CHICAGO – (May21, 2019)— DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar has awarded $10,000 scholarships to Anna Fugate at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon and Stacy Porche’ at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as part of its annual Law Student Diversity Scholarship Program. The scholarships are open to rising (2016–17) second- and third-year African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, LGBT and Multi-Racial students. All rising second- and third-year female law students are also eligible, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Anna Fugate is a second-year law student at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon where she is ranked second out of 202 students in her class. She is currently doing research for a law professor on class action lawsuits and multidistrict litigation. She has secured post-graduation clerkships in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Fugate has had to overcome daunting personal hardship to have accomplished so much. As a junior in high school, she was homeless for a year before finding a job and an apartment. She supported herself through the remainder of high school, community college, and Northern Arizona University.
Stacy Porche’ attends Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she is ranked fifth in her class. She obtained a bachelor of science degree from Arizona State University. She has achieved high academic success despite working full-time with the Louisiana Department of Justice, Gaming Division where she works to promote free services available to those with gambling problems.
In addition to her daytime job and evening studies, Porche’ also works as a teaching assistant for first-year law students. She will be a summer associate at Taylor, Porter, Brooks, and Phillips, LLC one of Louisiana’s oldest and largest civil law firms defending businesses. She is the first ever law student in her family.
The scholarships will be awarded at the DRI Diversity Seminar and Luncheon on, June 20 and 21 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.
The goal of the DRI scholarships is to provide financial assistance to two worthy law students from ABA-accredited
law schools in order to promote, in a tangible way, the DRI Diversity Statement of Principle.
Two scholarships in the amount of $10,000 each are awarded annually to applicants who best demonstrate the following criteria:
- Academic excellence
- Service to the profession
- Service to the community
- Service to the cause of diversity
###
About DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar
For more than fifty years, DRI has been the voice of the defense bar, advocating for 22,000 defense attorneys, commercial trial attorneys, and corporate counsel and defending the integrity of the civil judiciary. A thought leader, DRI provides world-class legal education, deep expertise for policy-makers, legal resources, and networking opportunities to facilitate career and law firm growth. For more information, log on to www.dri.org