University of Virginia School of Law student Helen Song ’23 will assist survivors of human trafficking as the 22nd Powell Fellow in Legal Services.
The Powell Fellowship, named for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., awards $55,000 and additional benefits to graduates providing legal services to the poor through a host public interest organization. The Law School award is for one year with the expectation that it will be renewed for a second year. Powell Fellows are also eligible for the school’s Loan Forgiveness Program.
Working with Justice At Last in Oakland and San Francisco, Song will provide direct legal representation, train pro bono attorneys and community partners, and create vacatur law protocols in courts. Vacatur is the removal of a criminal conviction, as if the person had never been found guilty.
Having grown up in Seoul, South Korea, Song said she came to law school looking to help immigrant communities or victims of trauma. Doing legal work in the Bay Area exposed her to the impact of human trafficking.
“A lot of undocumented survivors live with the fear of being deported or experiencing retaliation from their traffickers, so they don’t really reach out for help,” she said. “They’ll often not realize they have legal rights, and they’ll continue to just live in fear. So I think that that’s one of the major issues we deal with, especially because court systems can be kind of insensitive to those needs, so they won’t provide them with the confidentiality they need.”
At UVA Law, Song has been editor of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, minority rights chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, community outreach chair of the National Lawyers Guild, communications chair of the Program in Law and Public Service student board, and a participant in the Civil Rights Clinic, Decarceration and Community Reentry Clinic, and the Domestic Violence Project. She has also worked over the summer as a law clerk at Bay Area Legal Aid and Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach.
“Helen has had an unwavering commitment to protecting marginalized communities since I met her as a 1L,” said Leah Gould, director of the Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center. “As the Powell Fellow, Helen continues to build upon that commitment by providing a critical lifeline to trafficking survivors in California.”
Song said taking Law and Public Service with Professor Annie Kim ’99 inspired her to consider a career in public service. Since then, she said the public service program, especially Kim, and its community of students helped her achieve a career she originally didn’t think would be possible.
“I want to continue working with marginalized communities and specifically working with immigrant communities, and helping empower people who don’t have resources to get the legal help they need,” Song said.
She added, “I also eventually want to help other students who are in law school, like at UVA Law, realize that public service careers are a good idea and to encourage them to pursue them.”
Song earned her bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Powell Fellows
- Meredith Kilburn ’22
- Nooreen Reza ’21
- Kevin Jackson ’20
- Tex Pasley ’17
- Maya Iyyani ’18
- Shannon Ellis ’15
- Megan Lisa Watkins ’16
- Cat Martin ’15
- Mario Salas ’14
- Kimberly Rolla ’13
- Dan Hausman ’12
- Peggy Nicholson ’11
- Crystal Shin ’10 (Update)
- Phil Storey ’09
- Amy Woolard ’08
- Clermont Fraser ’07
- Tiffany Marshall ’06 (Update)
- Anishah Cumber ’05 (Update)
- Angela Ciolfi ’03 (after clerking a year) (Update)
- Lise Adams ’03
- Kit Ballenger ’02 (Update)
Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.
