Harvard Law School has selected 26 graduating 3Ls and one recent graduate to receive fellowships enabling them to pursue public service work, Dean Martha Minow announced today.

Ten of the students will be awarded the newly established Redstone Fellowships; one student will be the Maria, Gabriella & Robert A. Skirnick Public Interest Fellow; one student will be the Sheldon Seevak Fellow; another nine will receive the Holmes Public Service Fellowships established by Dean Minow in 2009; and six will receive the Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship.

The one-year fellowships offer Harvard Law School students and recent graduates financial support so that they can work for non-profit organizations or for the government following graduation. This support is especially vital when resources are tight, job opportunities are limited, and legal needs are profound, Minow said.

Minow added that the fellowships enable students to get valuable work experience while providing much needed help across fields ranging from global economic development to domestic criminal defense work. The grants cover basic living expenses while the graduates provide vital legal services in the non-profit sector.

“I am delighted to announce the awards to our new Redstone Fellows, our Skirnick fellow, our Seevak fellow, our new Holmes Fellows, and this year’s Kaufman Fellows,” said Dean Minow. “Each of the recipients submitted a proposal to do vitally important work in public service. Their proposals reflect the hopes of graduating students while simultaneously addressing unmet legal needs. They will pursue a breathtaking variety of projects at an especially critical moment of challenge for non-profit and governmental organizations. I am immensely grateful to Sumner Redstone, Maria, Gabriella & Robert A. Skirnick, Sheldon Seevak, and Walter Annenberg, donors with the vision to provide support that advances the dreams of students to serve their communities while simultaneously providing legal assistance. This financial support will make a life-changing difference not only for the recipients of these fellowships, but for the countless people who will be helped by what these fellows will now be able to accomplish.”

The Redstone Fellowships were established on April 23, 2010, by Sumner M. Redstone ’47, who donated $1 million to be used by both Harvard College and Harvard Law School to support students who are committed to public service work. The new Redstone Fellows at the Law School (along with the employers for whom they will work) are:

Caroline Bredeson ’10

Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office, Minneapolis, MN

Leah Cohen ’10

Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA and Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC

Anthony Di Benedetto ’10

World Bank, Special Litigation Unit, Washington, D.C.

Sarah Downer ’10

WilmerHale Legal Services Center, Passageway Health Law Collaborative, Jamaica Plain, MA

Lawrence Horsburgh ’10

WilmerHale Legal Services Center, Predatory Lending and Bankruptcy Unit, Jamaica Plain, MA

Anne Levin ’10

Catholic Charities Community Services for the Archdiocese of New York, New York, NY

Anna Myles-Primakoff ’10

Children’s Law Center, Washington, DC

Pablo Svirsky ’10

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Boston, MA

Jonathan Taylor ’10

Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C.

Leigh Ann Webster ’10

Southern Poverty Law Center, Atlanta, GA

The Skirnick Fellowships were established by Maria Ann Skirnick ’69 and Robert A. Skirnick, along with their daughter Gabriella Skirnick ’07, to promote public service. This year’s recipient is:

Al Sahlstrom ’10

Earthjustice, Denver, CO

The Sheldon Seevak Fellowship was created in 2007 by a gift from the late Sheldon Seevak 53 to promote student engagement in advancing  American democracy through election reform and voting rights work. The recipient is:

Laura Thorson Meyer 10

Demos, New York City

The Holmes Fellowships were established by Dean Minow in October 2009 and were named in honor of the long public service career of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. LL.B. 1866. The inaugural recipients are:

Rehan Abeyratne ’10

International Justice Network, New York, NY

Ilan Goldbard ’10

New York City Law Department, New York, NY

Conor Kennedy ’10

Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, D.C.

Laura Kleinman ’10

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C.

Titus Lin ’10

Louisiana Justice Institute, New Orleans, LA

Komala Ramachandra ’10

Accountability Project, San Francisco, CA and Lima, Peru

Hillary Weinstein Steinbrook ’10

Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

Stephanie Finn Guthrie ’10

King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Seattle, WA

Jennifer MacLeod LLM ’10

Social Economic Rights Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Irving R. Kaufman Fellowships were created in recognition of Judge Kaufman’s distinguished career in public service and are made possible by a gift from the late Honorable Walter Annenberg, philanthropist and former Ambassador to the Court of St. James. This year’s recipients are:

Craig Altemose ’10

Better Future Project, Cambridge, MA

Samantha Crane ’09

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Washington, D.C.

Celina Beatriz Mendes De Almeida LLM ’10

Human Rights Watch, New York, NY

Noga Firstenberg ’10

American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, San Francisco, CA

Shannon Erwin ’10

Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Boston, MA