Levin Center for Public Service & Public Interest Law

The mighty and beloved Professor Deborah Rhode built friendships, shared ideas, and nurtured community through a practice of daily walks with others. As we absorb and mourn her loss, we invite you to walk in her honor (privately, in any location on a route of your choosing) on Saturday, January 16 at 2:00pm. This Walk With Deborah will allow our footfalls and reflections to remember this treasured colleague, teacher, friend, and role model. Within your networks of people who knew her, please share this invitation. We can share photos under the handle #WalkWithDeborah on Twitter, Facebook and your other platforms of choice.

Our latest issue of Create Change, our e-newsletter, is out now. Read about our re-imagined Fall Public Service Awards that honored two outstanding public interest attorneys, Amanda Alexander of the Detroit Justice Center and Katrina Eiland, JD ’10, of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; a brief tribute to beloved faculty member, Professor Deborah L. Rhode, who passed away last week; a profile on alumnus Geoffrey King, JD '09, and his efforts to leverage his legal and investigation skills by launching a new public interest newsroom; an update on our Public Interest Associates program, which was first launched three years ago; and information about the next application cycle for our Stanford Law School Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowships.

We are very sad to share the devastating news that Professor Deborah L. Rhode, an incredible teacher, scholar, mentor, and colleague, has passed away. Professor Rhode joined the SLS faculty in 1979 and was a nationally recognized scholar for her work on access to justice, legal ethics, and gender and the law. Moreover, she has long championed public service at SLS and been an enthusiastic supporter of the Levin Center. We will miss her dearly. The Law School will share details about a memorial once plans are finalized.

The final event in our virtual Fall Public Service Awards will feature our 2020 National Public Service Award recipient, Amanda Alexander, the founder and executive director of the Detroit Justice Center. She will give her talk, "Defense, Offense, and Dreaming: Movement Lawyering in the Black Lives Matter Era," on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 1 pm PST. Please register to receive the Zoom link.

Join us on Friday for a talk by our 2020 Miles L. Rubin Public Interest Award recipient, Katrina Eiland, JD '10, Managing Attorney of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. It will be on Zoom at 1 pm PST: "Resilience in Resistance: When Immigrants' Rights Are Under Relentless Attack" RSVP here: https://stanford.zoom.us//tJwudu-qrzIuG9SZSfI-IqqmHNTUzWGD