Claudia Pena ('08)

Judge Constance Baker Motley Fellow (2008-09) - Equal Justice Society

"If there is anyone in our class whose intellect, spirit and social commitments embody the values of
Critical Race Theory and the goals of the CRS Program, it is my classmate, Claudia Pena,"  says Alina Ball ('08).

    The Equal Justice Society, a national advocacy organization that promotes social justice and racial equality, agrees and also considers Claudia a worthy representative of one of the most important figures in American law: Judge Constance Baker Motley.  EJS has selected Claudia for its fellowship named after Judge Motley, the former NAACP lawyer who won nine out of the ten cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

    "I am excited to serve as the Motley Fellow at EJS because Judge Motley's work transformed society and the legal system at the same time, and EJS is effectively doing the same sixty years later.  As the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge and to be elected to the New York State Senate, Judge Motley shattered race and gender barriers, and became a living symbol of civil rights activism and legal advocacy."

    Claudia was selected out of an estimated 75 applicants from the nation's top law schools.  EJS selects only one Motley Fellow each year, and for the third year in a row, the EJS Motley Fellow is a UCLA School of Law graduate who has participated in the CRS Program. 

    Claudia completed the certification in Critical Race Studies in 2008 after three years in which she actively participated in the leadership of CRS and UCLA School of Law.  During her third year of law school, she served as vice president of the law school student body and coordinated the CRS Program's Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative.  

    During each of her law school summers, Claudia worked as a legal intern in other countries to learn from advocates fighting for justice in different contexts, including the Badil Center for Refugee Rights in Bethlehem, Palestine and Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg, South Africa.  

    "The CRS Program really served as the foundation for me to imagine how my legal education could actually be useful to my goal of making positive social change.  I feel analytically prepared to take on the complex social problems that motivated me to apply to law school in the first place, and most importantly, I have a community of future advocates who are fully committed to the same goal.  There is nothing like CRS anywhere in legal education and I am glad to have participated in the program."

    To learn more about the Equal Justice Society's Judge Constance Baker Motley Fellowship, click here.