Law students honored by National Lawyers Guild

Two Wayne State University Law School students have been named student honorees by the Michigan and Detroit Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Cait De Mott Grady of Ithaca, New York, and Phillip Keller of Frankenmuth, received the honor at the chapter's 82nd Anniversary Dinner on May 11. Both students graduated Monday, May 13.

While at Wayne Law, De Mott Grady was a member of the executive board of Wayne Law's NLG chapter, a member of the Student Board of Governors and was a junior member on the Mock Trial National Team for the American Association of Justice for the winter semester. In 2018, she was elected student national vice president of the NLG. De Mott Grady is a champion for public interest law. She has interned with the Juvenile Lifer Unit at the State Appellate Defender Office in Detroit and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, and has worked for Wayne Law's Criminal Appellate Practice Clinic and Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic.

"My career goal is to become a public defender, and to pursue social movement lawyering and impact litigation while working to narrow the gap between what is legal and what is just," said De Mott Grady.

While at Wayne Law, Keller was an executive board member of the Law School's NLG chapter and a member of the Damon J. Keith Students for Civil Rights. He has interned for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice and worked for Wayne Law's Criminal Appellate Practice Clinic through the State Appellate Defender Office. Last summer Keller was awarded a Peggy Browning Fellowship at the United Auto Workers in Detroit and continues to work at the UAW. Keller has also done volunteer work to bring justice to Flint residents affected by the water crisis and Detroit residents facing foreclosure.

Keller said his focus has been in labor and employment law but he also has an interest in criminal defense and civil rights cases.

"My goal is to provide legal services to those who need them most."

Published: Thu, May 30, 2019