Notre Dame Law School names 2019 Shaffer Fellow

Anne Gallerano, a member of Notre Dame Law School’s Class of 2019, is this year’s Thomas L. Shaffer Fellow.

The fellowship covers the cost of salary and benefits for up to two Notre Dame Law graduates to work for two years at a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that provides legal services to low-income or other underrepresented populations. Through the Thomas L. Shaffer Fellowship, fellows create their dream jobs. They select the organizations where they want to work and design the projects they will complete at those organizations.

Gallerano will be a Shaffer Fellow at Equip for Equality in Chicago. She said the fellowship is enabling her to do the type of public interest work that inspired her to pursue a legal career.

“As a Shaffer Fellow, I will be able to help individuals with mental illness in Chicago find work, stay employed, and achieve the success, independence, and dignity that come from sustained employment,” Gallerano said. “Without the fellowship, I would not have had the opportunity to pursue this work right after graduation.”

Through her project, Gallerano will work to break down barriers to employment for people with mental illness.

Gallerano earned her bachelor’s degree in American studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Throughout law school, she interned for multiple public interest organizations such as the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas during the summer after her 1L year, the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice in the summer after her 2L year, and the National Immigrant Justice Center during 2L spring. She also completed the Appalachia externship over spring break her 2L year.

Gallerano is in the ninth class of Thomas L. Shaffer Fellows, continuing a long tradition of public interest at Notre Dame Law School.

Since the Shaffer Fellowship launched in 2011, the Law School has selected 19 fellows to complete projects at 16 organizations across the United States in cities such as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. The current fellows from the Class of 2018 are completing their fellowships in Portland, Oregon, and Madison, Wisconsin.