What happens when a case a law student studies in the classroom becomes a case she helps litigate?

For 2026 Equal Justice America Summer Fellow Lauren Acevedo, that question became reality.

Lauren, a student at Harvard Law School, spent her summer with the Los Angeles office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

During her first year at Harvard, Lauren had written a research paper about Chavez v. Pasadena Unified School District, a case challenging school closures that disproportionately affected Latino students. Months later, as an EJA Fellow at MALDEF, she found herself conducting research for the appellate brief in the very case she had studied.

Her Fellowship also exposed her to a broader range of civil-rights advocacy. Lauren conducted research involving education and voting rights and worked on an opposition brief in an employment-discrimination matter.

The summer gave Lauren an opportunity to strengthen her research and litigation skills, learn from experienced civil-rights attorneys and explore her growing interest in nonprofit impact litigation.

Her experience also illustrates the dual impact of an EJA Summer Fellowship.

Organizations doing important legal work gain additional capacity from talented law students. At the same time, those students get an opportunity to move beyond textbooks and see what it means to use the law on behalf of communities and individuals whose rights are at stake.