Two Notre Dame Law Students Awarded 2025 Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship to Advance Justice for Underserved Communities
Gwendolyn Loop and Noah Austin, both third-year students at Notre Dame Law School, have been selected as the recipients of the 2025 Thomas L. Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship. The fellowship will support their work advancing justice for underserved communities through two-year placements with nonprofit organizations dedicated to public interest legal service.
Named in honor of Thomas L. Shaffer, former dean and longtime professor at Notre Dame Law School, the fellowship covers salary and benefits for two years as recipients work with nonprofit organizations of their choice to address critical unmet legal needs. This year’s fellows will be working on issues ranging from housing rights in Michigan to humanitarian immigration relief in Wisconsin.
Gwendolyn Loop will serve as an immigration attorney at the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Her fellowship will focus on expanding access to humanitarian visas for victims of crimes and trafficking, including U visas, T visas, and Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status cases for children who have experienced abuse, abandonment, or neglect.
Loop brings deep experience and commitment to this work, rooted in both personal conviction and professional preparation. Before attending law school, she worked at the University of Wisconsin Immigrant Justice Clinic and supported immigrant families at a House of Hospitality. During her time at Notre Dame, Loop externed at the National Immigrant Justice Center, worked with the Exoneration Justice Clinic’s Program for the Defense of Mexican Nationals, and received the Hague Honors Scholars Fellowship to work on international human rights issues abroad. She was also a research assistant for Professor Sadie Blanchard for her work on privatized incarceration alternatives.
Loop also was a Polking Family Fellow with the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, where she researched bioethics.
“I see this work as part of the consistent life ethic, upholding the dignity of human life at all stages regardless of nationality,” said Loop. “This fellowship is an unbelievable opportunity to provide direct services for an at-risk community immediately after graduation. I hope to always be guided by the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable.”
Noah Austin will join Legal Aid of Western Michigan (LAWM), where he will provide legal support to tenants dealing with housing habitability issues and illegal lease terms in the Grand Rapids area. His work will target violations of Michigan’s Truth in Renting Act, protect tenants’ legal rights before they reach eviction court, and proactively litigate against landlords who repeatedly violate housing laws. “Since having an adequate place to live is one of the most basic human needs,” Austin said, “I hope to have a direct impact on clients' quality of life.”
Austin’s commitment to housing justice began during an externship with LAWM’s St. Joseph office, where he saw firsthand how many clients only received help once they were already in a housing crisis.
“Because of limited resources, we were usually only able to help people going through the most urgent housing crises, usually evictions. Through this fellowship I hope to extend the range of services LAWM can provide to people who have problems with their housing,” Austin said.
At Notre Dame, Austin served as co-chair of the Public Interest Leadership Council, a senior online editor for the Notre Dame Law Review, and a member of the Real Estate Law Society executive board. He also worked in the Michigan Attorney General’s Corporate Oversight Division, participated in an externship in Appalachia, and also did legal research on incarceration alternatives with Professor Sadie Blanchard.
Both Loop and Austin exemplify the legacy of Thomas L. Shaffer ’61 J.D., whose lifelong dedication to ethical legal service and clinical legal education continues to inspire Notre Dame Law students. Through their fellowships, Loop and Austin will bring the law to bear in service of those who are too often left behind—reaffirming the school’s commitment to justice, compassion, and public interest leadership.
About the Fellowship
The Fellowship is named in honor of Thomas L. Shaffer, the Robert and Marion Short Professor Emeritus of Law. Shaffer joined Notre Dame Law School in 1963 and taught primarily in the area of estate planning. From 1969 to 1971, he served as associate dean, and from 1971 to 1975, as dean. He rejoined the Notre Dame faculty in 1988 as a chaired professor. For most of his tenure, he was a supervising attorney in the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic, teaching clinical ethics and guiding the legal practice of law students who served low-income persons in the South Bend area. Professor Shaffer was deeply committed to serving the poor and devoted his life to taking direct action for their benefit as a faculty member in the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic. He passed away in 2019.
Read about last year’s 2024 Shaffer Fellow here.