The Notre Dame Law School Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion has created a new summer fellowship program to support students working in the areas of ethics, compliance, or inclusion within nonprofit or governmental organizations.
The inaugural recipients — second-year law students Caitlin-Jean Juricic, Kat Pflug, and Nathanial Hall — will gain experience working in congressional and U.S. attorney offices during their summer fellowships.
“At Notre Dame we highly value our students’ pursuit of their individual vocations. Our hope is that this summer funding will make it easier for students to pursue unpaid summer opportunities that line up with their personal, long-term professional goals,” said Professor Veronica Root Martinez, who is the founding director of the Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion. “The applicants for this inaugural set of fellowships were incredibly impressive, which made the selection process quite difficult. CJ, Kat, and Nathanial are committed to pursuing career opportunities that will make a real difference in the world, and I am so pleased the Program is able to help support their endeavors this summer.”
Juricic, a native of Michigan City, Ind., will intern this summer with the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in the Majority Office in Washington, D.C. The House Judiciary Committee conducts regular oversight of the Department of Justice, and has served as the lead congressional voice for promoting transparency, ethics, and access to justice within the federal judiciary. It is also responsible for determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against federal officials. In this role, she will prepare hearing materials and work on legislation that addresses workplace ethics and misconduct in the federal judiciary, lobbying and ethics obligations for government officials, as well as oversight of various government agencies. Juricic stated that she looks forward to being able to assist Congress with its work in developing mechanisms that ensure accountability and ethics of public servants serving in the federal government.
Pflug will return to her hometown of Omaha, Neb., to work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska as a summer law clerk focusing on Indian country crimes. More than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women experience violence in their lifetime, and more than half experience sexual violence. Through her work with the district’s tribal liaison and Indian country prosecutors this summer, Pflug hopes to foster a renewed commitment to and prioritization of the well-being of Indian country community members, especially those women and children most vulnerable to violent crime.
Hall, from Sycamore, Ill., will spend the summer in Milwaukee as a legal intern with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. As the principal federal litigator in the state, the office is responsible for coordinating federal investigations and representing the interests of the federal government. The office handles a large number of cases related to government contract fraud and health care fraud. Hall said he is looking forward to learning more about how corporate compliance issues are handled by the federal government, and playing a role in compliance enforcement in Wisconsin.
The Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion provides opportunities for faculty, students, and alumni of the University of Notre Dame to research, investigate, and discuss scholarship that will support the creation of more ethical, compliant, and inclusive organizations. Established by Professor Martinez in 2019, it is one of seven interdisciplinary research programs run by the Law School’s faculty members.
Learn more about the Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion.
Originally published by Amanda Gray at law.nd.edu on May 20, 2021.