Third-year Notre Dame Law School student Jessica Skocik has been named a Ms. JD Fellow.
In partnership with the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, the Ms. JD Fellowship promotes mentoring and professional development for future female attorneys.
Fellows are selected based on academic performance, leadership, and dedication to advancing the status of women in the profession.
“Ms. JD embodies the philosophy of facilitating the growth and development of other women without diminishing their voice or their power through mentorship and empowerment,” Skocik said.
One of the main benefits of the Ms. JD Fellowship is the mentoring component. Fellows are paired with women who are deeply invested in the success and development of the fellows.
Skocik’s mentor is Laurel Bellows. Bellows is a principal of The Bellows Law Group, P.C. in Chicago and past president of the American Bar Association.
“It is truly an honor to serve as a Ms. JD Fellow, not only to meet and work with these incredible women, who are quite literally the giants upon whose shoulders we stand, but also to network laterally with other female law students around the country who are committed to this mission,” Skocik said.
This past summer as a Center for Civil and Human Rights Fellow, Skocik worked as a legal intern at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. She assisted with investigations and prosecutions, focusing on human trafficking cases involving minors. During her first-year summer, she was a law clerk for the Community Activism Law Alliance in Chicago and worked on immigration issues.S
Skocik, who is focusing her law studies on global law, serves on the Journal of International and Comparative Law, and participates in the International Human Rights Society.
She will continue her work with vulnerable populations as a Douglass Fellow with the Human Trafficking Institute and as a legal extern with the National Immigrant Justice Center this fall.
After receiving her undergraduate degree from Penn State University in 2014, Skocik served as an English Teaching Assistant in Johor, Malaysia, as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on August 31, 2018.