Emma Woods, rising 3L at the UW Law School, has won a Peggy Browning Fellowship for Summer 2021. Woods is spending her ten-week fellowship working for UAW, based in Detroit, Michigan.

The Peggy Browning Fellows program provides stipends to first- and second-year law students who dedicate their summers to working for labor unions, worker centers, labor-related nonprofits and union-side law firms.

Woods grew up in the Detroit metropolitan area and became interested in economic justice at a young age. Studying political theory and economics as an undergraduate, she decided to pursue a career in law to directly advocate for workers’ rights.

As a first-year law student, she volunteered at the Unemployment Appeals Clinic, a local non-profit that assists claimants who are appealing unemployment insurance denials. She has since taken over as student manager of the nonprofit, training other students to be advocates. As a student in the Law School’s Neighborhood Law Clinic, Woods gained hands-on experience with rental housing and workers’ rights issues. Woods also serves as community liaison of the Labor and Employment Students Association, competes on the Moot Court team and is a member of the National Lawyers Guild and the Teaching Assistants’ Association.

The Peggy Browning Fellowship is a competitive award, intended to encourage law students to consider labor law as a career choice. More than 700 law students applied for fellowships this year.

Submitted by Law School News on June 29, 2021

This article appears in the categories: Students