Page 16 - 2021 Annual Awards Celebration

2021 OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
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Brenda Pfahnl
Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Law Student Award Winner
Brenda Pfahnl is a second career student, having worked previously in
the field of community economic development. She feels fortunate to have begun as a volunteer with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) on her first day as a law student. As a 3L, she continues working with ILCM’s Community Defense Team. She staffs the Minnesota Detention Project hotline each week, interviewing immigrants detained
in Minnesota prisons by ICE. She also supports ILCM’s staff attorneys with writing, research, and translation in support of applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection.
During winter break of her 1L year—just before Covid shut down international borders—Brenda traveled to Tijuana, Mexico where she volunteered with Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit legal clinic serving immigrants at the border. She was also an MJF summer fellow with the Immigration Unit at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) during her 1L summer.
At Mitchell Hamline, Brenda has been a student in the Immigration
Law Clinic and serves on the Immigration Law Student Organization (ILSO) board of directors. She was a team member on the Jessup Public International Law Moot Court team and serves this year as an associate on the Mitchell Hamline Law Review. She also serves on the board of Mitchell Hamline’s student chapter of MJF and as the student chapter representative on the Minnesota Justice Foundation statewide board.
Brenda deeply appreciates MJF for providing students with opportunities in public interest law. She would also like to thank ILCM, SMRLS, and the many immigration attorneys who have provided her with invaluable mentorship throughout law school.
Brigid Kelly
University of Minnesota Law School
Law Student Award Winner
Brigid Kelly is currently a third-year law student and Robina Public Interest Scholar at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 2012, Brigid left Minnesota to attend the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Policy, Planning, and Development. Brigid went on to earn her Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern