SWLAW Blog | Future Students
September 23, 2022
Meet our 2022 PILC Grant Recipients Working in Government — Part One
Southwestern's Public Interest Law Committee (PILC) is a student-run organization that sponsors several events each year to raise student awareness and involvement in providing legal services for underrepresented communities and is dedicated to facilitating public interest law careers by supporting students in public interest work through fundraising efforts for the school's Public Interest Law Summer Grant Program.
We want to recognize these students and their incredible work with their Public Interest Law Committee Summer Grant. Meet our 2022 PILC Grant recipients working in Government Part One:
Taylor Bowen
Summer Placement: Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender's Office
I am passionate about public interest/public service work because I come from a community of marginalized groups that desperately need representation in the legal system. The individuals in the criminal justice system are made up of MY people. Black and brown people need representation in the legal system, and I want to be that representative. Many black and brown people do not seek the legal help they need because (1) they have a distrust of law/government officials and (2) they cannot afford it. I want to change this by being someone they can trust to help them get the justice they deserve and to represent them fairly. Also, since many black and brown people come from low-income communities, I would like to start a non-profit that would allow these individuals not to have to worry about choosing between getting legal help or going into debt.
Lora Jones
Summer Placement: Office of the Attorney General, District of Columbia - Civil Litigation Division
It is frustrating and inhuman for individuals to not have opportunities, resources, or shown selective support to live a quality life. I am hopeful that I will assist in implementing and maintaining the support, resources, and opportunities to contribute to a better quality of life for individuals. I plan to advocate, whether that is inside or outside the courtroom or through policy or research. I would like to not only assist within the United States but also outside U.S. borders as this theme of a lack of quality of life is universal, and there needs to be accountability measures imposed on world leaders. Furthermore, through my international work and or studies, I am hopeful the U.S. can implement similar or identical policies that could be pivotal in that change.
Ester Mendez
Summer Placement: Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender's Office
Growing up, I had many first-hand experiences with common issues in my community. While some aspire to be lawyers for this same reason, not everyone has this type of genuine understanding of over-policed low-income neighborhoods. I want to help people in communities like these, where getting arrested is easy but getting adequate resources is unreasonably difficult. I plan to work at a non-profit or public defender’s office where I can use my unique skills to positively impact people needing help on a personal level that can change their lives.
Carlos Suarez Hernandez
Summer Placement: Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender's Office
I am passionate about public interest work because I grew up in a low-income immigrant community
where I saw a need for adequate representation. After law school, I plan to work at the Public
Defender’s Office in their Immigration Unit. I plan to use my legal education to work in the public sector
and provide immigration and criminal defense services to the people of Los Angeles County.
About the PILC Summer Grant Program
Southwestern’s PILC Summer Grant program was established in 1990 with the mission of providing financial support to selected recipients seeking full-time summer clerkships with legal services organizations providing no-cost assistance to underserved, marginalized communities. This program makes it possible for students to acquire the legal training and education necessary to address the lack of access to legal services for indigent communities while also alleviating Southwestern students’ financial burden of acquiring more educational loans in order to do so.
PILC sincerely thanks our donors and supporters for your invaluable contributions to this program benefiting Southwestern students. PILC’s mission is to help create a community where Southwestern students, staff, faculty, and alumni are educated and incentivized to participate in issues concerning and advancing the public interest, and it is your support of this mission that is vital in helping us reach our fundraising goals each year.
The student deadline to apply to the 2023 PILC Summer Grant Program is March 6, 2023. Awards up to $5,000. Email publicservice@swlaw.edu for more information.