They are not even lawyers yet, but that one little caveat doesn’t seem to deter those we honor as Law School Students of the Year for the 2016-17 academic year. Each of them gives back.
One helps people who have been jailed get back on their feet. She knows how hard it can be. She spent 20 months locked up for selling drugs.
Another advocates for undocumented immigrants, helping them navigate our nation’s challenging immigration policies. That’s because she was once in that very same position.
Still another works to make her impoverished Washington, D.C., neighborhood safer. She has no intention of moving to a world of sushi bars and BMW dealerships after she completes her law degree. She wants to stay and help her neighborhood flourish.
The list goes on and on. Law students doing the remarkable, the unselfish.
We asked the nation’s law schools for nominations, and then we whittled down the list. Our 25 Law Students of the Year come from all parts of the nation. Five are featured in the Spring issue of the National Jurist magazine, which will soon be available digitally. Below, you can read about an additional 20 amazing students.
The large number of outstanding candidates shows that the future of law is in good hands, regardless of the obstacles legal education faces today.
Not only are these students tackling law school, which is immensely challenging in itself, but also they are already looking to right wrongs and fight for society’s most vulnerable.
No doubt, they will make the profession proud. After all, they’ve already started.
WEST
Katie Steefel, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Javier Garcia, The University of New Mexico School of Law
Ahmed Lavalais, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Amanda Gomm, Lewis & Clark Law School
Tarra Simmons, Seattle University School of Law
SOUTH
Lynne Nash, Texas A&M University School of Law
Frances Isbell, The University of Alabama School of Law
Laymond Wilburn, Texas Southern University – Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Rasha Abu-Zeyadeh, Texas Tech University School of Law
Maria Ivañez, South Texas College of Law Houston
MIDWEST
Jacob Bielenberg, Washburn University School of Law
Shantel Thompson, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Willie Lyles III, Southern Illinois University School of Law
Oluchi Ifebi, The John Marshall Law School
Nadia Anguiano-Wehde, University of Minnesota Law School
MID-ATLANTIC
Luis Canales, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Sarah Saint, Wake Forest University School of Law
Yvette Pappoe, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Danielle Desaulniers, University of Virginia School of Law
Veda Rasheed, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
NORTHEAST
Lorena Jiron, Fordham University School of Law
Cherina Clark, Suffolk University Law School
David Ourlicht, City University of New York School of Law
Katherine Fahey, Boston University School of Law
Daniel “Danny” Oquendo, New York Law School