It all started with a germ of an idea: Create opportunities for careers in public service by investing in entrepreneurial lawyers with a passion for social and economic justice.
In 2012, inspired by Harvard Law School alumni who have used their degrees and experience to pursue innovative methods of social change, Dean Martha Minow and the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School (OPIA) created the Public Service Venture Fund (PSVF), awarding up to $1 million in grants every year to Harvard Law graduates pursuing careers in public service.
Through a rigorous application process, the PSVF committee identifies entrepreneurial students and recent alums and invests in their proposed ventures. The Office of Public Interest Advising, which administers the Fund, awards about 20 fellowships and two start-up grants annually. Programs like these are critical, said Alexa Shabecoff, Harvard Law School’s assistant dean for public service and director of the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising, because they expand the pie of public interest jobs, and create new resources to support disadvantaged communities and critical issues.
Since 2013, PSVF Seed Grants have been awarded to support nine separate ventures, including three this past year. In addition to PSVF Funding, seed grant recipients have attracted other foundation support, including Echoing Green Fellowships, which have been awarded to three of those nine.
Since their inception, the start-ups seeded by PSVF all have taken root and flourished, with most garnering significant national attention for high-impact work.
Harvard Law School’s first seed grant recipient, Equal Justice Under Law (EJUL), has influenced reform in the criminal justice system, significantly reframing the manner in which courts consider the imprisonment of those with civil fine debts. Community Activism Law Alliance, founded to bring legal services to disadvantaged communities that do not otherwise have access to legal assistance, recently opened its sixth clinic in Chicago. The Muslim Justice League continues to build on existing anti-oppression work to directly take on anti-Muslim bigotry and discrimination, and the Promise of Justice Initiative recently filed a federal class action complaint on behalf of a class of prisoners in Louisiana.
While Seed Grants provide “seed money” for startup public interest ventures, the Public Service Venture Fund also offers postgraduate support through Organization-Based Fellowships. These fellowships offer salary support to graduating Harvard Law School students who do not otherwise have funding, allowing them to pursue postgraduate work at nonprofits or government agencies in the United States and abroad.
As the Fund enters its fourth year, HLS is looking back on all that its students and recent alums have accomplished since the first awards were conferred in 2013 — the organizations they have established; the changes they have brought about through direct action, legal advocacy and litigation; and the formation of collaborative relationships on a local and global scale.
PSF Seed Grantees
Equal Justice Under Law (2013)
Credit: Brooks KraftAlec Karakatsanis ’08 (left) and Phil Telfeyan ’08 are the founders of the nonprofit civil rights firm Equal Justice Under Law. Karakatsanis recently left EJUL to launch a new organization, the Civil Rights Corps. Telfeyan continues to serve as EJUL’s executive director.
Alec Karakatsanis ’08 and Phil Telfeyan ’08 challenged the role of the profit motive in the criminal system through their nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law (EJUL). EJUL has been highly successful in challenging money bail systems in eight states through class action lawsuits. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization has helped end the use of money bail in dozens of jurisdictions around the country, and the organization has reached landmark settlement agreements keeping thousands of people from illegal jailing, and getting compensation for thousands of illegally jailed people.
As part of Equal Justice Under Law’s fight to end abusive private probation practices, the organization filed a landmark RICO and constitutional class action lawsuit in federal court in Nashville challenging the pervasive extortion and debtors’ prison conspiracy. Their six-month investigation — initially led with a team of Harvard Law School students on spring break — exposed rampant corruption, racketeering, and constitutional violations pervading the Rutherford County probation system.
In 2016, Karakatsanis received the Stephen B. Bright Award for contributions to indigent defense in the South by Gideon’s Promise. He and several of his co-counsel in the early bail cases received Public Justice’s 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award.
Last fall, Karakatsanis left Equal Justice Under Law to start Civil Rights Corps, an organization that specializes in cases and advocacy concerning prosecutorial and police misconduct, mass incarceration and the myriad ways in which the pursuit of profit have corrupted the basic delivery of justice.
