EFE Office Updates

Legal Interns Contribute Skills and Build Experience

Three legal interns and one recent law school graduate joined the ranks of Equip for Equality this summer in a mutually beneficial situation in which the attorneys get much-needed help and the students acquire the best possible hands-on experience.

"We give our interns exposure to all aspects of our work, including traditional legal research and writing, as well as the opportunity to become involved in the practical aspects of disability legal and public policy work," says Barry C. Taylor, EFE Legal Advocacy Director. "We are especially committed to giving our interns contact with our clients."

Interns are assigned to ongoing litigation and are encouraged to participate in and observe all stages of the process. Joining EFE this summer are law students Merkys Gomez, Claire Torchia and Mariangela Favero, and post-grad Johnny McCraw Jr.

Merkys Gomez has just completed her first year at Northwestern University Law School and comes to EFE through funding from the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI). Her bicultural and bilingual background has prepared her to work closely with Consuelo Puente, Manager of EFE's Latino Advocacy Project. Merkys completed her undergraduate studies in English and political science in 1999 at the University of Michigan. She has done extensive volunteer work for the American Civil Liberties Union and others.

Another first-year Northwestern law student, Claire Torchia, has a great deal of international experience to apply to legal and policy work at EFE. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in international relations and Russian studies, Claire has worked as an analyst for Andersen Consulting, as a program assistant at the United States Agency for International Development and as project manager for the International Development Group of DPK International.

Mariangela Favero has just completed her second year at Chicago Kent College of Law. Also proficient in Spanish, Mari has garnered legal experience through work in the Family Law Clinic at Chicago Kent, as a student volunteer for the Law Offices of Centro Oscar Romero assisting immigration clients seek asylum, and in the International Program of Law and Trade at Jangellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Mari earned a bachelor of arts degree in Hispanic studies and history from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1999.

Johnny McCraw Jr., a recent grad of the University of Michigan Law School and a PILI Fellow, worked half-time for EFE and took bar review class the other half of the day for the early part of the summer. For most of July, he was off to study for and take the bar, and then returned to work full time for EFE in August. This fall he will join the litigation department of Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal in Chicago, which funded his PILI Fellowship at EFE and where he was a summer associate. Johnny's other legal experience includes a summer associate position at Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell, a Nashville firm, and an internship at the Frist Foundation. While at Michigan, he was editor in chief of the Journal of Law Reform, as well as a parliamentarian for the Black Law Students Alliance. His undergraduate degree is from Middle Tennessee State University in 2000. =

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