News

Bree is a 3L at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Originally from California, she was surprised by Utah’s lack of diversity and some of the inequities she saw. This led her to pursue a career in public interest law. During her time at SJQ, she has had the opportunity to extern at the Disability Law Center and at Lambda Legal. These experiences solidified her commitment to advocating for marginalized communities. As the grandchild of immigrants and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she recognizes the work done by those before her to create a pathway for her into the legal profession. As a Durham Fellow, she hopes to continue that work by lighting the path for other marginalized individuals.

Bree Spaulding

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UCLI would like to congratulate and welcome our 2023-2024 Durham Fellows, Bree Spaulding from the SJ Quinney College of Law and Jehicob Torres from J. Reuben Clark Law School. The fellowship is named in honor of Justice Christine Durham. This fellowship is intended to help facilitate the legal education of an individual who shows a demonstrated commitment to and great potential for pushing forward the cause of justice, equity, and inclusiveness in Utah’s legal profession. Someone who, like Justice Durham, will make the legal field a better place for all who follow.

The Durham Fellowship is awarded to two law students each year (one from each Utah law school). It includes a stipend which may be used toward tuition, housing, living expenses, etc. Fellows partner with UCLI Leadership Council and staff on law school programming. We had a wealth of incredible candidates apply this fall which is a testament to the incredible work our law schools are doing here in Utah.

Please read more about Bree and Jehicob in these news articles.

We would like to thank the many individuals who have donated this year, making the 2023-2024 Durham Fellowship possible. 

Bree Spaulding

Jehicob Torres

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For students of all abilities, debating is a valuable activity in which it instills abilities that are beneficial in many academic pursuits as well as life in general. In reality, debaters build confidence speaking in public and expressing their ideas eloquently. That comfort speaking in front of others is useful in so many areas of life, from interviews to school presentations to discussions in college seminars. Debate gives students a rare opportunity to take ownership over their own intellectual development. And throughout the years of practice and competition, debate builds lifelong friendships and community, teaching teamwork as well. 

According to Ashley Anderson, an educator and coordinator for The Utah Debate Coaches Association, “debate is the type of program where anyone can be successful if they are given the right materials and resources.” By exposing students in elementary school through high school to the speech and debate world, the more likely they are to develop lifelong skills in the legal profession in their future careers. As a matter of fact, many in the legal community may have found their interest sparked by speech and debate. Ms. Anderson also stated, “however, debate is not uniformly implemented in elementary and middle school, which reduces overall access for Utah’s youth. There are a handful of educators in the Salt Lake City School District who are willing to create a digital curriculum for 5th-8th grade classroom teachers to increase participation in statewide events.”

Debate is important because it is not an honors class and you don’t need to be in a private school to get involved. Nonetheless, the more teachers are willing to work with students, the better chance students have at reaching their potential in the debate and legal field. The Utah Center for Legal Inclusion has had the great privilege to get involved in legal pipeline efforts by making a donation to The Utah Debate Coaches Association for their curriculum development efforts and supporting in their fundraising efforts to achieve their mission to serve students across the state of Utah. Because of many other generous donations and our commitment to fostering and enhancing a safe and equal environment, many young students may come to understand their potential in the legal profession. Reach out to for more information on how you can support these efforts and develop pathways for Utah students to join the profession.

Students at the West High Panther Pride Tournament

5th and 6th graders at the Alta High State Tournament

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UCLI and Women of the World’s legal workshop series includes six free workshops aimed to enhance attendees’ knowledge of the law and their rights. Just one more workshop is left in this series and will be held on July 20 from 5:30-6:30 pm, covering housing and rent discrimination. We highly encourage anyone interested in learning more about housing and rent law to attend. Our fifth workshop was held on July 13, 2023 at the Women of the World offices with Daniel Crook, seasoned attorney at Utah Legal Services and specialist in landlord/tenant law, as the presenter. Crook was able to give a thorough overview of general housing issues, while also answering specific questions and concerns from workshop attendees. He recommended reaching out to organizations that aim for equality and justice, just like Women of the World and UCLI, for advice, resources, or a community in the event that a difficult housing issue arises. The workshop atmosphere was very informative and interactive. Throughout the event, Crook stressed the importance of knowing your rights and understanding what is deemed most important in legal proceedings. When asked for his biggest piece of legal advice concerning housing, Crook firmly responded with:

“There are a few things that you should always always do. Pay your rent, get everything in writing, communicate with your landlord, don’t just ignore things, especially don’t ignore eviction notices. And don’t let your landlord lock you without a court order, that’s illegal.”

