Congratulations To The 2025 Skadden Fellows
Many of these young lawyers will be unusually busy during their fellowships.
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Skadden Fellowships are in many ways the public-interest world’s version of Supreme Court clerkships. As I’ve explained in years past, these prestigious fellowships allow law school graduates and outgoing judicial law clerks to spend two years working full-time in the public interest.
I apologize for my tardiness in reporting on the recipients of the 2025 Skadden Fellowships, which were announced in late 2024. But my delay has actually made my report unusually timely—for two reasons.
First, I think the (largely left-leaning) public-interest organizations that host Skadden Fellows would argue that in light of everything the Trump administration has been up to over the past few weeks, the work they do is more essential than ever. And I’d imagine that many of the Fellows, especially those who work in the immigration space, will be extremely busy during their two-year Fellowships (2025-2027).
Second, I’m guessing that the 2025 Skadden Fellows feel unusually blessed—because at least they still have jobs. A number of graduating law students who also declined the opportunity to earn Biglaw bucks in favor of public service now find themselves out of jobs—specifically, those students who applied to and received offers from federal-government honors programs, including but not limited to the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
As previously discussed in these pages, Honors Program offers were revoked last month, as part of the Trump administration’s 90-day hiring freeze. And while it’s theoretically possible that these offers could be extended again once the freeze is over, I wouldn’t count on it. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that the 2025 Bristow Fellows, who were scheduled to start working in the DOJ’s Office of the Solicitor General later this year, had their offers revoked. (I haven’t confirmed this 100 percent—please drop me a line if you have information to share, which I’ll use to update this post—but it strikes me as likely true.) [UPDATE (1:16 p.m.): I’ve been reliably informed that the incoming Fellows, as of this afternoon, have not been notified of the status of their offers—so I guess no news is good news, but stay tuned.]
Returning to the Skadden Fellowships, which law schools have the strongest track records of producing Fellows, which is one way of measuring the strength of a school’s commitment to public-interest work? Here are the ten schools whose graduates have won the most Skadden Fellowships over the past 15 years:
1. Harvard – 72
2. Yale – 63
3. NYU – 38
4. (tie) Stanford - 23
4. (tie) UCLA – 23
6. U. Penn. – 21
7. UC Berkeley — 19
8. Georgetown – 15
9. Columbia – 14
10. Northeastern – 12
This year marks a milestone for the Skadden Fellowship program. Since its launch in 1988—to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Skadden Arps law firm, which provides its funding—the Skadden Fellowship Foundation has awarded more than 1,000 fellowships. Congratulations to the Foundation on this achievement—and congrats, of course, to the 28 newest Skadden Fellows.
Below please find lists of (1) all law schools that have produced Skadden Fellows over the past 15 years and (2) the 2025 Skadden Fellows and their sponsoring organizations.
LAW SCHOOLS WITH SKADDEN FELLOWS (2011-2025 FELLOWSHIP CLASSES)
American University – 5
Boston College – 2
Boston University – 3
Chicago – Kent – 2
City University of New York – 9
Cornell – 1
Columbia – 14
Denver – 1
DePaul – 4
Duke – 3
Florida International University – 1
Fordham – 5
Georgetown – 15
GW – 2
Harvard – 72
Hofstra - 1
Howard – 2
Indiana – 2
John Marshall (Chicago) – 1
Loyola (Chicago) - 2
Loyola (Los Angeles) – 2
Michigan State – 3
Northeastern – 12
Northwestern – 6
NYU – 38
Roger Williams – 1
Rutgers – 3
Seattle – 1
Stanford – 23
Suffolk – 1
Tulane – 1
University of Arkansas – 1
UC Berkeley – 19
UC Davis – 2
UC Irvine – 4
UCLA – 23
U. Chicago – 5
University of Connecticut – 1
University of Illinois – 1
University of Iowa - 1
University of Kansas – 2
University of Maryland – 3
University of Miami – 1
University of Michigan – 11
University of Oklahoma – 1
U. Penn. – 21
University of South Carolina – 1
University of Texas – 4
University of Tulsa – 1
UVA – 4
University of Washington – 1
Valparaiso – 1
Vanderbilt – 3
Villanova – 1
Washington & Lee – 2
Wash U. – 4
Wayne State – 1
Widener – 1
William & Mary – 1
Yale – 63
TOTAL: 427
SKADDEN FOUNDATION — 2025 SKADDEN FELLOWS
Marty Berger
Stanford Law School
ACLU of Michigan
Grand Rapids, MI
Provide direct representation in high-volume tort lawsuits and common law conversion claims on behalf of unhoused residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose property was illegally impounded or destroyed during police sweeps. Conduct Know Your Rights trainings and educate the public about ordinances that allow officers to seize unhoused people’s belongings.
