News

2015 Jay A. Pritzker Fellows Announced

May 14, 2015

The Pritzker Fellowships were created to help talented Northwestern Law graduates launch their public interest careers. While there is a tremendous need for legal services in the public interest sector, a lack of adequate funding creates a shortage of opportunity, particularly for recent law graduates. To address this issue, the Jay Pritzker Foundation made a $1 million gift to the Law School to establish the Jay A. Pritzker Fellowship Program to help highly qualified Northwestern Law students gain public interest experience upon graduation. Dan (JD ’86) and Karen Pritzker are Foundation trustees. Named for Dan Pritzker’s father, who graduated from the Law School in 1947, the program is designed to encourage collaboration. It is a challenge gift, in which additional donors who make a gift of $25,000 in support of these fellowships have their gift matched to fully fund one fellow, up to a maximum of nine per year for three years. The program began last year, with nine fellows selected from the class of 2014.


Pritzker Public Interest Student FellowsThe 2015 Pritzker Fellows. Top row, left to right: Jonathan Delozano, Azadeh Hosseinian, and Doyle Moeller. Bottom row, left to right: Deepa Arora, Cristina Law, and Deborah Filipovich. Not pictured: Sneha Dhanapal, Casey Cahill, and Kenneth Lewis.

Deepa Arora will work at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services as a Guardian ad Litem for low-income adults with disabilities. Deepa has a master’s in social work, has completed externships at the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic and at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, served as an executive articles editor for the Journal of Law and Social Policy, and was a student in two different centers in the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Casey Cahill will work as a public defender for juveniles at the Committee for Public Counsel Services Youth Advocacy Division in Massachusetts. Casey spent her last semester in law school completing an Intensive Semester Practicum at the Youth Advocacy Division. She also served as an executive articles editor for the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, was a student in the Bluhm Legal Clinic, and completed externships at the Federal Defender, the Innocence Project, and the Office of the Mississippi State Public Defender.

Jon Delozano will work as an attorney representing low-income workers in the Immigrants and Workers’ Rights Practice Group at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Jon has worked at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago for the last year and has drafted briefs, conducted discovery, and successfully advocated for clients in administrative hearings. Jon was also a student for the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center in the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Sneha Dhanapal will represent immigrants accused of crimes at Appellate Advocates in New York City. Sneha was a student in the Children and Family Justice Center, completed an Intensive Semester externship at Brooklyn Defender Services, and also worked at the ACLU of Illinois and Immigration Equality.

Deborah Filipovich will work at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services as a Guardian Ad Litem for children in contested guardianship cases. Deborah did an externship at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services in the summer of 2014 and has continued working there ever since. She was also the winner of the Law School’s 2014 Harold Washington Leadership Award.

Azadeh Hosseinian will work as an attorney at the Community Development Project at Public Counsel in Los Angeles. The project focuses on advancing affordable housing, health care, economic development, and childcare for low income clients. Azadeh has been a student in two different centers in the Bluhm Legal Clinic and has worked at the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.

Cristina Law will represent low-income youth living on the west side of Chicago in criminal cases at the Lawndale Christian Legal Center in Chicago. Cristina completed externships at the Federal Defenders of New York and the Office of the Cook County Public Defender’s Homicide Task Force and has been a student in two centers in the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Kenneth Lewis will work as a prosecutor at the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office in Oregon. Kenneth completed an Intensive Semester externship at the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office, worked at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and was a student in the Children and Family Justice Center.

Doyle Moeller will represent low-income clients in criminal cases at Cabrini Green Legal Aid in Chicago. Doyle did an externship at Cabrini Green Legal Aid and was a student in the Center for Criminal Defense in the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

The 2015 Pritzker Fellows will start their positions in the fall.