On August 28, 2005, Thomas Nosewicz ’08 boarded a plan from New Orleans to Oakland, one of the last flights out of the city before Hurricane Katrina struck. He spent most of his SLS orientation glued to the television screen, watching the storm ravage the city where he had been born and raised.

First SPILF-SLS Public Interest Fellow Named 1
Thomas Nosewicz ’08

“It was heartbreaking,” says Nosewicz, who this August will return to New Orleans as the first-ever Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation-Stanford Law School Public Interest Fellow to work at the “new” Orleans Public Defenders (OPD). Before Katrina, the city’s public defenders were part-time attorneys, funded poorly by traffic ticket revenue. The hurricane’s chaotic aftermath paved the way for reform, and today OPD is a full-time office. “This was probably the only silver lining in the whole disaster,” says Nosewicz of the unique opportunity to start a public defenders office from scratch.

Launched this year, the SPILF-SLS Public Interest Fellowship allows its recipient to work full time for a year in an organization serving the public interest through legal services, impact litigation, or policy advocacy. Open to all members of the SLS classes of 2003 to 2008, the fellowship provides a year’s salary of $45,000 and benefits, plus a trip back to campus to share the experience at a symposium.

“It’s an amazing job for a first-year attorney,” says Nosewicz, whose project is called Constitutionalizing the Crescent City. At the OPD, Nosewicz plans to provide muchneeded pre-trial litigation support in an effort to reduce unjust incarcerations before arraignment and trial. He will also work on serious felony cases and develop internal tools such as a legal brief databank and practice area guides. The overarching goal, says Nosewicz, is to implement a systemic litigation plan addressing the deeply entrenched injustices plaguing the current system. “Ultimately, I hope my project will better align New Orleans with constitutional practice and serve as a model of holistic criminal defense,” he says.