Anthony Javier Black
Northeastern University School of Law
Southern Legal Counsel
Gainesville, FL
Provide low-threshold, client-centered services addressing health-harming unmet legal needs among transgender adult patients by expanding an existing medical-legal partnership with a regional healthcare system in Florida.
Riley Dankovich
Georgetown University Law Center
The Arc of the United States
Washington, DC
Develop strategic impact litigation, community partnerships, and public education to dismantle the educational segregation of students of color with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ensure that, in addition to receiving special-education services, these students experience equal opportunities to receive education alongside their nondisabled peers and are protected from stigma, discrimination, and the school-to-prison pipeline.
Brittney Dorton
University of Michigan Law School
ACLU, Disability Rights Program
San Francisco, CA
Advocate for the capacity, autonomy, and dignity of people with disabilities by representing low-income people under or at risk of conservatorship in California, as well as working with courts, law school clinics, and community partners to educate people about alternatives to conservatorship.
Darcy Gallego
Fordham University School of Law
New York Legal Assistance Group
New York, NY
Empower pro se asylum seekers and expand due process rights by combining group training with individual preparation ahead of hearings in immigration court and providing strategic appellate representation in select cases that raise due process concerns.
Gabby Grossman
Harvard Law School
ACLU, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty
Washington, DC
Prevent the lasting trauma of family separation through direct representation, strategic litigation, and community-education strategies to secure accommodations in child-welfare proceedings, as required by federal disability laws, state laws, and federal regulations protecting parents with disabilities.
Tiffany Jackson
Howard University School of Law
Legal Aid DC
Washington, DC
Advocate for the preservation of families by providing legal representation, education, and outreach to low-income parents defending their parental rights against third-party custody challenges.
Parima Kadikar
City University of New York School of Law
American Friends Service Committee
Newark, NJ
Integrate disability advocacy into deportation defense work for disabled clients by filing disability-based civil-rights complaints, submitting habeas corpus petitions, developing training materials, and tracking outcomes.
Chisato Kimura-Kleiböhmer
Yale Law School
MacArthur Justice Center
Chicago, IL
Utilize systemic advocacy, community education, and strategic litigation to enforce state laws meant to protect immigrants against abuses by local and state police and empower immigrant communities.
Shannon Lee
Stanford Law School
New York Legal Assistance Group
New York, NY
Tackle source-of-income discrimination via direct representation and impact litigation against large landlords and brokers that deny low-income New Yorkers housing by unlawfully refusing to accept housing vouchers.
Louis Lin
Harvard Law School
Philadelphia Legal Assistance
Philadelphia, PA
Address displacement in Philadelphia’s low-income Asian American communities by providing comprehensive direct representation to tenants facing evictions. Build community partnerships to provide outreach and education, engage in systemic advocacy to expand tenant protections, and advance language access for AAPI and immigrant residents.
Caity Lynch
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Swords to Plowshares
San Francisco, CA
Expand access to Department of Veterans Affairs benefits, including housing, healthcare, and disability compensation for veterans with other than honorable discharges who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness by applying new regulations that recognize trauma and discrimination as a cause of unjust dismissal from service and subsequent VA ineligibility.
Nina McKay
New York University School of Law
ACLU, Voting Rights Project
New York, NY
In partnership with low-income Black Mississippians and organizations working on their behalf, initiate Voting Rights Act litigation to ensure fair representation on local school boards.
