Equal Justice America

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Equal Justice America Since 1993, providing opportunities for law students to work with organizations that deliver civil legal services to those most in need.

Meet EJA Veterans’ Rights Fellow Marissa DeallA veteran facing eviction shouldn't have to face the legal system alone.Ju...
10/05/2026

Meet EJA Veterans’ Rights Fellow Marissa Deall

A veteran facing eviction shouldn't have to face the legal system alone.

Just weeks into her two-year EJA Veterans’ Rights Fellowship at Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C., Marissa Deall is already working on two housing cases involving veterans facing eviction.

Marissa has been training in D.C. housing law, observing housing court, working with experienced colleagues, and preparing for an initial eviction hearing. She is also gaining experience with other issues affecting veterans, including military discharge upgrades and SSI/SSDI benefits, and has applied for VA accreditation to expand the ways she can assist veteran clients.

A 2026 graduate of Mercer University School of Law, Marissa came to EJA with experience in habeas litigation, appellate work, and studying the lasting barriers that involvement with the legal system can create in housing, employment, and financial stability.

Now she is putting that experience to work for veterans.

As Marissa wrote when beginning her Fellowship:

“I want my clients to know that they have someone in their corner who will take their concerns seriously and fight for them.”

EJA’s two-year, $150,000 Veterans’ Rights Fellowship adds an attorney to NLSP to help meet the legal needs of low-income veterans while giving an extraordinary young lawyer the opportunity to begin a career in public service.

That's the dual impact at the heart of EJA's Post-Graduate Fellowship Program: more legal aid capacity today and another public-interest lawyer for tomorrow.

We're proud to introduce Marissa and excited to follow the difference she makes over the next two years.

Meet Marissa and follow her Fellowship: https://equaljusticeamerica.org/component/zoo/item/veterans-rights-fellow-nlsp-marissa-deall?Itemid=332

Meet EJA Immigration Fellow Nishu Afobunor!For Nishu Afobunor, becoming an immigration lawyer is deeply personal.Nishu c...
10/01/2026

Meet EJA Immigration Fellow Nishu Afobunor!

For Nishu Afobunor, becoming an immigration lawyer is deeply personal.

Nishu came to the United States as a refugee after his family fled religious persecution. He still remembers the compassion of the lawyers who helped his family navigate the asylum process and begin rebuilding their lives.

Now, as an Equal Justice America Immigration Fellow at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Laredo, Texas, Nishu is beginning his own career helping immigrants navigate the legal system. A 2026 graduate of Columbia University Law School, Nishu is serving a two-year, $150,000 EJA Post-Graduate Fellowship.

And the work has already begun.

During his first month at TRLA, Nishu has been learning the complexities of T and U visas while working directly with clients. One of his first matters involves a survivor of severe human trafficking who was granted T-1 nonimmigrant status and is now seeking to become a lawful permanent resident.

The experience is also showing Nishu how immigration issues intersect with nearly every part of a client’s life. In TRLA’s Laredo office, clients may initially seek help with workers’ compensation, veterans’ assistance, agricultural work, or other issues that intersect with their immigration status.

For Nishu, it brings his own journey full circle.

“I came to the United States as a refugee, and I remember the compassion and dedication of the lawyers who helped my family abroad navigate an unfamiliar system and begin rebuilding our lives.”

Those lawyers showed Nishu that law can do more than resolve a legal problem. As he writes in his first Fellowship report, it can “restore dignity, create hope, and open the door to a promising future.”

That is exactly what EJA’s Post-Graduate Fellowship Program is designed to make possible: adding an attorney to a legal aid organization where the need is great while giving an extraordinary young lawyer the opportunity to begin a career in public service.

We are proud to have Nishu representing EJA in Laredo, and we're excited to follow his work over the next two years.

Meet Nishu and follow his EJA Fellowship: https://equaljusticeamerica.org/component/zoo/item/immigration-fellow-trla-nishu-afobunor?Itemid=332

EJA Launches Philadelphia Legal Aid Capacity InitiativeSomething important began in Philadelphia last week.Equal Justice...
09/21/2026

EJA Launches Philadelphia Legal Aid Capacity Initiative

Something important began in Philadelphia last week.

