With summer well underway, we're delighted to share a new edition of Justice in Action, featuring eight highlights from Spring and Summer 2026 at the St. John's Law DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center. If you missed our previous edition, you can read it online.

Over the past several months, our students, alumni, faculty, and community partners have expanded access to public interest opportunities, strengthened our pro bono initiatives, and served communities with dedication and care. Each story reflects what is possible when our community brings its knowledge, talents, and shared commitment to advancing justice.

As we reflect on another incredible year, we're proud of all that our team accomplished together (pictured below is our 2025–2026 team) and grateful for everyone who helped make this work possible. We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to create opportunities for our students and community in the year ahead.

The 2025-2026 DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center Team

We're proud to celebrate the largest investment in the Law School's Summer Public Interest & Public Service Fellowship Program to date, supporting a record 140 students working with public interest organizations, courts, and government agencies in New York and beyond. With $789,400 distributed through stipends this year, our students can put their legal education into practice, build experience, and contribute to work that serves communities and advances access to justice.

We're immensely grateful to the Program's donors and supporters including our 2025-2026 Alumni Auction Committee, whose investment in our students makes these experiences possible. Read how two of our students are making an impact this summer.

What does public interest at St. John’s Law look like? In our new video, students, alumni, and Center leaders share how the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center helps students explore public interest law, serve communities through pro bono work, and prepare for careers advancing justice. Watch the video we unveiled this spring and learn more about our work.

The St. John’s Law community came together for two memorable Public Interest Auctions celebrating “Public Interest Through the Decades," including a silent auction. Held during a milestone year marking the Law School’s centennial, the Auction’s 30th anniversary, and the Center’s 15th anniversary, the events raised an impressive $119,120. These funds supported our Summer Public Interest Fellowship Program and will help sustain and expand upcoming public interest programming. Read more about the alumni, students, faculty, and friends who made them a success. We also extend our sincere thanks to our auction donors, bidders, winning bidders, sponsors, hosts, student volunteers, and the many law school teams whose time, generosity, and support made these events a success.

More than 70 students participated in the Center’s inaugural Public Interest Intensive, a full-day program designed to introduce the principles, skills, and realities of public interest law. Through interactive sessions led by experienced attorneys and advocates, students explored public interest career paths and considered the broader social and economic circumstances affecting clients and communities. Read more about the inaugural Public Interest Intensive.

Through our Pro Bono Scholars Program and Consumer Justice for the Elderly Litigation Clinic, Sam Chen ’26 contributed to a legal team representing a Queens homeowner who alleged that she was deceived into an unaffordable solar panel contract exceeding $100,000. Working under the supervision of Professors Ann Goldweber and Gina Calabrese, Sam helped advocate for the client as the team sought to void the contract and remove a lien from her home. The matter was featured by CBS News New York following the New York Attorney General’s announcement of a broader lawsuit accusing the solar company of targeting vulnerable New Yorkers through deceptive practices. Read the CBS News report.

At this year’s Commencement, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum recognized the extraordinary commitment to service demonstrated by the Class of 2026. Collectively, the class contributed more than 66,660 hours of pro bono service, representing an estimated $2.6 million in legal services and advocacy for communities in need. Congratulations to our graduates! We're incredibly proud of your service and look forward to seeing how you carry St. John’s Vincentian commitment to service, justice, and compassion into the legal profession.

Our students continued to support access to justice by providing free legal assistance through several Center programs, including the Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office (CLARO), which offers limited legal advice to low-income New Yorkers facing debt collection lawsuits.

Through the annual Spring Break Service Program, 60 students also contributed 1,500 pro bono hours while serving organizations in New York, Washington, D.C., and Missouri. Their work spanned veterans’ rights, civil legal aid, agricultural law, criminal justice, consumer rights, elder law, tenant advocacy, and special education law.

For the first time, four of those students completed an in-person placement in Washington, D.C., with longtime program partner The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. Working alongside its litigation team, the students prepared screening memoranda, identified potentially meritorious arguments for case evaluation and client advocacy, and summarized precedential veterans law decisions and successful arguments advanced by volunteer attorneys.

In addition, through our Pro Bono Scholars Program, students dedicated 12 weeks to full-time pro bono work through our clinics. We're proud that the Bar Exam pass rate for our Pro Bono Scholars continues to be 100%, exceeding the statewide Pro Bono Scholars pass rate of 93%.  

Comments, Suggestions, or Content Ideas?
Please email Jeanne Ortiz-Ortiz, Director of the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center, at ortizorj@stjohns.edu.

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