Following a highly competitive application process led by Scholarship Chair Len Niehoff, and an excellent set of applicants, the ABA Forum on Communications Law is proud to announce the two scholarship winners for 2024. Among the goals of this program is to encourage law students, especially those from under-represented communities, to become active participants in our specialized Bar. I thank Len and his committee for their work on this project and am proud to say that they hit the ball out of the park.
January 31, 2024 Feature
Forum Scholarship Winners Announced
By Robb S. Harvey
Winners receive an expense-paid trip to the Forum’s Annual Conference, registration for the Conference and Media Advocacy Workshop, and the opportunity to meet Conference attendees.
The first scholarship winner, and recipient of the Dick Goehler Award for the top overall score, is Devanshi Patel-Martin, a 3L at UC Berkeley School of Law. Patel-Martin is a former journalist, serving as the managing editor of The Juggernaut, a “weekly roundup of global news on South Asia(ns).” She also was (is) an entrepreneur, having served as interim chief of staff for an Indian EdTech company focused on K–8 math education and also with Zipline Int’l, working on developing drone-based healthcare delivery in East Africa. During law school, she co-founded Mass Media at Berkeley Law, a student group devoted to the intersection of journalism and the law, and is managing editor of the California Law Review. Following graduation, Patel-Martin will be clerking for Justice Sabrina McKenna, Supreme Court of Hawaii.
Our second impressive scholarship winner is Elana Beiser, a 3L at Tulane Law School. Beiser is a former journalist for The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. She previously has served as an advisory board chair for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker as well as a nominating juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism. She is a student attorney with the Tulane First Amendment Clinic and managing editor of the Tulane Law Review. After law school, she intends to practice as a litigator in New Orleans.
The recommendation letters for our two scholarship recipients are glowing. Please help me welcome these winners to our Bar at the Annual Conference.