New Foundation to Help Yale Law Graduates Pursue Social Justice

Graduates from Yale Law School will be able to pursue cutting-edge social justice work through a newly launched fellowship created in collaboration with the Social Justice Legal Foundation. The Foundation seeks to identify pressing legal issues and to mentor and develop a new generation of trial lawyers in the public sector by sponsoring five promising law school graduates with two-year fellowships.

The Social Justice Legal Foundation launched on January 28, 2021 with a $10 million pledge from Hueston Hennigan LLP. Its mission is to combine public interest issue expertise with private sector experience to advance social justice and equity. The Foundation brings together graduates from five of the leading U.S. law schools, leading trial lawyers from the private sector, and an advisory group that includes judges, leading activists, and scholars to vet and pursue groundbreaking cases. The Foundation will serve as an incubator for the next generation of leading trial lawyers in the public sector through the sponsorship of Hueston Hennigan Fellowships.

The Foundation — funded and created by the partners of Hueston Hennigan LLP – will work with Columbia, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA and Yale law schools to provide their graduates with fully funded two-year fellowships with the Foundation. The Foundation will emphasize trial work and seek to collaborate with other social justice organizations and bar associations to take some of the most difficult and important cases to trial.

To address evolving societal crises, the Foundation will rotate its primary areas of attention every two years from among the following initial areas: economic justice, work on housing and homelessness issues, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant justice, preventing discrimination against Native Americans, voting rights and criminal justice reform. The Foundation’s cases and focus areas will be informed by its executive leadership, academic partners, other social justice organizations, and fellows.

“I look forward to working with our advisors, fellows, staff and pro bono attorneys to take to trial some of the most important cases affecting social justice,” said John Hueston ’91, Chairman of the Foundation’s Board.

“We are grateful to Hueston Hennigan for providing an opportunity for our graduates to pursue important social justice work, and we are proud that our graduate, John Hueston, is leading the charge,” said Yale Law School Dean Heather K. Gerken.