Telfeyan continues to lead Equal Justice Under Law as executive director in the organization’s fight to end wealth-based discrimination in the criminal justice system.
Essie Justice Group (2013)
With an unprecedented 2+ million people living behind bars in the United States – 90% of them men – millions of women with incarcerated loved ones are left behind. Today 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 2 Black women has a family member in prison.
Gina Clayton ’10 established the Essie Justice Group (Essie), a nonprofit in Oakland, California that is building a community for the millions of women who have loved ones behind bars to end mass incarceration’s harm to women. With their innovative Healing to Advocacy program, Essie breaks isolation and builds social capital among women with incarcerated loved ones to increase mental health, resources in families, and civic engagement. Informed by AA and Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, Essie has adopted a community-led, decentralized approach to healing and systemic criminal justice reform.
Credit: Jessica ScrantonGina Clayton ’10 is the founder of Essie Justice Group.
In under three years, Essie has conducted outreach in 34 prisons, received nominations from over 15 states, conducted healing retreats, hosted a national policy summit (convening over 21 organizations), launched Essie Fellows (a leadership development program for graduates of the Healing to Advocacy model), hosted briefings for thought and movement leaders nationally, developed Essie constituent leaders in five key states, facilitated the participation of women in national reports and documentaries, including John Legend’s Free America Campaign and Ava Duvernay’s acclaimed film “13th,” and launched five cycles of its Healing to Advocacy program in the California Bay Area serving 4,687 people to date.
In 2017, Essie will launch its Flagship Network, scaling the model across the California counties hardest hit by incarceration. With proof of concept in hand, the Flagship will help create a blueprint for national scale. Essie is on track for its model to be entirely decentralized and implemented by community members in living rooms and community centers nationally.
In addition to the Echoing Green Global Fellowship, Essie was a winner of the Soros Justice Fellowship in 2014, the JMK Innovation Prize in 2015 and the Google Bay Area Impact Challenge in 2015.
Community Activism Law Alliance (2014)
In September 2014, Lam Ho ’14 established the Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA), a nonprofit in Chicago, to bring legal services to disadvantaged communities that do not otherwise have access to legal assistance. Among other things, CALA works to obtain green cards for undocumented immigrant survivors of brutal domestic violence, fight wage theft and discrimination on behalf of laborers, and represents sex workers who are fighting to keep or get back their children. CALA uses “community activism lawyering” to bring lawyers and activists together to produce more impactful services.
Lam Ho ’08 (second from left) and fellow CALA staff members on the streets of Chicago.
In August 2016, CALA opened its sixth community law office, in Lake County, in partnership with Mano a Mano. This October, CALA marked its two-year anniversary. Since its founding, CALA grew from a single attorney to a team of nine attorneys, with a growing roster of more than 75 volunteers. CALA has established six “community activism-law clinics” directly in — and directed by — the communities they serve. They have empowered and protected the rights of activists; supported activism campaigns that have impacted thousands of people, and have helped more than 3,500 clients—most of whom are undocumented immigrants, day laborers, and sex workers unable to obtain free legal aid from other legal aid organizations.
Muslim Justice League (2015)
Shannon Erwin ’10 has used her PSVF grant to establish The Muslim Justice League (MJL), a partnership of lawyers and scholars who educate, organize and advocate for human and civil rights that are violated or threatened under national security pretexts. One of the areas in which MJL focuses its work is on educating communities, press, state and local agencies and education and health professionals about “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE), a campaign driven by national security, intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies to steer people off pathways to “radicalization” or “extremism.” MJL has provided pro bono consultation and representation for persons approached by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and conducted community education, advocacy, and coordination.
Shannon Erwin ’10 has used her PSVF grant to establish The Muslim Justice League
In the past year, MJL has successfully helped stop FBI/JTTF overtures in 12 of 13 cases and they’ve raised awareness about Countering Violent Extremism among activists, students, and interfaith allies, presenting information about CVE and human rights concerns at forums from Northeastern Law School, Tufts University, Harvard Law School and to the broader community through Quincy public access television.
