Two Seattle University School of Law students have earned coveted 2025 Justice John Paul Stevens Fellowships for their academic accomplishments and passion for public interest law.
Annabel Hueske ’27 and Marcella Weiss ’27 are two of more than 150 fellows chosen from 38 law schools around the country.
Created more than 25 years ago in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, the fellowship program provides grants to participating law schools to support students working in unpaid public interest summer internships at nonprofit organizations and government agencies. This is the law school’s fourth year of participation in the program.
Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver, who is also a law school faculty member, and Seattle U Law Professor Andrew Siegel both clerked for Stevens from 2000 to 2001.
“The Stevens Fellowship program is a fitting tribute to a justice who had a passion for fairness and who honored the efforts of lawyers to advance that value. This year’s Stevens Fellows from Seattle University embody the justice’s values,” Peñalver said. “He would be proud to be associated with the work they will be doing with the fellowship that bears his name. And so are we.”
“Justice Stevens viewed the law as a noble profession principally because of the unique ways in which lawyers are empowered to help those in need,” Siegel said. “Our fellows this summer are working with organizations that embrace that power and responsibility. The justice would be extremely proud, as we are here at Seattle U Law.”
Hueske is working as a legal intern at Northwest Justice Project (NJP), Washington’s largest publicly funded legal aid program, which provides cost-free legal assistance and representation to thousands of low-income people in the areas of family safety and security, housing preservation, protection of income, health care, education, and other basic needs. At the Consumer Housing Education Employment Rights Unit, Hueske performs client intake in cases regarding housing, debt issues, landlord/tenant disputes, disability accommodation, and more.
This is not Hueske’s first foray into public interest work; before law school, she worked with women who are homeless, helping them to access unemployment benefits.
“It made me realize how much clients in really challenging situations need legal representation,” she said. “It’s been really rewarding to see how much more effective and helpful you can be when you can use the law to help a client.”
Tenants come to NJP with a variety of housing issues, from a landlord raising rent 400% to living for months without a functioning toilet in the home. Hueske said many clients do not even realize that their landlord has violated the law.
“The most important way to make sure the law is functioning as it should is if everyone has access to it,” Hueske said. “Working at NJP helps create a more equitable system because we don’t prioritize people’s access based on their financial means.”
Weiss is spending her summer as a legal intern with the Unemployment Law Project (ULP), which advocates for Washington workers, helping them advance their economic security during periods of unemployment, and pursues legislative, regulatory, and policy changes to hold government agencies and employers accountable. In this role, Weiss conducts client intake interviews, provides recommendations to staff attorneys on potential cases, aids in drafting appeals, and directly represents clients in administrative hearings.
“I’m extremely grateful and excited to have the opportunity to engage in such hands-on work with ULP this summer,” Weiss said. “I’d heard so many amazing and positive things about ULP, the work they do, and the people who make up the organization, and as I’ve began working here, I’ve found this to be entirely true,”
Weiss is glad to be able to help clients secure unemployment benefits, which allow them to gain financial stability, and, in some cases, avoid homelessness. Weiss noted that many of the clients she serves come from marginalized groups, such as immigrants, people of color, people living with disabilities, low-income individuals, seniors, and pregnant women.
“A large part of why I chose to pursue a JD at Seattle U Law was to help advocate for and empower people who face systemic injustice and other difficulties navigating complex legal systems,” Weiss said. “Working at ULP gives me the opportunity to do just that.”