Stanford Law School Students Recognized for Public Service Work
115 Members of the 2018 Class Graduating with Pro Bono Distinction
On May 15, Stanford Law School students were honored for their contributions in public interest law at a ceremony attended by fellow classmates, faculty and staff. SLS students who were awarded prestigious fellowships were also honored at the event.
SLS Dean M. Elizabeth Magill spoke at the start of the ceremony. “What a difference a group of dedicated people can make in a short time,” said Dean Magill. Seeing your level of commitment and knowing the change you will continue to make in the world is simply one of the best parts of my job.
Michael Winn, SLS Director, Pro Bono and Externship Programs and Lecturer in Law, applauded the 2018 graduating class. “You have had an unprecedented impact on public service during your time in law school — 115 students are graduating with distinction, 22,000 hours of pro bono work was completed and 96 students from this class committed their entire first summer to nonprofits and government agencies. Frankly, I am in awe of your commitment to justice.”
One SLS graduating student, Samson “Sammy” Schatz, JD ‘18, logged an impressive 799 pro bono hours during his time in law school (an SLS record). Sammy credited the number of hours to “lots of appellate work hours which are easier to log than time at a prison or immigration center where you help folks in person, although I was honored to be able to make a difference in several cases.” After graduation, Sammy will clerk in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and then he will go into public service.
Deborah L. Rhode Public Interest Award
The Deborah L. Rhode Public Interest Award recognizes graduating students whose activities have resulted in outstanding contributions to underrepresented groups or public interest causes outside of Stanford Law School and/or outstanding public service within the law school.
The award selection committee—comprised entirely of alumni who are past Rhode Award winners—chose two recipients who were nominated by faculty, staff and fellow students. Following are this year’s award winners and comments culled from their nominators’ submissions:
B. Matthew McConnell JD ‘18
“Matt McConnell has had a tremendous impact both inside and outside SLS. Before law school, Matt spent time in Mongolia as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. Starting from his 1L year at SLS with a volunteer commitment to the International Human Rights Clinic and the Int’l Refugee Assistance Pro Bono Project, Matt has worked tirelessly as an international human rights advocate. His other contributions and leadership roles include the Stanford International Human Rights Law Association, the Stanford Migration Project, and the Stanford Human Rights Center.”
The faculty, staff and students who nominated Matt praised his incredible work ethic, his humility, his compassionate interactions with clients, his generous spirit in helping his fellow classmates, and his commitment to international human rights. Matt pursued this commitment during his summers at Accountability Counsel in San Francisco and Human Rights Watch in D.C.
Matt will work for Human Rights Watch after graduation through a Stanford Law School International Postgraduate Fellowship.
Elena Mercado Rodriguez JD ‘18
“Elena has been an incredible student leader. Her service to SLS and her fellow classmates have changed SLS for the better. As chairwoman of the Stanford Latino Law Students’ Association (SLLSA), Elena’s leadership helped recruit the largest class of Latinx law students at Stanford Law School. For Elena, it was not enough to hope for the best and follow the usual pattern of recruitment. She wrote letters of encouragement and assembled student resumes, personal statements, and diversity statements to send to prospective applicants. She worked tirelessly to maintain the solidarity across affinity groups that makes the SLS affinity group community so special.”
Over her three years at SLS, Elena has also been co-founder and co-student leader of Stanford Advocates for Immigrants’ Rights and active with the Immigration Pro Bono Project and Women of Color Collective. In addition to her regular and ongoing service to the Bay Area immigrant community, Elena spent her 1L spring break documenting human rights violations in detention centers with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Elena will be joining Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate in the fall, with a strong commitment to transitioning into public interest immigrants’ rights practice soon thereafter.
The Lisa M. Schnitzer Memorial Scholarship
The Lisa M. Schnitzer Memorial Scholarship was established by the family and friends of Lisa M. Schnitzer, a first-year student at Stanford Law School who was killed in a car accident in 1987. The scholarship was designed to be a lasting tribute to Lisa, in recognition of her deeply held commitment to helping others, particularly those less fortunate.
This year’s Lisa M. Schnitzer Memorial Scholarship was presented to Mariel Perez-Santiago by Rachel E. Green, JD ‘19, last year’s award winner. Rachel shared with the audience why Mariel was selected for the scholarship:
Mariel Perez-Santiago, JD ‘20
Mariel Perez-Santiago lived in Puerto Rico until age nine, when she moved to Texas. She grew up in Texas being proud of being Latina and observed the discrimination faced by many Texan Latinos. Mariel went to college at Baylor, where she became friends with a group of Colombian students who had lost family and friends during conflicts in Columbia. Getting to know these students and their stories sparked Mariel’s interest in human rights issues. While at Baylor, she studied the Colombian conflict and interned in DC doing human rights work in Colombia. She then pursued her Masters at UT Austin, traveling to Colombia to study paramilitary human rights violations and how the government was neglecting the issues facing ordinary people. Then she continued to pursue her passion for human rights, working in DC for the US Office on Colombia for a year, and then for Human Rights First, where she first worked primarily with asylum seekers and then on LGBT issues. Her experience working directly with individuals seeking aid sparked her passion for direct services and helped her recognize that a law degree would help her better serve these communities. She came to Stanford so she could make a direct impact, so she could work directly with these systemic issues.
About Pro Bono Distinction
Students who volunteer at least 50 hours of law-related pro bono work without compensation or academic credit before graduation receive Pro Bono Distinction. Those who complete 150 hours or more of pro bono work graduate with High Distinction, and those who complete 300 hours or more graduate with Highest Distinction. The Class of 2018 contributed over 22,000 volunteer hours on pro bono projects during the course of their three years at the law school.
About the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law
The mission of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School is – through courses, research, pro bono projects, public lectures, academic conferences, funding programs and career development – to make public service a pervasive part of every law student’s experience and ultimately help shape the values that students take into their careers. It also engages in programming and research that support development of the public interest legal community to increase access to justice.