We invite you to learn more about the 2022-2024 Tycko & Zavareei LLP Public Interest Fellowship by attending our Fellowship Alumni Zoom Panel on Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 12:00 PM ET.
The panel, moderated by Partner Jonathan Tycko, features the following Fellowship alumni:
- Andrew J. Silver (2012-2013)
During his Fellowship, Andrew Silver divided his time between working for the firm and working at Human Rights First. At the firm, Andrew gained immediate exposure to the firm’s public interest practice, working on products liability and food mislabeling matters in the firm’s consumer protection practice, in addition to working on False Claims Act whistleblower matters. Andrew worked alongside the firm’s partners and associates on significant substantive litigation projects, including taking depositions, motion practice, and written discovery. Andrew also spent two months at Human Rights First’s DC headquarters.
Following his time with the firm, Andrew became an associate with a DC-based Ifrah Law, focusing on gaming industry regulatory and licensing issues. Most recently, he became in-house counsel for online gaming compliance at Churchill Downs. Andrew graduated from Tufts University in 2007 and Boston College Law School in 2012.
- Lauren Kelleher (2016-2017)
During her fellowship Lauren worked on a wide range of substantive litigation including lawsuits against two St. Louis County cities operating modern day debtors prison schemes, and several class actions against banks charging customers usurious extended overdraft fees. Lauren assisted with deposition preparation and discovery, drafted several oppositions to summary judgment motions and motions to dismiss, and briefed jurisdictional issues in the Eleventh Circuit for an appeal from a district court’s denial of T&Z’s clients’ motion to compel class arbitration on behalf of families and friends who were serially overcharged for making money transfers to loved ones serving time in prison.
For her non-profit placement, Lauren spent two months at Public Justice—a national public interest law firm—where she worked primarily on the organization’s court secrecy project. The project intervenes to unseal records in lawsuits against corporations that make all kinds of harmful products; from tires that cause rollovers to rifles that fired without anyone pulling the trigger. As part of this work, she helped research and draft a brief before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to unseal records in a products defect lawsuit against Chrysler.
Since her fellowship, Lauren has clerked for the Hon. Terrence G. Berg on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District for Michigan, litigated employment discrimination cases for the EEOC, and currently serves as an Assistant Attorney General for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, where her work focuses on the state’s affirmative opioids litigation. Lauren graduated from Northwestern University in 2011 and Georgetown University Law Center in 2016.
- Rebecca Azhdam (2017-2019)
During her fellowship, Rebecca gained substantive experience in multiple practice areas, including consumer protection, employment, False Claims Act, Freedom of Information Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation. In addition to assisting with client engagement, case development, and discovery, Rebecca drafted (and received meaningful feedback on) a wide variety of motions and briefs. Among other projects, Rebecca had the opportunity to work on a case challenging President Trump’s third travel ban, as well as multiple cases involving harmful practices by mortgage servicers, banks, and payday lenders. With the encouragement and guidance of Tycko & Zavareei attorneys, she also originated cases against a cosmetics company for marketing a dangerous product containing undisclosed drug ingredients and a kitchen appliances manufacturer for selling defective countertop ovens. For her non-profit placement, Rebecca spent three months at Tzedek D.C., a legal services organization focused primarily on safeguarding the rights of low-income DC residents facing crises related to debt collection and other consumer protection problems. After completing her fellowship, Rebecca entered the Honors Program of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and is now an attorney in DOL’s Division of Civil Rights and Labor Management. Rebecca graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2011 and from Columbia Law School in 2017.