GW Law’s Public Interest and Public Service Law Center, led by Alan B. Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law, is thrilled to announce the second class of Richey Fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Richey Fellows Program continues to bring mid-career public interest lawyers to campus to support and provide valuable resources for students. This year, we received an impressive number of applications and are proud to have selected four exceptional public interest attorneys. These fellows will offer diverse perspectives and expertise across multiple practice areas, enriching the experience of our students.
Julia Burke
Julia Burke is an Assistant Federal Defender in Philadelphia with the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the Capital Habeas Unit. In this role, she represents death-sentenced individuals seeking habeas relief in federal and state courts around the country.
Julia has spent her entire career as a public defender at trial, post conviction, and appellate levels. Prior to her current position, she worked at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore doing post conviction; the Office of the Appellate Defender in Manhattan doing reinvestigation and appeals; and the Legal Aid Society in Queens, New York, representing thousands of individuals in trial court.
Julia received her JD at the George Washington University Law School in 2013, where she was involved with public interest clinics, coursework, and clubs. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2010.
Auden Perino
Auden Perino (they/them) is a Senior Counsel for LGBTQI+ Equality at the National Women's Law Center, where they engage in policy efforts and litigation to advance the rights of LGBTQIA+ students and workers. Auden came to NWLC after several years at legal aid organizations, representing immigrants and survivors of domestic violence in court. Auden is an alum of the University of Virginia School of Law, Tufts University, and the University of Oxford, and spends time outside of work hiking, traveling, and learning new languages.
Ari Savitzky
Ari Savitzky is a Senior Staff Attorney in the ACLU Voting Rights Project. Ari litigates voting rights and democracy matters at the trial and appellate levels, including redistricting cases in Georgia and Mississippi, and mail ballot suppression cases in Pennsylvania and Texas.
Ari has argued over a dozen appeals in state and federal appellate courts and filed over twenty briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on a wide range of constitutional and statutory matters, including challenges to partisan and racial gerrymandering.
Before joining the ACLU, Ari was an Assistant Solicitor General for the State of New York. Before that, he practiced at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Ari also served as a judicial law clerk to Hon. Raymond J. Lohier, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Hon. John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Chelsea Sharon
Chelsea Creo Sharon is an attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)'s Appellate Litigation Services Program. At EEOC, she litigates employment-discrimination cases in the federal courts of appeals, working to enforce civil rights statutes like Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Previously, she was a Senior Staff Attorney with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia's Public Benefits Unit, where she challenged improper delays, denials, and due process violations in the provision of Medicaid coverage, food stamps, and other critical safety-net benefits.
Chelsea clerked for Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge John G. Koeltl of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She obtained her JD from Harvard Law School and her BA from Brown University.
GW Law could not be more excited to welcome these four spectacular and accomplished public interest attorneys to our campus, and we know their wealth of knowledge and experience will be an invaluable asset to our students and community at large. Stay tuned for more news on the dates of each fellow’s visit, and the schedule of events for each visit.