Fellows

 

 

 

Cameron Costello is a 3L at GW Law pursuing a career in public defense in order to challenge the carceral system through client-centered advocacy. She is from California and graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Political Science and History. Cameron spent her 1L summer at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office and her 2L summer at the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office. Last fall, she interned at the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland, and she spent the spring semester at the Public Defender Service for DC in their post-conviction unit. This fall, she will be working as a student attorney in the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic and as a law clerk in the Appellate Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. She is involved in the Criminal Law Society, GW Defenders, Mock Trial, Moot Court, the SBA Outreach Committee and has engaged with pro bono projects through the Gulf Recovery Network program and the Mid Atlantic Innocence Project. In her free time, she loves to run and rollerblade.

 

 

 

Fatima Khan is a 3L at GW Law. Prior to law school, she worked locally as a community organizer and is passionate about law and organizing partnerships in immigration and criminal defense. During her time in law school, she has interned with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Capital Area Immigration Rights Coalition Coalition and The Bronx Defenders and she is currently participating in GW Law's Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic. She is an executive board member of the GW National Lawyers Guild and previously served as Co-President.  

 

 

 

Kendall Lawrenz is a 3L at GW Law. Prior to law school, she worked with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project as a legal assistant and is particularly interested in the criminalization of poverty and public health failings. During her time in law school, she has interned with the Office of the Public Defender for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, Bread for the City, and The Bronx Defenders. Kendall is also an active member of the GW Black Law Students Association, the GW National Lawyers Guild, and the DC National Lawyers Guild where she serves as a Legal Observer Coordinator and an Executive Board Member. 

Past Fellows

Funmi Anifowoshe

Funmi Anifowoshe, JD '20, received her B.A. in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross. She is interested in advancing change in the criminal justice system via policy initiatives. During her time as a law student, she interned in both the private and public sector, including the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. During her 2L summer, she was a summer associate at Vinson & Elkins. In addition, she was an associate on The George Washington Law Review, a member of the Moot Court Board, and the Black Law Students Association.

Damilola G. Arowalaju

Born in Nigeria, Damilola G. Arowolaju, JD '20, Damilola immigrated to America as a young child with his parents. The challenges he faced growing up have inspired him to fight for a brighter future for others. As an undergrad at Northwestern, Damilola studied Social Policy while leading a number of groups and initiatives focused on providing social, academic, and emotional support for students of color. As part of a special task force convened by the Vice President of Student Affairs, he contributed to a report presented to Northwestern’s leadership on improving the Black student experience. This work, together with his studies on mass incarceration and social inequality, convinced Damilola that his path lay within the law. In looking ahead to his legal career, Damilola’s interests include white-collar investigations. It’s an interest that stems from his father, a former Director of Procurement for their Nigerian state government, who often dealt with corruption. Damilola is also passionate about criminal justice reform and aspires to enter government service to implement policies that dismantle social inequality. As part of the William T. Coleman Jr. Fellowship, he worked as a summer associate in the New York and D.C. offices of O’Melveny & Myers. He also interned for the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Damilola was also a Co-Academic Chair for the GW Black Law Students Association and a member of the Public Contract Law Journal.

Wyatt Lydell Benson, Jr.

Wyatt Lydell Benson, Jr., JD '20, is from Philadelphia, PA and received his BA in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology from Temple University. After college, Wyatt interned at the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania for Magistrate Judge Timothy R. Rice and assisted with the Supervision to Aid Reentry Program. Before attending law school, Wyatt worked for two years as a Paralegal/Analyst with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. During his 2L year, Wyatt assisted his team to win the 2019 MABLSA Regional Mock Trial Competition and qualified as a finalist in the 2019 NBLSA National Mock Trial Competition. Wyatt was also the recipient of the Grace Venter Speights Endowed Law Scholarship and served as the Vice-President of the Black Law Students Association and the Secretary of the Criminal Law Society. During his 2L summer, Wyatt participated in the DC Public Defender Service's Trial Practice Institute and worked as a Summer Associate with Brown Rudnick LLP in New York, NY. Wyatt served as an associate on the Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, as a member of the Mock Trial Board, and as the SBA's Deputy Chief of Operations. 

Matthew Clauson

Matthew Clauson, a 3L, graduated from Cornell University in 2015 with a degree in history. He also earned an M.Phil. in criminology from the University of Cambridge, where he wrote his dissertation on the effect of judicial elections on judges’ decision-making in criminal cases. As an undergraduate, he founded the Prison Reform and Education Project at Cornell, interned at the Federal Judicial Center and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, and served on the Student Board of Advisors of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network. During his 1L summer, he interned for ArchCity Defenders in St. Louis and for the Honorable Gerald A. McHugh of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Alexis Hill

Alexis Hill is a 3L from Boulder, Colorado. She graduated from Duke University in 2017 with a degree in Public Policy Studies and spent a year after graduating working as a paralegal for an in-house counsel in a consulting firm before starting law school. Alexis’s interest in the law began early with a public defender’s presentation in her high school government class. Fascinated by the work the public defender did, Alexis became excited about a career in the legal sphere. It was not until her first-semester Criminal Law class that she became particularly interested in criminal law. This summer, she hopes to continue her journey into criminal law as an intern with the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. At school, she will be a Writing Fellow in the fall and hopes to continue learning about criminal law and the law as a whole as she continues her legal education.