Community Justice Project (2015)
Alana Greer ’11 launched the Community Justice Project, Inc. with her PSVF grant alongside co-founders Meena Jagannath and Charles Elsesser. Concentrating its efforts in South Florida, Community Justice Project supports grassroots campaigns led by activists of color like the Dream Defenders and Power U Center for Social Change, to envision innovative approaches to racial justice and human rights challenges, like community safety and relationships between police and communities.
In November 2016, Community Justice Project was awarded a $25,000 grant by the Knight Foundation as part of its Arts Challenge for a project called “Voices: Poetry for the People.” The goal of the project is to engage new audiences in the literary arts by bringing workshops (led by poet Aja Monet) to grassroots leaders involved in social justice issues.
Alana Greer ’11 launched the Community Justice Project, Inc. in 2015 alongside co-founders Meena Jagannath and Charles Elsesser.
In its first year, Community Justice Project worked with students at Power U Center for Social Change to secure a Restorative Justice pilot program in their schools; advocated on behalf of the Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward County after members faced discrimination at a Donald Trump rally; and supported the New Vision Drivers Association to ensure that workers’ rights are part of the ride sharing conversation. They also supported leaders at FANM in winning the official designation of Little Haiti, a community under serious threat of gentrification and displacement.
Community Justice Project has worked with leaders on the ground in Miami, Ferguson and across the Movement for Black Lives network to capture and submit testimony of civil and human rights abuses, with a special focus on police brutality and state violence, to bodies including the Organization of American States, U.N. human rights bodies, and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights.
Transcend; Advocates for Community Alternatives; Climate Defense Project (2016)
Since being selected last spring, the 2016 PSVF seed grant recipients have begun work on projects ranging from environmental litigation and advocacy to transgender healthcare and identity issues. The 2016 Public Service Venture Fund seed grant recipients are: Kelsey Skaggs ’16, Alice Cherry ’16, and Ted Hamilton ’16, for their Climate Defense Project; Jonathan Kaufman ’06, for his new venture, Advocates for Community Alternatives; and Noah Lewis ’05, for his start-up, Transcend Legal. Read more about the 2016 grantees.
2016-2017 PSVF Organization-based Fellows
| Mihal Ansik ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow New Way of Life Reentry Project Los Angeles, CA | Fabiana Pardi Otamendi LL.M. ’16 Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship International Service for Human Rights Geneva, Switzerland |
| Daniel Carpenter-Gold ’16 Maria, Gabriella & Robert A. Skirnick Fellowship New York Lawyers for the Public Interest New York, NY | Brittany Reid ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Reprieve London, United Kingdom |
| Ryan Cortazar ’16 Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Chicago, IL | Elizabeth Anne Reese,Yunpoví ’16 Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Washington, D.C. |
| Mira Chernick ’16 Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service Center for Justice and Accountability San Francisco, CA | Renuka Rege ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Public Justice Center Baltimore, MD |
| Keaton Allen-Gessesse ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Socio-Economic Rights Institute Johannesburg, South Africa | Alexandra Santa Ana ’16 Dennis ’83, Susan, William ’08 and Thomas ’12 Langer Public Service Fellowship National Center for Youth Law Oakland, CA |
| Rena Karefa Johnson ’16 Edith W. Fine Fellowship Youth Represent New York, NY | Angel Gabriel Cabrera Silva L.L.M. ’16 Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship Centro de Estudios Legales Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Anna Joseph ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Dejusticia Bogota, Colombia | Zachary Shapiro ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Hastings Center Garrison, NY |
| Anna Jouravleva ’16 Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service Massachusetts Law Reform Institute Boston, MA | Jitka Vrtelova LL.M. ’16 Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship Legal Action Worldwide London, United Kingdom |
| Joseph Michalakes ’16 David A. Grossman Fellowship for Social Justice Greater Boston Legal Services Boston, MA | Jillian Wagman ’16 Public Service Venture Fund Fellow Institute for Migrant Women Mexico City, Mexico |