Two law students from the UH Law Center will be participating in a summer internship program providing assitance to indigent areas. | Daily Cougar File Photo
Two University of Houston Law Center students were selected out of 14 in the country to participate in the Access to Justice Summer Internship Program sponsored by the Texas Access to Justice Commission.
Paul Thomas and Nakis Urfi were awarded internships through the Texas Access to Justice Internship Program. Urfi will be placed in Lone Star Legal Aid’s Nacogdoches office and Thomas will be placed in Lone Star Legal Aid’s Galveston office. Both will receive a stipend to offset their living expenses for the summer.
“I was accepted into the ATJ summer internship program,” Urfi said. “This program will provide a stipend for me to work at a non-profit provider of civil legal services located in an area without a local law school and a population filled mostly with underprivileged people.”
The program encourages students to help address the civil legal problems of underserved individuals and communities and to educate future attorneys about those problems.
“The Access to Justice Internship Program was established to provide law students with the unique opportunity to participate in an internship with nonprofit providers of civil legal services located in areas without local law schools,” said Hannah Silk Kapasi, program attorney with the Texas Access to Justice Commission. “The goals are to encourage more students to help address the civil legal problems of low-income individuals and communities and to educate future attorneys about those problems. Each law student will receive hands-on training by working with accomplished lawyers and providing direct legal services to low-income clients, while learning about access to justice matters, legal decision-making, advocacy skills, attorney-client relationships and legal institutions.”
Kapasi said that this is a good opportunity for the Law Center to spread practical ethics.
“By having two students selected to participate in the internship program, more University of Houston Law Center students will be exposed to practicing poverty law specifically and public service more generally,” Kapasi said.
“The internships give hands-on experience that brings practical knowledge to the students, which can be shared with others. It also brings an ethic of public service. In turn, the local community will become more exposed to the law school through the presence of these students.”
Urfi said the program hopes that it will help the Law Center get more recognition by providing students with the chance to help those who are less fortunate.
“The Texas Access to Justice Commission said that they will ‘advertise the internship program on a state and national level.’ This is just another opportunity to show that the UH Law Center has students who are committed to providing legal services to indigent people in need,” Urfi said.
“There are individuals that desire to get involved in public interest and UH has shown its support by making its students aware of public interest opportunities like this internship program, allowing public interest entities to come recruit on campus and by providing a public interest fellowship fund that harbors commitment to public interest.”