We would like to thank Daniel Crook for providing his legal expertise at our fifth workshop. We would also like to thank Ghinwa Hneide for facilitating this event and serving as an Arabic translator. Thank you to Alan Dalloul Dalul who served as a Spanish translator. Lastly, thank you to Prime Corn for providing fantastic catering for this event.

Join us for future sessions of the workshops, and spread the word to your friends with refugee and immigrant backgrounds; flier below.

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Please also help us spread the word to your friends and neighbors with refugee and immigrant backgrounds; see the flyer below.

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On June 27, 2023, UCLI, in its continued partnership with Inclusion Strategies and the Utah State Bar held the third session in the “Pathways to Inclusion” CLE series. This was a hybrid CLE with 25 people joining in-person, and over 200 joining via Zoom. This panel for this session included Tyler Buswell, Shareholder at Kirton McConkie, Judge Dianna Gibson, Utah Third District Court, Barbara Melendez, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging at BYU Law, and Isabel Moreno, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law. The panel was moderated by UCLI Associate Director, Jon Wayas. 

This session focused on inclusion and diversity efforts being made in recruitment, retention, and advancement. The law school representatives were given the opportunity to highlight successful programs they have implemented in the last several years. They also highlighted the challenges they are facing now, and potential challenges on the horizon.

 Mr. Buswell highlighted the successful Inclusion Fellows program Kirton McConkie has undertaken in partnership with Intermountain Health. Now in its second year, the program takes one student from each of the Utah law schools to be a part of Kirton’s summer associate program. These fellows also work for a number of hours each week with Intermountain’s in-house counsel team. These fellows receive normal summer associate compensation along with a tuition scholarship furnished by the Intermountain Health. UCLI aids in the application and interview process for the fellowship.

Judge Gibson highlighted examples of successful inclusion initiatives she was part of in her private sector career before joining the bench. She also highlighted the new Utah State Court Common Thread program. This program is aimed to encourage more individuals to consider ascending to the bench. This program is still in the planning phase. It will include programming to meet people at all stages of their legal careers, from law school, early-mid career, and even seasoned attorneys thinking of joining the judiciary.

The session also included great discussion with audience members. We appreciate everyone who has participated in the series thus far. There will be a fourth and final session in this series later in the year. There will be plenty to discuss and we hope you will join us then.

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UCLI was honored to present at the 17th annual Governor’s Native American Summit at the Sorensen Student Center at Utah Valley University on Friday, June 23, 2023. The event was hosted by the Utah Division of Indian Affairs and is the only event in the state where State and Tribal leaders, community stakeholders, educators, and community members converge to learn more about the issues and concerns impacting Utah’s American Indian population. This year’s theme was Connecting Our Communities: Reverence for Our Elders, Our Youth, Ourselves, and Each Other. 

Cliff Parkinson, Chair of Community Outreach, and Kaitlyn Pieper, Executive Director, presented the UCLI breakout session. Cliff led off with a discussion of recent national tribal cases and highlighted the importance of having legal advocates fighting for Native American rights at the state and federal level. Kaitlyn then introduced UCLI’s purpose and programs, highlighting initiatives at the K-12, Pre-Law, and Law School levels. The UCLI First Generation outreach video was then displayed, which many attendees found very relatable. The last twenty minutes of the session was devoted to listening to feedback and suggestions from attendees about what their communities could benefit from and how UCLI could improve its outreach. We were honored to have among the audience members multiple individuals who plan to attend law school, as well as Larry Echo Hawk, a member of the Pawnee nation and a celebrated attorney. 

UCLI was grateful for the opportunity to attend such an incredible event and to learn from the many other presenters and sessions. Thank you to James Toledo and Dustin Jansen at the Utah Division of Indian Affairs for the chance to present. If anyone has additional suggestions for collaboration efforts between UCLI and Tribal communities, we welcome your feedback and introductions at .

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This month the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion had the opportunity to host a group of ten international visitors from Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. These visitors were invited to the United States under the auspices of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program as a Regional Project for the Near East and North Africa. While in the United States the program participants explored the topics of the Rule of Law and the U.S. Judicial System. Their program was arranged by CRDF Global. Nicholas Merrill and his colleagues at the Utah Global Diplomacy generously invited UCLI to host the group for an afternoon. 

On June 26, 2023, Mary Anne Davies and her colleagues at the Disability Law Center welcomed us into their beautiful facility and provided a tour of the building and a brief presentation about the Disability Law Center’s mission. We then met back in the boardroom and Kaitlyn Pieper, UCLI Executive Director, provided a demographic overview of Utah and Utah’s legal profession. Following this, we heard from a panel of experts including Jon Wayas, Associate Director at the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion; Michelle Oldroyd, Director of Professional Education & Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at the Utah State Bar; and Jon Puente, Director of the Office of Fairness, Equity, and Accountability at the Administrative Office of the Courts. The panel was interactive and responded to many audience questions, including questions about bias and discrimination in the court systems and racial dynamics in the United States. 

UCLI was honored to host such a distinguished group of legal professionals who are doing such incredible work to move justice forward in their home countries (names and home countries of participants listed below). Thank you to Nicholas Merrill and his colleagues at Utah Global Diplomacy for making this connection and to Mary Anne Davies and the Disability Law Center for hosting us at their lovely venue.

Egypt, Mr. Mohanad Mohamed Rasheed Elkholy

Egypt, Ms. Fatma Serageldin Khalil Mohamed

Israel, Ms. Nareman Shehadeh Zoabi 

Lebanon, Mr. Youssef Diab

Lebanon, Mr. Roland El Chartouni

Palestinian Territories, Mr. Kanan Alsourani

Palestinian Territories, Mr. Majdi Rabei

Qatar, Mr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Sulaiti

Saudi Arabia, Mr. Abdulrahman Rafea Alamary 

Saudi Arabia, Mr. Abdullah Mohammed Algar

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UCLI is honored to partner with Women of the World this summer to host a six-part series of free legal workshops open to all members of the community. The workshop topics thus far have included navigating the law in daily life, divorce and custody, and immigration. We welcome anyone who has an interest in expanding their knowledge regarding the law, particularly those with a refugee or immigrant background, and invite participation for the remaining topics, which include: workplace discrimination, general housing issues, as well as housing and rent discrimination.

On 22 June 2023, the third legal workshop in the series was hosted at the Women of the World office and presented by one of the UCLI board members, Geidy Achecar. Geidy owns her own law practice which focuses on personal injury cases, immigration law, and divorce/family law matters. She was able to share her in-depth knowledge on immigration matters to a large audience in Spanish, thanks to her native fluency in the language. The workshop attendees were very engaged and asked many questions, which Geidy helped answer as well as providing them with resources that allowed them to answer their own questions. There were also two recent college graduates in the audience who plan to attend law school. Geidy was able to share information with them about the upcoming Pre-Law Symposium and Pre-Law Fellowship.  

Geidy describes her own experience presenting at the event as follows:

“The demands of practicing make it hard to find time to serve our communities, this event was such a good reminder that especially for those who don’t have access to attorneys and may not know how to navigate the law, just a small amount of our time and training can make a huge difference in people’s lives. I loved being in community with the women who attended and the organizers who do the work daily.”

We would like to thank Geidy Achecar for sharing her expertise. We would also like to extend a thank you to Ghinwa Hneide, WoW’s case manager, for facilitating the event. Thank you also to Wings on Wheels, a Spice Kitchen Entrepreneur, for the fantastic catering.

Please also help us spread the word to your friends and neighbors with refugee and immigrant backgrounds; see the flyer below.

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Join us for future sessions of the workshops, and spread the word to your friends with refugee and immigrant backgrounds; flier below.

Read More