Judith Resnik, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law, announced recently that Alison E. Hirschel, a 1984 graduate of Yale Law School, has been chosen as the first Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow for the 1997-98 academic year. Mr. Liman died on July 17, 1997; a memorial service for him will be held on Monday, September 22, at Alice Tully Hall in New York.
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship is awarded annually to a Yale Law School graduate. Each fellowship provides support for its holder to work full time for a year in an ongoing or start-up project in any area of the legal profession devoted to the public interest. During the fellowship year, Liman Fellows will spend time in residence at Yale Law School to conduct seminars based on their work.
“We are delighted that Alison Hirschel has been selected as the first Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow,” commented Professor Resnik. “She is an experienced legal services attorney with a decade-plus commitment to serving those in need. Over the coming years, the Liman Fellows will continue to honor the memory of Arthur Liman’s life, which exemplified the possibility of the use of law to protect vulnerable individuals in need of the law’s assistance.”
Ms. Hirschel is the first incumbent for the fellowship, which was established in 1996 to honor Arthur Liman, a 1957 graduate of Yale Law School, who was partner in the New York City law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In addition to his work at the firm, Mr. Liman had a distinguished and varied career as a public servant. He was chief counsel to the New York Special Commission on Attica after the 1971 riots; president of the Legal Aid Society of New York and of the Neighborhood Defense Services of Harlem; chair of the Legal Action Center in New York City; chair of the New York State Capital Defender’s Office; and special counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, known also as the Iran-Contra Committee.
As a Liman Fellow, Alison Hirschel will establish the Arthur Liman Project on Advocacy for the Institutionalized Elderly in Michigan. Formerly director of planning and co-director of the Elderly Law Project of Community Legal Services Inc., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ms. Hirschel has spent her professional career in legal services and has worked on legal advocacy for the elderly. In Michigan she will combine individual representation, legislative and administrative advocacy, and impact litigation focusing on the legal needs of Michigan’s elderly population, especially those requiring long-term care.
“The Liman Fellowship is a gift,” remarked Ms. Hirschel. “It allows me to continue work about which I feel passionately for individuals in long-term care facilities. These people are especially vulnerable now, at a time of enormous changes in both the healthcare and welfare systems. There is a real void for this kind of legal advocacy in Michigan, and I hope to begin a pattern of advocacy that will continue into the future. I am deeply honored to be associated with Arthur Liman’s legacy of public interest, and I am thrilled to be able to reconnect with Yale Law School in this way.”
Photos and biographical information for Judith Resnik and Alison Hirschel are available on request from Elizabeth Stauderman, director of public affairs for Yale Law School. She can be reached at 203/432-8464.