Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows Appointed To Advise HLS Students

August 19, 1999

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Ten public interest lawyers have been named Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows at the Law School (HLS). The Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows Program brings outstanding attorneys from across the country to campus for one or two days each to counsel and advise law students about public service. Wasserstein Fellows are selected based on the breadth and diversity of their public interest experiences, the areas of expertise in which current students and faculty express a strong interest, and a demonstrated ability to mentor. Fellows advise individual students on public interest career options; participate in classes, on panels, and in the Wasserstein Speakers Forum; and conduct workshops and brown-bag lunches. The Program was created in 1990 in honor of Morris Wasserstein through a generous gift from his family.

1999-2000 Wasserstein Fellows
Morris Baller, Oakland, Calif. Since 1995, Baller (HLS ’70) has been a partner at Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, a public interest firm engaging in class action litigation, primarily in employment discrimination, civil rights, and complex litigation in federal and state courts. After graduating from Harvard Law School with honors, he became assistant counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund. After five years, he moved on to become the staff attorney and coordinator of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and then its senior vice president for legal programs. After nine years at MALDEF, Baller left to become partner at Marron, Reid & Sheehy, a general civil litigation firm, where he remained for nine years before taking his current position. He has been adjunct professor of law at the University of San Francisco School of Law and at the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Robert E. Bank, New York, N.Y. Bank is the director of the legal and advocacy department of Gay Men's Health Crisis Inc., where he has worked since 1995. He oversees a staff of lawyers, paralegals, and administrative assistants who provide services to numerous clients in a wide range of substantive areas including public benefits, healthcare, housing, discrimination, estate planning, and HIV confidentiality. Bank also advocates nationally for those disabled by HIV/AIDS by co-counseling or serving as amici on impact cases. He also engages in legislative and policy advocacy and community education. He is a 1986 graduate of the City University of New York Law School. After clerking at the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, he joined New York City's Office of the Corporation Counsel where he stayed for seven years, beginning as staff attorney, moving on to become the equal employment opportunity counselor, and then deputy assistant chief.

Eileen Brewer, Chicago, Il. Since 1994, Brewer (HLS '87) has been chief counsel to John H. Stroger Jr., president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Cook County is the second largest county in the United States, with a population of more than 5 million, an annual budget of nearly $3 billion, and more than 30,000 employees. As chief counsel, Brewer drafts ordinances, provides advice on a wide range of issues, and engages in litigation. One of her most notable achievements as chief counsel was to initiate Cook County's lawsuit against tobacco manufacturers. After graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School, she was an associate at Jenner & Block for one year. She was then appointed assistant corporation counsel in labor and employment for the City of Chicago Law Department, where she remained for six years before taking her current position.

Kathryn A. Ellis, Washington, D.C. Ellis is a deputy assistant general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. Since she graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1983, she has worked at the U.S. Department of Education, moving from an attorney position to special counsel/executive assistant to the General Counsel before taking her present position. She also served briefly as a special assistant U. S. attorney in Washington, D.C. In addition to her work in the Department of Education, Ellis is actively involved with the D.C. Bar and other professional associations such as the Women's Bar Association Foundation and the Coalition of 100 Black Women of D.C Inc. Ellis is also the recipient of several U.S. Department of Education honors and public service awards.

Richard T. Foltin, Washington, D.C. Foltin (HLS '76) is legislative director and counsel in the Office of Government and International Affairs at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), where he has been working since 1984, moving from associate legal director in the National Affairs Department to director of governmental affairs and on to his current position. As legislative director and counsel, Foltin drafts legislation, analyzes policy, testifies before Congress, and works extensively with AJC chapters throughout the country. Foltin's work touches upon a wide range of issues including religious liberty, discrimination, asylum and immigration, and welfare reform. From 1984 to 1986, he was also adjunct instructor of legal writing and moot court instruction at Cardozo Law School. After graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School, Foltin became an associate at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where he worked in the litigation department for seven years before joining the AJC.

William H. Kenety, Washington, D.C. Kenety (HLS '75) is senior trial attorney in the Office of Special Investigations in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), prosecuting alleged perpetrators of war crimes. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he received an LL.M. degree from Georgetown Law Center while working as an assistant state's attorney in Maryland. From there, he held various positions in the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland for two years. He then moved on to private practice where, over the course of a decade, he represented individual and corporate clients in civil litigation, as well as white-collar crime defendants in high-profile national cases, including Iran-Contra and "HUD-Gate." Kenety then joined the DOJ's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section before taking his current position. He is the recipient of five DOJ awards, and has taught at Catholic University Law School, Georgetown Law Center, and the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Katherine Kennedy, New York, N.Y. Kennedy (HLS '86) is senior attorney in the Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she has worked for the past 10 years, moving from an attorney position in the Urban Program to senior attorney in the Citizen's Enforcement Project to her present position. She has worked on a broad range of environmental issues including energy, water, and urban land use. Her work involves litigation, negotiation, legislative and regulatory advocacy, and public education. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, Kennedy clerked for the Honorable Morris E. Lasker of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. In 1993, she received the Award for Outstanding Public Service from the New York County Lawyers Association.

Amy Schwartz, New York, N.Y. Schwartz (HLS '84) is an assistant district attorney in the trial division in the Office of the District Attorney in New York County. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, she clerked at the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for Judge Walter R. Mansfield. For the next four years, she worked at the U.S. Department of Education, first as special assistant to the secretary, then as executive assistant to the General Counsel, and finally as Acting Deputy General Counsel for Program Service. Next, she served for one year on the White House staff as Associate Counsel to President Bush, before becoming deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Schwartz took her present job in 1993, upon the election of President Clinton to his first term.

Shari F. Shink, Denver, Colo. Shink is founder and executive director of the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center (CLC), a nonprofit children's advocacy organization that she established 18 years ago. The CLC provides legal representation, legislative advocacy, and other resources for at-risk children. She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law and is also on the faculty of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. After graduating from Rutgers University Law School in 1975, Shink joined Neighborhood Legal Services, and then Child Advocacy Legal Aid, both in Pittsburgh, before founding the CLC. She is the recipient of many honors, including mention in a 1984 Esquire magazine article highlighting the "Best of the New Generation, Men and Women Under 40 Who Are Changing America" along with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 1996, the National Association of Women Business Owners honored her as one of eight "Women of the West."

1999-2000 Wasserstein Fellow-in-Residence
Antoinette Powell, Powell is senior enforcement counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Boston. She graduated from New York Law School in 1983 and received an LL.M. in environmental law from Pace University School of Law in 1996. She has a wealth of experience in local, state, and federal government. She worked in private practice for six years before taking a position as assistant counsel with the Battery Park City Authority in New York City. From there, she became deputy director and general counsel of the Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination in New York City. Before assuming her current position, Powell was senior attorney at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in Boston.