As the starting point for Miami Law students committed to advocacy and service, participants of the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center - Miami Scholars, Fellows, Public Interest Leadership Board, volunteers, and friends – take advantage of programs, clinics, projects, courses, and opportunities while in law school. The 25th anniversary of HOPE is a time to look back at its impact since its founding in 1998.
Meet HOPE Graduates Making an Impact Via Pro Bono Work, the Military, Government and Non-Profit Agencies
Nick Bancroft, J.D. '15
Impartial Hearing Officer, NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings
HOPE Fellow Nick Bancroft, J.D. '15, shares his reflections on his time at Miami Law: "The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center meant a great deal to me in law school and had an enormous role in shaping my career. HOPE showed me that lawyers can have fulfilling careers using their legal skills to make the world a better place. Being a lawyer who helps people is incredibly rewarding, and I would never have had that opportunity if it wasn't for HOPE. I was lucky enough to receive a Summer Public Interest Fellowship during my 1L summer that allowed me to stay in Miami and intern at the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office. That summer shaped the next decade of my life. I was a HOPE Fellow during my 2L summer, affording me the opportunity to move to Denver and intern at the Colorado State Public Defender's Office. After law school, I spent the next eight years working as a public defender in Boulder, Colorado, and then in Brooklyn, New York. Public Interest engagement is extremely valuable in law school because it allows you to do the work and to experience what it is really like to be an attorney. I had a misdemeanor caseload as a law student. I did jury trials. The private sector did not offer that kind of valuable hands-on experience to students. My current position as an adjudicator with a city agency is still in the public sector, although different from my work as a public defender. The cases I preside over involve parents of children with disabilities and the NYC Department of Education. Who knows what the future holds, but I can't imagine not having a career in the public interest."
Nejla Calvo Proenza, J.D. '15
Palm Beach County Attorney's Office Litigation Team
Nejla Calvo Proenza was a Miami Public Interest Scholar and a HOPE Summer Public Interest Fellow at Miami Law. She shares: "Participating in HOPE programming enriched my law school experience one-hundred-fold. The opportunities I had to engage in social justice work as a law student allowed me to pave a path for my career in the public interest. Upon graduating from law school, I received a highly competitive national Equal Justice Works Fellowship to run an advocacy project serving low-income mobile home park residents at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., where I stayed as a staff attorney for five years. I then moved to Palm Beach and continued my career with the Palm Beach County Attorney's Office Litigation Team, where I have served the citizens of Palm Beach County for the past three years. My legal career thus far has been rewarding as I continue to fulfill my passion for public interest work. I firmly believe that the foundation for my public interest career was built through HOPE."
Alli Katzen, J.D. '20
Attorney, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
As a practicing attorney, Miami Public Interest Scholar Alli Katzen has maintained her commitment to public service by engaging in meaningful pro bono work. Alli shares: "HOPE helped build a foundation for my dedication to pro bono legal service. Since graduating from Miami Law, I have had the privilege of representing those whose voices would otherwise be silent—all too often, those are the people most in need of access to our courts. Together with other lawyers at Weil Gotshal (and an incredible network of co-counsel at other firms and organizations), I have had the opportunity to bring challenges to Miami-Dade County’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer policies, shining a light on unjust treatment of our community members and neighbors. One of my most fulfilling experiences as a lawyer has been my pro bono representation of a human trafficking survivor seeking to expunge her criminal record after she was prosecuted for acts that she had been forced into while being trafficked. Successfully vindicating her name and reputation and helping her to move forward with her life reminded me why I became a lawyer. Perhaps most relevant to today’s climate, I am currently engaged in a campaign to protect students from hostile acts of antisemitism on university campuses. I feel strongly about dedicating my education, time, and skills to these righteous and often overlooked needs."
