3Ls Rachel Molsberry and Katie Ziomek Named Equal Justice Works Fellows
Third-year Law School students Rachel Molsberry and Katie Ziomek have each been awarded two-year postgraduate fellowships through Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice.” Molsberry will spend the term of her fellowship at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s office in Willmar, Minn., working to develop a medical-legal partnership. Ziomek will work for the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Minneapolis.
Molsberry will receive her J.D. in May with concentrations in health law and bioethics and labor and employment law. As a student at the Law School, she has been involved with the Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Team, Law Council Honor Code Committee, Native American Services Project, and Law School Mentorship Program, among others, and she has clerked for the University’s Office of Health Information Privacy & Compliance. “Rachel was a student in the Community Legal Partnership for Health Clinic last year, and she is a student director in the course this year,” said adjunct professor Joanne Flint. “Her interest in and practical knowledge of the medical-legal partnership model will serve her and the new MLP at the Willmar Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid office well. I’m very proud of Rachel and her dedication to serving this underserved community.”
Ziomek will graduate from the Law School with a concentration in health law and bioethics. She has served as student director of the Community Mediation Clinic and the Intellectual Property Moot Court and has clerked for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the Battered Women’s Justice Project. “Katie is a gifted listener, which is essential in work with at-risk populations who can be overwhelmed by well-meaning support systems,” said adjunct professor Elise Chambers, who teaches the Community Mediation Clinic. “Katie is also a natural leader and a creative problem solver, able to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously and facilitate participants and stakeholders to achieve collaborative resolutions. Her commitment to self-determinative processes and the authentic empowerment that comes to participants through such processes will serve the work of the Battered Women’s Justice Project well.”
Each year, through a competitive process, Equal Justice Works awards approximately 50 fellowships to lawyers who have developed innovative legal projects aimed at serving communities in desperate need of legal assistance. Fellows receive a competitive salary, generous loan repayment assistance, training, and additional support during their two-year tenure. Molsberry’s fellowship will be supported by the Family of Hyman Edelman and Stinson Leonard Street, and Ziomek’s by Robins Kaplan and Medtronic.