Surya Iyer

Surya Iyer graduated from the University of Michigan in 2014 with degrees in Economics and Political Science and spent two years working at a mortgage bank and then at a boutique law firm before starting law school. His interest in criminal law was piqued during his first-semester Criminal Law class with Dean Roger Fairfax.  During the summer following his 1L year, he interned at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where he had an opportunity to observe Assistant United States Attorneys in the practice of criminal prosecution and assist with trial training for new AUSAs.  During the summer, he also served as a Research Assistant for Dean Fairfax; a position in which he conducted legal research on the development and use of the independent prosecutor/special counsel as well as criminal law/procedure issues addressed by the Supreme Court during 2016 term. He hopes to begin his career as an Assistant District (or Commonwealth/County) Attorney before transitioning to become an Assistant United States Attorney and hopefully, one day, being appointed as a United States Attorney. 

Katrina Jackson

Katrina Jackson is a 3L at GW Law. She received her BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University. She is interested in reforming the criminal justice system so that it is one day free from racial, social, and economic disparities. During her time in law school, she has interned at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and has participated in GW's Prisoner & Reentry Clinic. Furthermore, she serves as a Student Director to DC Justice Lab, an organization dedicated to fully transforming the District of Columbia's approach to punishment and public safety. Katrina is a notes editor for the Federal Communications Law Journal and is the social justice/action chair for both the Black Law Students Association and the Criminal Law Society. 

Iman Lyons

Iman was the 2016-2017 President of the GW Black Law Students Association. In addition to her organizational leadership, Iman was a member of the GW Law Alternative Dispute Resolution Board.  During her 1L year, Iman was a judicial intern for the Honorable George J. Hazel of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. From that vantage point, she realized her passion was in criminal litigation and the pursuit of liberty and justice for all.  One of the most rewarding experiences of Iman's legal education was serving as a Law Clerk at Bread for the City where she assisted low-income, Washington D.C. residents with landlord-tenant disputes, family law, and public benefits. During the summer of 2017, Iman returned to her hometown and served as a student-attorney in the Office of the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney where she was assigned to the Violent Crime, Gang, and Juvenile Units, and prosecuted misdemeanor appeals and probation violations. Iman is a student-attorney in GW's Law Family Justice Litigation Clinic during the Fall 2017 semester.  

Public service has always been Iman's passion and in 2017 she was awarded J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro University Public Service Award and The Leah Brock McCartney BLSA Woman of the Year Award. Prior to law school, Iman served as a Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander in the United States Air Force and a certified Victim Advocate for military survivors of sexual assault. After achieving the rank of Captain, Iman separated from the U.S. Air Force to pursue her lifelong dream of attending law school.  Upon graduating from law school, Iman hopes to continue her dedication to public service.

Taylor McCormick

Taylor McCormick is a 3L at GW Law. She received her BS in Criminal Justice with a minor in Business from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. As an aspiring litigator, Taylor first developed an interest in criminal law after taking an introduction to criminology course at her undergraduate institution. Her class discussions resonated with her as she has watched family members struggle with the criminal justice system. This led her to pursue a career in the legal field. During her 2L summer, Taylor interned at the Arlington County Circuit Court where she worked on a host of criminal matters. She has also worked as a law clerk for a Criminal Justice Act Attorney (CJA) in Washington, D.C. As a law clerk, Taylor assisted with court-appointed cases litigated in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Taylor is a member of the Criminal Law Society and Black Law Students Association at GW Law.

Brooke Pemberton

Brooke Pemberton is a 3L who graduated from Arizona State University in 2018. Prior to law school, she was an Intern Investigator with the Public Defender Service. This experience exposed her to the problems within the criminal justice system and led her to pursue a career as a public defender. This past summer she worked as a law clerk with the Hennepin County Public Defender. She is a YSC Coordinators for Street Law, Co-President of the Gulf Recovery Network, and has started GW Defenders, a club for people interested in indigent defense.

Samantha Piszcz

Samantha Piszcz is a 2L at GW Law pursuing a career in indigent defense and impact litigation. Samantha is from Chantilly, VA and graduated from Virginia Tech in 2019 with a degree in Political Science. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant for her university's Race and Social Policy Research Center, in which she analyzed racial disparities within Virginia juvenile crime data. After college, Samantha interned at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and during her 1L summer, she interned in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which she will continue to work at during the academic year. In addition to being a CLPI Fellow, Samantha is a Writing Fellow, a contributor for the Criminal Law Brief, the 1L Competition Chair for the Mock Trial Board, a Training Co-Chair for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Board, the Assistant Director of Public Interest and Pro Bono for the SBA, and a member of the Tenure & Promotions Student Representatives Committee.

Kelsey Stein

Kelsey Stein graduated from the University of Alabama in 2011 and spent five years working at newspapers in the South. At the Birmingham News, she investigated allegations of abuse at an Alabama women’s prison – an assignment that expanded into a yearlong project reporting on horrendous conditions in corrections facilities across the state and the subsequent effort to overhaul its justice system. Those experiences led her to pursue a legal career. She has worked as a law clerk at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, Prince George's County. She is co-president of the Equal Justice Foundation, a Writing Fellow, and a member of the George Washington Law Review and the Mock Trial Skills Board.

 

Kelsey Stein graduated from the University of Alabama in 2011 and spent five years working at newspapers in the South. At the Birmingham News, she investigated allegations of abuse at an Alabama women’s prison – an assignment that expanded into a yearlong project reporting on horrendous conditions in corrections facilities across the state and the subsequent effort to overhaul its justice system. Those experiences led her to pursue a legal career. She has worked as a law clerk at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, Prince George's County. She is co-president of the Equal Justice Foundation, a Writing Fellow, and a member of the George Washington Law Review and the Mock Trial Skills Board.