PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2005 PUBLIC INTEREST ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2005 PUBLIC INTEREST ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Columbia Law Alumna receives Award for outstanding public service
NEW YORK, NY (November 17, 2005) - The Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) announces the 2005 Public Interest Achievement Award. Each year, the award honors significant contributions to public interest law. PILF presented the Public Interest Achievement Award at a gala dinner at Faculty House.
This year's awardee is Julie E. Dinnerstein '95, who has made public service an integral part of her legal career--particularly in the fields of immigration and sexual and gender-based violence. She is the Deputy Director for Immigration Policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, where she implements city and statewide training programs, advocates for positive changes in laws affecting immigrants, and provides technical assistance and legal support to community members and organizations assisting immigrants.
Ms. Dinnerstein belongs to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the New York City Bar Association and the National Lawyers Guild. She has taught Columbia Law School students as a supervisor for the Battered Immigrant Women pro bono project and has spoken at Columbia on panels about careers in immigration law and representing battered women.
Prior to joining the New York Immigration Coalition, Ms. Dinnerstein served as Director of the Immigration Intervention Project at Sanctuary for Families and worked as an Associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Jack B. Weinstein, U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y.
Dinnerstein is a graduate of Columbia Law School, Class of 1995, and Columbia College, Class of 1991. At Columbia Law School, she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, senior editor of the Columbia Law Review and an articles editor of the Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law.
PILF is a privately funded organization of law students, faculty, alumni and friends that raises money through membership dues, donations, and events to support and promote the practice of public interest law at Columbia and across the country. PILF distributes these funds annually in the form of Student Funded Fellowships and Community Grants. The Annual Gala Dinner is underwritten by law firms and friends of PILF; all proceeds from the dinner go to fund the PILF Student Funded Fellowships and Community Grants.