Equal Justice America officially launched our Philadelphia Legal Aid Capacity Initiative at a reception co-sponsored by the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and held at Drexel Kline’s Institute for Trial Advocacy.

The Initiative is built around a simple idea: Philadelphia has extraordinary legal aid organizations doing critical work, but the need for legal assistance far exceeds available resources. EJA wants to help by expanding the number of our Summer Fellows serving Philadelphia’s legal aid community.

That means more capacity to serve people who need legal help now, while giving more law students the experiences that can lead to careers in public interest law.

No one made that case more powerfully than our Fellows themselves. Their stories about their summer work, their clients, and their commitment to public service were the heart of the evening. Their eloquence and passion showed exactly why EJA wants to create opportunities for many more law students to serve Philadelphia’s legal aid organizations.

We were also honored to hear from Brent Landau, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Center and an EJA alumnus. Brent brought a particularly valuable perspective, both as the leader of a Philadelphia public interest organization that understands firsthand the need for additional legal aid capacity and as someone who knows from personal experience what an EJA Fellowship can mean early in a lawyer’s career.

The turnout was extraordinary. Attorneys from Kessler Topaz and other firms, leaders and staff from Philadelphia legal aid organizations, law school public interest professionals, current EJA Fellows, and other law students filled the room. Attendance matched our New York reception, the largest of the six receptions EJA held around the country this summer.

That is exactly the kind of community we hope to build around the Philadelphia Legal Aid Capacity Initiative.

We are especially grateful to our co-sponsors and to the people who helped make the evening possible: Katie Ball, Associate Dean for Career Strategies at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, and Sharan Nirmul, a partner at Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and a member of EJA’s Board of Advisors.

Drexel Kline welcomed us into its remarkable Institute for Trial Advocacy, while Kessler Topaz generously provided the reception and turned out in force. It meant a great deal to see so many attorneys from the firm make the trip into the city to meet our Fellows, hear about their work, and learn more about what EJA hopes to build in Philadelphia.

Perhaps the best indication of the enthusiasm surrounding the Initiative came before the evening was even over: Katie and Sharan had already invited us back next year.

Wednesday night felt like the beginning of something important for EJA in Philadelphia. We look forward to building on it.

What does an investment in the next generation of public interest lawyers make possible?For EJA Summer Fellow Madelene “...
09/14/2026

What does an investment in the next generation of public interest lawyers make possible?

For EJA Summer Fellow Madelene “Maddie” Beck, a student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, it meant spending her summer working with the Appellate and Impact Litigation Unit at Maryland Legal Aid.

Maddie conducted research across issues ranging from housing and employment law to constitutional law. She observed arguments before Maryland's appellate courts, contributed research to ongoing impact litigation, and helped the team examine county ordinances as it prepared a lawsuit challenging an eviction practice that treats renters' property as abandoned at the time of eviction.

By summer's end, Maddie wrote that the experience had “reaffirmed my desire to pursue a public interest legal career.”

That's the dual impact of an EJA fellowship: helping legal aid organizations expand their capacity today while giving future lawyers the experience that can shape a career committed to equal justice.

We are especially grateful to the Maryland Bar Foundation for funding Maddie's EJA Fellowship and making this opportunity possible.

Maddie's summer is a great example of what happens when the legal community invests in the public interest pipeline.

Two law students. Ten weeks of service. Real impact for West Virginians.This summer, Equal Justice America Fellows Zacha...
09/08/2026

Two law students. Ten weeks of service. Real impact for West Virginians.

This summer, Equal Justice America Fellows Zachary Solles and Kailey Crites, both students at West Virginia University College of Law, spent their summers with Legal Aid of West Virginia, helping provide civil legal assistance to people across the state.

Zachary worked with survivors of abuse and neglect, families facing eviction, and tenants living in unsafe housing. After receiving Rule 10 certification from the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, he was able to help handle a client’s case from beginning to end, including interviewing the client, drafting court documents, and arguing before a circuit judge.

Kailey worked directly with clients on family and custody matters, helped attorneys with legal research and drafting, and created a public-facing guide to help West Virginians navigate the process of reinstating their driver’s licenses. She also participated in outreach across four counties, helping connect communities with information about available legal services.

None of this would have happened without partnership.

