A Summer in the ‘Corps’

Students receive Equal Justic Works awards

By Meghan Heneghan

Marlena McMurchie '14 and Michael Santos '13 were honored for their nonprofit public interest work.

Last summer, Marlena McMurchie ’14 was reminded why she went to law school in the first place. Meanwhile, Michael Santos ’13 reaffirmed his desire to work with vulnerable immigrant populations.

The students, along with Gabrielle Bass ’14, spent the summer doing nonprofit public interest work at organizations of their choosing as members of the Equal Justice Works Summer Corps, dedicated to expanding the delivery of critically needed legal assistance across the country.

McMurchie chose Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project in Los Angeles, advocating for poor and homeless clients who are detained or having trouble receiving their benefits.

“It allows me to work directly with the homeless, something in which I was very interested,” McMurchie says. “Beyond providing legal services, arguably the most important part of what we do is in being able to listen to these peoples’ stories, look them in the eye and tell them that they’re not alone. It’s amazing going into the office and asking, ‘What can I help you with?’ and the way people open up to that.”

Law firms in the L.A. area partner with Public Counsel, where McMurchie and colleagues trained and supervised the summer associates.

“Surveys have found that homeless people believe loneliness, that social isolation, is the thing they hate the most about being homeless,” McMurchie says. “We provide, more than anything, the basic human interaction that they’re deprived of day to day. That’s the part that really drew me to this project.”

Santos, who worked in the USC Immigration Clinic as a 2L, last summer continued his advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants with Chicago’s National Immigrant Justice Center. LGBT immigrants often struggle against a complex immigration system that has become “a giant monster designed to keep immigrants out,” Santos says.

The system’s flaws seem nearly identical to what they were more than a decade ago.

“I remember when I had to go through the process of emigrating from the Philippines myself,” Santos says. “Now, I see the same thing happening every time I interview my clients.”

Santos represented LGBT individuals before immigration judges, explaining their fear of persecution if they were to return to their home countries.

“How can you easily prove someone’s sexuality? It’s difficult and can even be a very traumatizing experience for an asylum applicant to discuss in front of strangers,” Santos says. “But I get to control how the story is told to the judge and how to ensure its credibility.”

The benefits, for Santos, extend beyond success in the courtroom. “I’m making a difference, and that’s why it’s so gratifying … seeing a client get out of detention; hearing the diversity of stories. Whether a person gets deported can be a matter of life or death, particularly if they risk persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”