News Archive

The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law honors students each academic year for their service through the Pro Bono Program. This year, more than 50 students were recognized for their hours of service while at the same time completing their legal education. Students contributed a total of 11,249 hours during their time in law school.

Tiffany Costley, ’21, was named the winner of the John Paul Berlon Award for Pro Bono Service. She volunteered for the IU Student Outreach Clinic Legal Division, where she served as president; Housing and Urban Development; Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention; Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee; IU Office of the Vice President and General Counsel End of Life Planning Program; and the ACLU of Indiana. In addition, she was added to the Public Outreach Committee for IndyBar, which honored her in December 2020 for her pro bono work.

“I am so grateful and truly honored that I was chosen for this award. Honestly, doing pro bono is the best thing I have done in law school and the thing I am most proud of,” Costley said. “All of the various projects I have been involved in added experiences that I was able to take with me into the job market. I am so glad I volunteered, even if I was nervous that I would not be able to help very much or that I would not have enough time, it always ended up being worth it. I encourage every new law student to take the opportunity and volunteer their time.”

“I am extremely proud of our IU McKinney scholars for their continued dedication to engage in pro bono volunteer service in the midst of a pandemic,” said Jana Matthews, ’00, Senior Associate Director of Professional Development and Director of the Pro Bono Program. “This year has been trying for us all and especially for several pro bono providers who still needed volunteers and yet just did not have the capacity to remotely supervise students while dealing with an increase in the need for their services.  We salute those who still provided opportunities for our students to engage in legal training while volunteering.”

Students who completed 200 hours or more of pro bono service were honored with the Norman Lefstein Award of Excellence gold level award. These students are:

• Jessica Berk
• Rachel Bir
• Ana Carolina Corey
• Tiffany Costley
• Katie Curry
• Julia Frandsen-DeLoach
• Christopher Goff
• Mollie Golden
• Bria Kemp
• Hailey Leister
• Leah Miller
• Robert Miller
• Mike Moga
• Bradley Neely
• Ibironke Ogunleye
• Scotty Probert
• Byron Ramirez
• Megan Reiley
• Bre Robinson
• Brenda Alexandra Salas Lopez
• Anna Samland
• Arianna Smith
• Ashley Stump
• Ajoke Yussuf
• Addison Zielinski
• Jacob Zigenfus

Students who complete between 100 and 199 hours receive the Mary H. Mitchell Outstanding Service Award, the silver level. These students are:

• Rani Amani
• Olunfunmilayo Bab-Oke
• Jessica Briscoe
• Emily Burchfield
• Matthew Dobbs
• David Faulkner
• Armand Holmes
• Benjamin Huang
• Jason Marshall
• Virginia Marso
• Geofrey Mpamulungi
• Michael Nichols
• Adaugo Sandra Nwachukwu
• Patrick Sanders
• Sundeep Singh
• Febuk Uya
• Reja Yousuf

Students who complete between 50 and 99 hours of pro bono service are honored at the bronze level. These students are:

• Jacob Antrim
• Valarie Bagwell
• Sheremy Cabrera
• Molly Connor
• Zephyr Harris
• Cass Lawson
• Jason Marshall
• Anna Marie Shuck
• Alexis Sizemore
• Daniel Swiss
• Alexis Weaver