Faber Logo Skip to main content
Holding Hands at Table

Values & Community

Fellowship

The Faber Fellowship Program is an exciting initiative that the firm launched in 2017 to extend our commitment to providing pro bono legal services.

Our fellowship program

Faber partners with Equal Justice Works to oversee and coordinate the operational aspects of our Fellowship Program. Equal Justice Works is a not-for-profit organization that helps administer hundreds of fellowships for public interest attorneys each year. EJW has seen over 80% of the Fellows remain involved in public interest law after their fellowships – effectively making sure these programs have long-lasting and growing value. 

Background

Choosing fellowship recipients

Every two years, Faber selects a recent law school grad focused on public interest law, who has designed a novel pro bono legal program in collaboration with an established not-for-profit organization to address an unmet need for legal assistance.

The firm then provides the salary and benefits for that lawyer to take a full-time position leading the new program at the organization (as well as service the lawyer's education loans while they are leading their new program).

Each fellowship will be for a 2-year term, before which there will be a selection process including applications, interviews, and ultimately the selection of our fellow.

Patient at the Doctor

Some of the issues fellows seek to address are:

Access to Healthcare, Community Economic Development, Criminal Justice Reform, Domestic Violence & Family Law, Racial Justice, Workers' Rights, Housing & Homelessness, and Education & Special Education.

Our Fellows

Molly Gordon

This fall, Molly begins her work as our third Faber fellow, working alongside Southeast Louisiana Legal Services to increase housing stability for individuals who have been subject to unfair rent debt collection practices as a result of the pandemic. 

Molly's project will focus on the low-income renters who, throughout the course of the pandemic, fell behind on rent through no fault of their own. Gordon will represent tenants who have been sued for alleged rent debt or have had debt referred to collection agencies as well as bring claims under federal consumer protection statuses against landlords and debt buyers engaging in abusive practices. 

Additionally, she will help renters understand their rights to dispute inaccurate credit reporting. She will also work in coalition with housing advocacy groups for state and local policy solutions to the rent debt crisis in Louisiana.

Molly Gordon Headshot

Madeline Semanisin (Middlebrooks)

Madeline began working in Fall of 2020 to address the lead contamination water crisis in St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS). Through an initiative hosted by Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, Middlebrooks worked to implement a multi-dimensional strategy and advocacy for the safety of school-aged children. With a focus on a predominantly African American area of the city, she spent her first-year investigating, coalition building and inspiring change in an area of the city where water contamination poses a serious health threat. After initiating a state-wide campaign, she met with a state representative and began the process of drafting an original bill that encompasses concerns unique to the state of Missouri and filed that bill in December of 2021. 

As a result of Middlebrooks’ and many others hard work and dedication, Governor Mike Parson signed off on legislation that requires water testing in Missouri public schools, as well as devotes $27 million in federal funds to help schools install water filters.

The “Get the Lead Out of School Drinking Water Act,” which was signed into law on July 1st, 2022, went into effect on Aug 28th, and requires schools to test their drinking water for lead contamination on a yearly basis; if samples show a lead concentration of 5 parts per billion (ppb) or greater, remediation will take place in the form of water filtration installation.

Madeline Middlebrooks

Jen Rasay

As Faber's first fellow, Jen worked with the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) in New York City, to challenge work requirements that impeded access to public Medicaid benefits through advocacy, impact litigation and community-based organizing.

In Spring 2019, through a partnership with the National Health Law Program and the New Hampshire legal assistance group, Rasay assisted in filing a lawsuit on behalf of New Hampshire residents with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to access services. The lawsuit resulted in a federal district judge vacating the federal government’s approval of the state’s work requirement program.

Her project also encompassed cases involving the improvement of access to healthcare for indigent people with disabilities. The New York ADA case Newkirk vs. Pierre challenged the Suffolk County of Social Service’s lack of meaningful access to benefits for people with disabilities. As part of this case, Rasay argued her first motion in court on behalf of plaintiffs.

Since her NCLEJ fellowship concluded, Rasay began a second 2-year fellowship centering on impact litigation with the Center for Reproductive Rights, and as of July 2022, Jen is now a staff attorney for the CRR.

Jen Rasay

Related Articles

Previous Page
Next Page

Interested in joining our team?

To communicate your interest in joining the firm, please send us an email.

This site uses cookies. Some provide anonymous analysis of how our website is used and some are essential to make the website work. Other cookies enable personalized services or social media features to be used. By using our website, you agree to the use of cookies. To find out more, please see our Privacy Policy. You can disable cookies at any time by changing your browser settings.