2022 Lezak Fellows Announced

Five students have been named as the 2022 Lezak Fellows: Talia Brumfield ’23, Matt Constantino ’23, Jackie Dewart ’23, Adonis Matlock ’24, and Jessica Olave ’23. The Lezak Social Justice Fellowship honors the legacy of Sid Lezak by granting summer stipends to law students who will be serving the community. The program also provides mentorship and guidance to the fellows.

This summer, fellow Talia Brumfield will be working as a certified law student at the Oregon Department of Justice in the Child Advocacy Section. There, she will represent the state of Oregon in child welfare cases to achieve safety and stability for abused and neglected children. Trauma prevention is very important to Brumfield and she fully intends to bring a trauma-informed approach to her work at the DOJ.

Matt Constantino will be working with the LGBTQ+ Law and Policy Initiative at The Legal Aid Society in New York City, which is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Matt will work to develop and deliver internal training modules to over 2000 attorneys and support staff about sexual orientation, gender identiy, and gender expression. Matt will also develop public “Know Your Rights” training; work with coalition partners to increase and expand post-incarnation reentry support programs for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers; and assist in state lobbying efforts to pass the Gender Identity Respect, Dignity, and Safety Act.

Jackie Dewart will be working with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office in their Antitrust Division. In this position, she will work with attorneys to enforce state and federal laws related to issues like price-fixing and other unfair or anticompetitive practices. Her work will include reviewing mergers and business practices across a variety of industries, such as technology, social media and healthcare.

Adonis Matlock will be working with the Orleans Public Defenders office to help represent indigent clients in New Orleans, Louisiana. Adonis will work under attorney supervisors and provide support to clients by visiting them while in custody, performing legal research and writing on a wide variety of criminal procedure issues, and assisting clients and attorneys during court appearances.

Jessica Olave will be working for the Public Justice Food Project, using targeted litigation and advocacy to support and represent farmers, rural communities, and low-income workers in reforming the harmful practices employed by industrial animal agriculture. As a law clerk, Jessica will be involved in legal research and writing, discovery, creating materials for impacted communities, and more.

Sid Lezak was one of the longest serving US Attorneys in the history of the United States, the father of alternative dispute resolution in Oregon, an activist, a community servant, and a mentor to many Oreonians. The Lezak Social Justice Fellowship (previously known as the Lezak Legacy Fellowship, honors his legacy. A list of former student recipients can be found here, with the first group of students named in 2013.