Liam McGivern, J.D. '12
Senior Litigation Attorney, Justice in Aging
Miami Public Interest Scholar Alum Liam McGivern shares his thoughts on how HOPE helped to shape his public interest career path: "I earned my J.D. from Miami Law, but looking back, I feel more like I attended the HOPE School of Public Interest Law. Without the Miami Public Interest Scholarship, I could not have attended Miami Law. Before I attended a single class, I connected with fellow excited do-gooder students at the HOPE Day of Service. HOPE held regular gatherings, both educational and social, to keep me and other students engaged with each other and with public interest law. Through HOPE I secured my first legal ‘job’ as a volunteer Legal Aid intern, and HOPE provided me with the funding for my first paid Legal Aid job and my summer Legal Aid internships. HOPE helped guide me as I chose the best elective courses and professors to make the most of my experience and to further my public interest career. HOPE was instrumental in me earning a post-graduate Skadden Fellowship, assisting with application materials and conducting multiple mock interviews. As I started my career, so many of the attorneys I looked to for guidance and support were fellow HOPE alums – even after graduation, the HOPE network continued helping me throughout my legal career. Today, I’m a Senior Litigation Attorney with Justice in Aging, a national non-profit legal advocacy organization that works to fight senior poverty through law. For nearly fifty years, Justice in Aging has focused the organization’s advocacy on marginalized groups including women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and people with limited English proficiency. I work to develop and bring lawsuits designed to create systemic change to protect and further the economic rights, health, and dignity of older people. I feel very privileged to get to do this work, and I’m confident that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of the HOPE program and its network."
Kathryn Walker, J.D. '13
Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Public Representation
At Kathryn Walker’s job, she works on litigation teams, addressing various civil rights issues faced by people with disabilities. The Miami Public Interest Scholar chose CPR as it uses legal strategies, advocacy, and policy to promote the integration and full community participation of people with disabilities and all others who are devalued in today's society. She shares her experience with Miami Law and HOPE: "The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center brought me to the University of Miami School of Law. I cannot speak highly enough of my experience with the program, both in school and after. As a student, HOPE funding allowed me to experience disability rights work from a variety of angles, and I carried that forward into my career. Ten years later, I'm still working for the rights of people with disabilities, and I still count Dean Marni Lennon and some of my fellow HOPE alumni as close friends. The pro bono and public interest work that comes out of this network energizes my commitment, and I always look forward to annual opportunities to connect with current students. I first heard about CPR from Professor Susan Stefan during my time at Miami Law, and I'm thrilled to now be a part of a team that intentionally and strategically expands the rights of people with disabilities."
Laura Wilcoxon, J.D. '21
Reference & Student Services Librarian and Coordinator of Student Success, University of Missouri School of Law
The Miami Public Interest Scholar shares her reflections about HOPE on its 25th anniversary: "When I say that I would not have survived law school if it were not for the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center, I mean that quite literally. I entered law school fresh off the experience of surviving domestic violence. Being a non-traditional student was awkward enough, but the camaraderie forged through our cohort kept me solid through the trial. Through our exposure to public interest speakers, I decided to take on a certified externship at Kansas Legal Aid when COVID scattered us to the wind before my 3L year. I stayed on after completing the class hours, and I was able to assist over 750 clients that year either with protection orders or divorces to escape their own domestic violence situations. Though I have not gone on to practice law, my HOPE experience has continued to be paid forward. Thanks to those speakers, I can share the wide variety of public interest legal opportunities with my students. Most significantly, the wrap around support modeled by Dean Marni Lennon, Sharon Booth, Sarah Baez, and Detra Davis-Fleming is the way I strive to mentor and support my own law students at the University of Missouri. The way the team supported me as a human made me thrive as a law student, and I strive to demonstrate that empathy to my own students who will hopefully pass it on to their clients."
Maxwell Zoberman, J.D. '22
Judge Advocate and First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps
The former Miami Public Interest Scholar shares: "The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center not only reminded me that there exists a robust network of practitioners dedicated to the betterment of their communities, but it also reminded me of why I fell in love with the idea of becoming an attorney in the first place. In a career field full of incentives to practice in more traditional ways, HOPE was consistently there to affirm for me that a career dedicated to public service was both important and also practical. Thanks to the support and guidance from HOPE, I've been able to pursue my childhood dream of serving my country in the Marine Corps. My experience with HOPE has allowed me to have a career in the law that excites me when I wake up in the morning, and the people I met through the office I count as some of the most impressive and kind-hearted people I know, not to mention life-long friends."
More on the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center
