California Bar Foundation awards
15 bar exam scholarships
In order to help defray the cost of the bar exam, the California Bar Foundation awarded scholarships to 15 graduating law students headed for public interest law careers. The Rosenthal Bar Exam Scholarship is one of the few programs in the country to help aspiring public interest lawyers, who often graduate with more than $100,000 in student loans. The financial support is particularly critical because credit markets make it difficult for recent law school graduates to finance their bar exam expenses.
This year’s recipients have worked in labor unions, led health education programs at San Quentin state prison, supported microfinance programs in rural Mexico and volunteered at a wide range of legal services agencies.
Each recipient will receive a BARBRI bar review course valued at $3,500 and the top five recipients also receive $2,000 cash awards.
The recipients were nominated by their law schools for their commitment to public service, including hundreds of hours volunteered at legal clinics and other nonprofit organizations and past employment in a variety of community service settings, impressive academic records, and an average educational loan debt exceeding $130,000. Plans after graduation include Equal Justice Works Fellowships, federal judicial clerkships, indigent criminal defense work and positions at legal services organizations working on issues of immigrant rights, domestic violence and employment discrimination.
The program is supported in part by multi-year gifts from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. Since 1997, the foundation has awarded more than $260,000 in cash awards and bar review courses to nearly 250 graduates of California law schools. The scholarship is named for the late Imelda Rosenthal, a Guatemalan immigrant, small businesswoman and tireless community volunteer. Foundation past president Herb Rosenthal and his wife, Margarita, continue to support the program with a generous annual contribution.
This year’s recipients are:
- Golden Gate University School of Law: Nicole Edwards-Masuda
- Loyola Law School: Veronica Brin Yuspraikh Aragon
- Santa Clara University School of Law: Brandon Fields
- Stanford Law School: Michael Caesar, Joelle Emerson, Maureen Keffer and Alexandra Lampert
- University of California, Berkeley, School of Law: Lily Harvey and Tia Katrina Taruc Canlas
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law: Amanda Jancu
- University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law: Kenia Acevedo and Alicia Virani (Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton Scholar)
- University of San Francisco School of Law: Dana Marie Isaac
- University of Southern California Gould School of Law: Maisha D. Jamerson and Matthew C. Watts