Public Interest Retreat Draws Large USF Numbers
March 11, 2009
Professors Connie de la Vega and Dolores Donovan, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Erin Dolly, and 17 USF law students attended the Trina Grillo Public Interest and Social Justice Retreat at Stanford University in February.
Trina Grillo, a professor at the USF School of Law who passed away in 1996, is remembered as a dedicated social activist by former colleagues and friends.
"The retreat is important because it continues Trina Grillo's vision of cooperation between lawyers, professors and students," de la Vega said. "She made use of those interconnections to provide legal help to those who need it."
Students interested in practicing public interest law have the opportunity to network with other students, as well as lawyers, legal academics, and other professionals in the public interest field, at the retreat.
In concordance with this year's theme, Global Social Justice Lawyering, de la Vega participated in the panel "The Impact of Human Rights Law on Civil Legal Services" and Donovan presented "International Development as Human Rights Lawyering." This year's theme highlighted the increasingly important role that international human rights law plays in providing legal help to those who are underrepresented in our society, de la Vega said.
"This seemed to resonate with a very large delegation of students from USF—the largest we have had in the 11 years of the retreat," she said.