STUDENT NEWS AWA RDS / PRIZES
This year at Chicago-Kent College of Law, standout students were recognized with honors, stipends, and fellowships. Here is a look at of some of this year’s most distinguished students: intellectual property courses at Chicago-Kent, hoping to apply it in the agritech field.
Enrique Espinoza ’21 was awarded a national Peggy Browning Fund fellowship to work at the Chicago branch of the National Legal Advocacy Network, a nonprofit advocate for low-wage workers’ rights. A longtime hospitality worker, Espinoza says he enrolled in law school in his 40s because he wanted to tackle some of the labor issues he’d observed in his decades on the job. And many of his clients are immigrants, like him: Espinoza arrived in the United States from Mexico in 2007. “The clients’ stories mirror my stories,” Espinoza says.
Ashley-Marie Sutherland ’23 took the top prize of $30,000 at Pitch@IllinoisTech, a studentrun business plan competition. Sutherland and her husband run HEIRS Farm, a hydroponics startup in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. They say they hope to produce fresh microgreens, including diasporic crops from Africa, to a neighborhood that sorely needs it. Sutherland is focusing on patents and 2
Hussein Nofal ’22 received the Gary Laser Professionalism Award for his work in Chicago-Kent’s immigration clinic. The Laser Award goes to students working at the Law Offices of Chicago-Kent’s clinics who show promise and maintain the highest standard of ethics. Nofal, whose family is from Palestine, worked on multiple asylum cases at the immigration clinic, and was singled out for his work ethic and empathy. Noting that many Palestinians are refugees, Nofal says, “You really feel for those people who are refugees from other countries as well.” Hayden Dinges ’21 and Sakshi Jain ’21 were recognized by their Moot Court Honor Society peers with the Marc Grinker Student Commitment Award. The award is given for Moot Court Honor Society members who showed commitment and support to their fellow students. Dinges and Jain were anonymously nominated by their peers to receive the honor. After graduation, Dinges started as an appellate attorney at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and Jain started as an associate at Ice Miller’s Chicago office.
Sakshi Jain
CHICAGO-KENT MAGAZINE
Hayden Dinges
Monica Pechous
Isabella Romano
Monica Pechous ’20, Isabella Romano ’21, Clayburn Arnold ’21, and Emily Motin ’22 received the 2021 Fleischman Family Awards for Excellence in Criminal Clinic for their diligent work in Chicago-Kent’s Criminal Law Clinic. The team helped successfully petition for the compassionate release of a man from federal custody in Duluth, Minnesota. The 66-year-old man, who had high blood pressure and 5 ½ years left on his sentence, became concerned by a large COVID-19 outbreak in the surrounding county. Jaylin D. McClinton ’22 was identified as one this year’s Next Generation Leaders by the American Constitution Society, a progressive nonprofit dedicated to building a diverse legal community in defense of democracy and the United States Constitution. The leadership program singled out 28 law school students in 2021 who “have the requisite skills, knowledge, and talent to act now during this critical moment in our country,” ACS president and former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold said in a written statement. The leadership network now has more than 400 members since it started in 2007.
Clayburn Arnold
Emily Motin
Joey Carrillo ’21 received an Equal Justice Works fellowship to help expand Legal Aid Chicago’s outreach to the LGBT community. Carrillo finished three previous internships with the nonprofit’s Children and Families practice group, and had noticed a dearth of LGBT clients. He will approach outside social service organizations, offering training for those that don’t focus on LGBT clients and asking for referrals from those that do. Equal Justice Works partners with law firms as well as outside funding organizations. Carrillo’s fellowship will be sponsored by the law firm Greenberg Traurig and Discover Financial Services. Kelby Roth ’22 won the Willis R. Tribler Law Student Writing Competition, sponsored by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. She wrote about how a potential increase in COVID19-related civil actions against emergency medical personnel will face a high bar due to state regulation. “Attorneys should take a resourceful
