GW Law’s Public Interest and Public Service Law Center, led by Alan B. Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law, is thrilled to announce the inaugural class of Richey Fellows for the 2023-2024 academic year.
The Richey Fellows Program is designed to bring mid-career public interest lawyers to campus to support and provide resources for students. We received an impressive number of applications and are proud to have selected four exceptional public interest attorneys who will be able to provide diverse perspectives for our students, spanning multiple practice areas and types of practice.
Andrew Boyle
Andrew Boyle is a Legal Officer at an international tribunal located in The Hague. He was previously Counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program of the Brennan Center for Justice, where he worked on advocacy concerning presidential emergency powers. Before that, he served as a prosecutor with the United Nations at the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia, where he prosecuted former Khmer Rouge leaders for atrocity crimes including genocide. He has also worked as an attorney in the Trial Chambers of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where he assisted in adjudicating cases flowing from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. At the beginning of his legal career, he was a fellow in the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice working on campaign finance reform, and he clerked for the Honorable Helene N. White of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Andrew is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and its Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.
Martha Kinsella
Martha Kinsella is senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, based in their Washington, DC office. She works on government reform, voting rights, money in politics, government ethics, and regulatory issues. She has authored several nationally recognized reports. Her work has been featured in press outlets across the country. She provides advice to federal lawmakers and executive-branch policymakers.
Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Kinsella worked at the National Labor Relations Board, where she served first as a policy advisor and then as a trial attorney conducting enforcement litigation. She began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Philip Carchman of the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court. Kinsella received her law degree from NYU School of Law, a master’s degree from Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago.
Alejandro Agustín Ortiz
Alejandro Agustín Ortiz is a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, where he promotes economic justice and equal rights for vulnerable communities including workers, tenants, and residents of US territories. He has, among other things, served as lead counsel on a lawsuit that led to model reforms of a ‘crime-free’ housing program and contributed to briefs filed with the Supreme Court.
Previously, he was a field attorney with the NLRB helping to enforce workers’ rights under the NLRA. Among his cases, Alejandro helped prosecute McDonald’s in the longest trial in NLRB history. Despite the allegations, the Hamburglar was spared from prosecution. Alejandro clerked for U.S. District Court Judges Christine Arguello and William Martínez in Colorado and US Magistrate Judge Justo Arenas in Puerto Rico. He obtained his JD from the University of Colorado Law School and his BA from Virginia Tech University.
Ashley Graham-Watanabe
Ashley Graham-Watanabe is the Director of Compliance and Managing Attorney of the Brief Services Unit at Neighborhood Legal Services Program. Ashley started working at NLSP in 2014 as a staff attorney, practicing as a generalist and in the housing court. In her role today, Ashley oversees NLSP’s intake process, case management system, compliance data, and manages the BSU’s attorneys, paralegals, and intake workers.
Prior to working for NLSP, Ashley was an attorney for four years with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, where she was a general practitioner. She also worked as a clerk at Legal Aid of East Tennessee.
Ashley received her JD from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and graduated in 2010 with a specialty in advocacy and dispute resolution. She also received her BA in music from Appalachian State University.
GW Law could not be more excited to welcome these four spectacular and accomplished public interest attorneys to our campus, and we know their wealth of knowledge and experience will be an invaluable asset to our students and community at large. Stay tuned for more news on the dates of each fellow’s visit, and the schedule of events for each visit.