The West Virginia Bar Foundation provided $10,000 toward the $13,000 cost of these two Fellowships, with EJA contributing the remaining $3,000.

That investment created impact in two directions: more capacity for Legal Aid of West Virginia to serve people who needed help this summer, and two future lawyers gaining the kind of hands-on public-interest experience that can shape a career.

We are deeply grateful to the West Virginia Bar Foundation for partnering with EJA to expand access to justice in West Virginia.

09/08/2026

Bumping this back up to the top of your feeds, as the deadline to RSVP is tomorrow!

“Millions of people go without critical civil legal services because they can’t afford them. To them, equal justice unde...
09/08/2026

“Millions of people go without critical civil legal services because they can’t afford them. To them, equal justice under law to all is not a promise but a taunt.”

— Nathan L. Hecht, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas

Those are striking words. Their source is worth noting, too.

Nathan Hecht spent decades as one of the country's most prominent conservative jurists. Yet throughout his long tenure on the Texas Supreme Court, he was also one of the judiciary's most persistent advocates for legal aid and access to justice.

For Hecht, there was no contradiction. As he has put it elsewhere, access to justice is neither a liberal nor a conservative idea. It is fundamental to whether our legal system works.

At Equal Justice America, we share that conviction.

The principle of equal justice under law means little if someone facing eviction, domestic violence, the loss of benefits, or another life-altering civil legal problem cannot afford the legal help necessary to vindicate their rights.

That's why EJA helps expand the capacity of legal aid organizations while building the next generation of public interest lawyers.

Access to justice shouldn't be partisan. It's part of what makes the rule of law real.

What happens when a case you study in law school becomes a case you help litigate?During her first year at Harvard Law S...
09/01/2026

What happens when a case you study in law school becomes a case you help litigate?

During her first year at Harvard Law School, Lauren Acevedo wrote a research paper about *Chavez v. Pasadena Unified School District*, a case challenging school closures that disproportionately affected Latino students.

This summer, Lauren became an Equal Justice America Fellow at the Los Angeles office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). There, she had the remarkable opportunity to conduct research for the appellate brief in the very case she had studied months earlier.

Lauren also worked on education and voting rights issues and drafted an opposition brief in an employment discrimination case. By the end of the summer, she had strengthened her litigation skills, gained a new mentor, and become even more interested in pursuing nonprofit impact litigation.

EJA Summer Fellowships expand the capacity of organizations doing important legal work today while giving law students opportunities that can shape the lawyers they become tomorrow.

We're proud to have helped Lauren turn something she studied in the classroom into an opportunity to help advance civil rights in the real world.

Ten weeks can go by quickly.This summer, Equal Justice America Fellows worked in legal aid organizations across the coun...
08/21/2026

Ten weeks can go by quickly.

This summer, Equal Justice America Fellows worked in legal aid organizations across the country, helping clients facing eviction, immigration proceedings, domestic violence, barriers to public benefits, workers' rights violations, and other legal challenges.

They researched cases, interviewed clients, drafted legal documents, assisted attorneys, appeared in courtrooms, and saw firsthand what access to justice looks like in practice.

But the impact runs in both directions.

Our Fellows helped expand the capacity of legal aid organizations serving people who could not otherwise afford representation. At the same time, they gained experiences that may shape the lawyers they become and the careers they choose.

As this year's summer fellowships begin to wrap up, we'll be sharing some of their stories and reflections on what they learned, whom they served, and why this work matters.

The summer may be ending. The impact is just beginning.

08/11/2026

Philadelphia friends and colleagues, please join us!

Equal Justice America, in partnership with Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP, invites you to an evening celebrating public interest law in Philadelphia.

📅 Wednesday, September 16
⏰ 5:30–7:00 p.m.
📍 Kline Center for Trial Advocacy
1200 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

We'll introduce EJA's new Philadelphia initiative, which will expand the capacity of local legal aid organizations while helping launch the next generation of public interest attorneys.

We'll be joined by members of Philadelphia's legal aid community, private bar, law schools, EJA alumni, and others who care about expanding access to justice.

Come meet colleagues from across Philadelphia's legal community and learn more about what we're building.

RSVP to [email protected] by September 9.

Hope to see you there!

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