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Three Alumni Recognized at 5th Annual SFPIF Public Service Dinner

March 08, 2008

Jeanne Bishop (JD ’84), Chuck Hogren (JD ’61), and Carter Phillips (JD ’77) will receive recognition for their commitment to public interest work at Northwestern Law’s 5th Annual Student Funded Public Interest Fellowship (SFPIF) Public Service Benefit Dinner on Thursday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the Law School Atrium. The event, established in 2004, brings law school alumni and current students together to celebrate and honor individual commitments to serving the public interest.

Bishop became a public defender for Cook County, Ill., following the handgun murders of her sister and brother-in-law and their unborn child. Since the murders, she has become a passionate advocate against the death penalty, for human rights, for common sense gun laws, and for the needs of crime victims. She is on the board of directors for Murder Victims Families for Human Rights and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions.

In 1973, Hogren co-founded the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic, an organization that provides free legal services to impoverished residents of Chicago. He led the organization for 24 years as its executive director. He now trains lawyers who are interested in starting legal aid clinics for indigent persons.

Phillips is managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin LLP.  He has argued 57 cases in the Supreme Court and has devoted thousands of hours to pro bono service and litigation. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, is on the Amicus Curiae Committee of the Federal Bar Association, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University School of Law.


Additionally, SFPIF will honor three young alumni at the event for their public interest work: Ignacio Arrazola (JD ’92), Kate Shank (JD ’01) and Mirna Torres (JD ’99). Sidley Austin LLP serves as lead sponsor of the event.

The SFPIF Public Service Dinner was established in 2004 to help raise funds for the organization’s Len Rubinowitz Public Interest Fellowship, grants for law students who work in otherwise unpaid public interest jobs over the summer. Last year, SFPIF was able to distribute grants to 45 law students, enabling them to pursue a wide variety of summer positions in public interest and public service sectors.

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