship in public service without help from the PILA Fellowship.
Join your fellow Duquesne School of Law alumni, faculty/staff, and current students at the Spring Alumni Reception at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Pittsburgh, Downtown, on Thursday, April 4, 2019 - 5-8:00 p.m.
