Intern Highlight – BrittaLisa Gess

BrittaLisa Gess is a former Housing Justice Project volunteer legal assistant, who returns to HJP this summer as a Public Interest Law Fellow. She has just completed her first year at the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. BrittaLisa’s motivation to be a lawyer comes from her varied background. She says, “Making the decision to attend law school was the culmination of a myriad of experiences in various international settings. My journey toward a career in legal services has been informed by the knowledge I’ve gained from assisting elderly patients in Cairo and orphaned street kids in Kathmandu, and attending class in Buenos Aires and Rome.”

She says she is excited to continue her legal education at HJP this summer: “Learning the nuances of landlord-tenant law at HJP and the details of identifying and filing discrimination claims at the Council on American-Islamic Relations helped me refine my desire to ensure that the legal system works for its most vulnerable clients.”

Next year BrittaLisa will be co-chairing the Committee for Culture & Diversity at Hamline, as well as serving as a board member for the National Lawyers Guild, an editorial assistant for the Journal of Law & Religion, and a Bakken Fellowship researcher examining the intersection of race and the law.