2026 Shaffer Public Interest Fellow to Serve Domestic Violence Survivors in North Carolina

Nikki Rafferty, a third-year student at Notre Dame Law School, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Thomas L. Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship. The fellowship will enable her to serve domestic violence survivors and their children in North Carolina.

The Shaffer Fellowship, named in honor of former dean and professor Thomas L. Shaffer and funded by donor support, is awarded each year to one or two members of Notre Dame Law School’s graduating class. The fellow’s salary and benefits are covered while they work for two years at a nonprofit organization providing legal services to low-income or other underrepresented populations.

The Shaffer Fellowship will enable Rafferty to serve at Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC), expanding its direct services to survivors of domestic violence. In addition to assisting clients in obtaining protective orders, she will provide representation in child custody cases where an abuser poses a direct threat to a child’s well-being.

Rafferty’s time at Notre Dame Law School has prepared her well for a career in public interest law. She served as the president of the Public Interest Law Forum and the director of service for the Women’s Legal Forum. She also externed at Indiana Legal Services and JUSTICE, a nonprofit in London dedicated to making the justice system more equitable. She spent her 2L summer at Legal Aid of North Carolina, where she will continue her work with the fellowship.

Rafferty was raised in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was during those years that Rafferty first felt called to pursue public interest work, serving for a year as a Domestic Violence Hotline Crisis Advocate at a state-designated domestic violence service center in North Carolina.

“That experience opened my eyes to the prevalence of intimate partner violence in my community and the role that legal advocates can play in aiding survivors. Throughout law school, my passion for aiding survivors and expanding access to justice continued to grow based on my experience working at various legal aid organizations,” she said.

Rafferty expressed her gratitude in receiving the fellowship, as it will allow her to provide free legal services to domestic violence survivors, which is critical in a time when funding is very low for this work.

“Throughout my time interning at legal aid organizations during law school, I have seen firsthand the transformative experience that free legal services can have on both clients and communities,” she said. “I hope that my fellowship will allow me to empower survivors and promote safety in my community.”

For Rafferty, being a “different kind of lawyer” means viewing the law profession not just as a job, but as a vocation.

“As Catholics, we are called to help the most vulnerable in society,” said Rafferty. “It is hard for me to imagine a more vulnerable population than impoverished children facing physical abuse. I hope to use my fellowship as a living embodiment of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, and I want to serve my community by aiding domestic violence survivors in obtaining protection for themselves and ensuring the safety of their children. I hope to carry all I have learned during my time at Notre Dame with me into a career dedicated to serving the public and expanding equal access to justice for all.”

The Thomas L. Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship, established in 2013, continues a long tradition of public interest at Notre Dame Law School. The fellowship honors Thomas L. Shaffer ’61 J.D., who was a longtime faculty member and former dean at Notre Dame Law School. During his tenure, he was a supervising attorney in the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic, now called the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center, where he taught clinical ethics and guided the legal practice of law students who served underprivileged people in the South Bend area. Information about past Shaffer fellows can be found here.