SJLF and Howard University School of Law announce new partnership for 2023 SJLF Fellow class

The Social Justice Legal Foundation (SJLF) is proud to partner with Howard University School of Law in the fight for civil rights.

Howard joins a consortium of schools who have partnered with SJLF, including Columbia, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA and Yale law schools.

“This collaboration is a natural fit. Molded by the vision and impact of Thurgood Marshall, SJLF’s mission matches Howard’s mission of creating social engineers who use the law to move the country toward a more perfect union,” said Lucius Outlaw III, Professor at Howard University and SJLF Board of Advisor member. “I am excited for this partnership and the opportunity for Howard students to make an impact.”

SJLF was founded in 2021, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and inspired by the legacy of Thurgood Marshall – one of the most influential trial lawyers of all time – who was known for doing what was right and “letting the law catch up.” SJLF has a dual mission: to bring impactful and innovative trial litigation serving communities affected by the carceral state, and to train and develop the next generation of civil rights lawyers to be fearless in their pursuit of justice. As a small but well-resourced public interest nonprofit, SJLF is unique in its ability to pursue creative cases that do right by our communities, while pushing the law to “catch up.”

To accomplish its mission, SJLF provides two-year fellowships to recent law school graduates – now to include Howard. This groundbreaking collaboration with Howard, the alma mater of Thurgood Marshall, and an institution committed to the active pursuit of solutions to advance civil rights and racial justice and address social issues of concern to African-American and other minority groups, is “a perfect match,” said SJLF Executive Director Shubhra Shivpuri. “We are honored to add the experience and perspective of Howard graduates to our team.”

Howard graduates will work and learn alongside fellows from SJLF’s other partner schools as well as experienced litigators, advocates, academics from SJLF’s Board of Advisors, and trial lawyers from SJLF’s founding firm, Hueston Hennigan. SJLF focuses on combatting the myriad and intersectional injustices of the carceral system, to include police misconduct, prison surveillance, and the criminalization of poverty.

SJLF is now accepting applications for their second cohort of fellows, which will include students from Howard, Columbia, and Yale for the class of 2023 (fellows from Northwestern, Stanford, and UCLA will comprise the class of 2024). For more information about SJLF’s work and the SJLF Fellowship program and application requirements, please click here.