WHITE PLAINS, New York, Feb. 26, 2007 – Seven Pace Law School students have been awarded New York City Bar Association (NYCBA) Minority Fellowships for 2007. This tops last year’s tremendous record of five students.

Since 1991, the New York City Bar’s Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers has administered an annual program placing qualified minority applicants in paid summer clerkships with outstanding law firms and corporate law departments. Fellows are paid anywhere from $800 - $2400 a week, and in the past, some fellows have received post-graduation offers as a result of their fellowship experience.

This year’s fellows from the Law School are Mr. Christopher Aung who was placed with Citigroup Inc./Smith Barney; Ms. Melissa Chan with Chadbourne & Parke LLP; Mr. Khurram Chhipa with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP; Ms. Sakina Cornell with Pfizer Inc.; Ms. Heta Desai with The Bank of New York; Ms. Malaika Scott-McLaughlin with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney LLP; and Ms. Jade Turner with Day Pitney LLP

“The success of these students is a tribute to their dedication and hard work,” said Dean Stephen J. Friedman. “I join with the entire Pace Law community in congratulating them on their accomplishment.”

In order to be selected as a fellow, a 1L student must undergo a rigorous application process. In addition to submitting undergraduate and law school transcripts, a one-page personal statement and resume for consideration, a student must also write a six-page writing sample in response to a hypothetical prepared by the NYCBA.

The finalists forwarded to the NYCBA for consideration also had to be interviewed by a Law School Screening Committee, which this year was composed of Professor Barbara Atwell, Professor Bridget Crawford, Professor Michelle Simon, Director of Academic Support Mark Padin, and Masu Haque, the Career Center’s associate director for private sector and judicial clerkships. After receiving a large number of preliminary applications for the fellowship program from first-year law students, the Law School Screening Committee submitted eight candidates for interviews and consideration by NYCBA member law firms and corporations.

Fellows were also chosen from Brooklyn Law School, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Columbia University School of Law, CUNY School of Law at Queens College, Fordham University School of Law, Hofstra University School of Law, New York Law School, New York University School of Law, St. John’s University School of Law, and Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law.

About Pace University School of Law
Founded in 1976, Pace University School of Law has nearly 6,500 alumni/ae throughout the country. It offers full- and part-time day and evening JD programs on its White Plains, NY campus. The School also offers the Master of Laws in Environmental Law and in Comparative Legal Studies. The School, which has one of the nation's top-rated environmental law programs, also offers the SJD program in that field. The School of Law is part of a comprehensive, independent, and diversified University with campuses in New York City and Westchester County. www.law.pace.edu.