09/01/2026
What happens when a case you study in law school becomes a case you help litigate?
During her first year at Harvard Law School, Lauren Acevedo wrote a research paper about *Chavez v. Pasadena Unified School District*, a case challenging school closures that disproportionately affected Latino students.
This summer, Lauren became an Equal Justice America Fellow at the Los Angeles office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). There, she had the remarkable opportunity to conduct research for the appellate brief in the very case she had studied months earlier.
Lauren also worked on education and voting rights issues and drafted an opposition brief in an employment discrimination case. By the end of the summer, she had strengthened her litigation skills, gained a new mentor, and become even more interested in pursuing nonprofit impact litigation.
EJA Summer Fellowships expand the capacity of organizations doing important legal work today while giving law students opportunities that can shape the lawyers they become tomorrow.
We're proud to have helped Lauren turn something she studied in the classroom into an opportunity to help advance civil rights in the real world.