Alice Min
University of Texas School of Law
The Legal Aid Society of New York
Brooklyn, NY
Challenge the NYPD’s use of illegal surveillance technology, and assist individuals harmed by this surveillance, by expunging their information from the NYPD’s databases.
Marí Perales Sánchez
Yale Law School
Worker Justice Center of New York
Hawthorne, NY
Cultivate resilient and holistic legal empowerment alongside migrant farmworker women facing precarious health and security labor conditions in rural New York.
Quinn Phillips
Boston University School of Law
ACLU, National Prison Project
Boston, MA
Provide legal representation and advocacy to address rights violations in the juvenile justice system that disproportionately affect girls in foster care. Litigate to prevent and seek remedies for unjust prolonged detentions brought about by failures of child-welfare authorities to provide appropriate reentry placement. Use appellate litigation to expand protections and ensure greater safety for girls who are at a heightened risk of sexual abuse while detained.
Nathan Porceng
Columbia University School of Law
Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services
Pittsburgh, PA
Advise on civil legal matters and build clear legal pathways to proliferate community-controlled solar-energy projects in historically marginalized Appalachian localities, in an effort to democratize the region’s energy infrastructure and promote a just transition to renewable power.
Tal Rothstein
Yale Law School
Pine Tree Legal Assistance
Portland, ME
Provide direct immigration representation, outreach, and education for migrant workers experiencing labor violations in Maine’s agricultural, forestry, and dairy industries.
Madeline Sachs
Georgetown University Law Center
Legal Aid Justice Center
Falls Church, VA
Advocate to advance humane immigration policy by addressing the consequences of criminal convictions in individual immigration cases through a combination of direct representation in detained removal proceedings, strategic appellate representation, community-led policy advocacy focused on expanding options for post-conviction relief as well as community education and outreach.
Malik Sammons
Columbia University School of Law
New York Civil Liberties Union
New York, NY
Ensure housing security exists for New Yorkers through impact representation, public education, and systemic advocacy to enforce tenants’ rights, specifically for voucher recipients and rent-stabilized tenants, where government agencies are failing to effectively administer programs and their enforcement mechanisms.
Jamie Sgarro
Northeastern University School of Law
ACLU of Missouri
St. Louis, MO
Enforce, strengthen, and expand existing state and federal legal protections for low-income transgender Missourians using strategic impact litigation, legislative advocacy, and community education.
Tamara Shamir
Harvard Law School
Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice
Boston, MA
Provide direct representation to prevent wrongful deportations of asylum seekers in accelerated asylum programs (the Asylum Processing Rule and Family Expedited Removal Management).
Emma Soglin
DePaul University College of Law
James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy
Evanston, IL
Expand the scope of a community-based legal clinic to provide advocacy on immigration, housing, and other civil matters to support the permanency and stability of recently arrived immigrant families in Evanston and Skokie, Illinois.
Joseph Strom
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Equip for Equality
Chicago, IL
Provide legal education and direct representation to disabled people facing new technological barriers to securing and keeping meaningful employment. Forms of discrimination may include denial of remote work, limited application access, and artificial intelligence decision-making.
Sophie Towle
University of Michigan Law School
Disability Rights Michigan
Lansing, MI
Provide direct representation to children and youth to facilitate access to community-based mental and behavioral health Medicaid services. Identify and mitigate systemic barriers preventing eligible children and youth from accessing these Medicaid services.
Asja Towns
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Washington, DC
Engage in multidisciplinary advocacy, including policy, public education, litigation, communications, and organizing, to safeguard and lawfully expand targeted programs so that low-income students of color can access higher education and employment opportunities.
René J. Valenzuela
Loyola University School of Law, Chicago
Equip for Equality
Chicago, IL
Partner with Chicago and Illinois-based community organizations to provide critical special-education legal representation, training, and outreach to immigrant families of children with disabilities, with a particular emphasis on representing undocumented and newcomer immigrant families.
Byul Yoon
New York University School of Law
ACLU, Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
New York, NY
Defend grassroots advocates who are targeted with Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) by providing legal representation, amicus briefs, and Know Your Rights trainings, and promote legislation that protects First Amendment rights for low-income communities of color.
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