The Committee for Public Counsel Services and Boston law firm Prince Lobel have joined together to create the Walter B. Prince Fellowship – a one-year program that provides financial and training support to an outstanding attorney at the beginning of their career.
The fellowship was created this year to honor the legacy of firm co-founder Walter Prince, whose early career included work with the Roxbury Defenders. The recipient of the fellowship will spend a year working and training as a public defender while being compensated by Prince Lobel.
“This fellowship has a tremendous amount of significance to me. It’s humbling, and I really appreciate what the law firm has done,” Walter Prince said. “It is providing needed funds to CPCS and it paves the way for a very bright and talented young lawyer to get a good start in the profession and in providing quality legal services to indigent clients.”
Prince was a Roxbury Defender from 1974 to 1976, and he was the chairman of the Committee from January 1992 through November 1993.
Jessie Carredano, a 2019 graduate of Suffolk University Law School, is the first-ever fellow and works for CPCS in Roxbury, West Roxbury and Dorchester.
“I am excited to work with the clients that CPCS serves. Everyone deserves to have their story told, and everyone deserves to have someone fight for them,” Carredano said. “I am also excited to be part of the Roxbury Defenders Unit. RDU is full of rich history, and I look forward to working alongside some great attorneys and learning from them.”
Carredano was a student attorney with Suffolk Defenders and represented clients charged with misdemeanors and felonies. She also was a student attorney with the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project where she interviewed inmates in preparation for their Massachusetts Department of Correction disciplinary hearings. She was also the Jack T. Litman Fellow of Harvard Defenders and helped develop defense strategies in representing indigent clients at criminal cause hearings.
Prince said young lawyers like Carredano are exactly what the firm is looking for in future fellows.
“We are looking for someone who is committed to providing quality legal services to indigent clients and someone who is passionate about the Constitution,” he said. “We want someone who is passionate about making sure that everyone has the right to a fair trial.”