Public Interest Law Center

Current Scholars

Class of 2025

Dijia Chen

Dijia Chen is a third-year JD candidate at NYU School of Law. Prior to law school, Dijia worked for a private urban planning and real estate consulting firm with clients throughout the tri-state area, advising municipalities and federal agencies in zoning, master planning, redevelopment, and affordable housing matters, as well as assisting private and non-profit developers in development review processes to bring numerous residential, commercial, industrial, and mixed-use projects to life. She holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Grace Getman

Grace Getman is a third-year law student at NYU. She interned her 1L summer with the City of Scranton Law Department, and her 2L summer with the New York State Housing Finance Agency. She serves as an Executive Editor on the NYU Environmental Law Journal and as President of the Real Estate and Urban Policy Forum, and participated in the NYU State Legislative Externship program with New York State Assembly member Grace Lee's office. She graduated from Fordham University (Lincoln Center) and is proud to call Upstate New York home. 

 

Will Gomberg is a third-year student at NYU Law. He is from Chicago, Illinois. Will graduated from Brown University in 2020, where he studied Political Science and led a student organization focused on housing justice. Prior to law school, he worked at the Illinois Department of Employment Security, focusing on unemployment insurance and workforce development during the Covid-19 pandemic. He spent his 1L summer at the Fair Housing Justice Center, and his 2L summer at Emery Celli Abady Brinckerhoff Ward & Maazel LLP, a civil rights law firm in New York.

Class of 2026

Michelle Lu

Michelle Lu is a rising second-year law student at NYU School of Law. Prior to law school, she was an Associate at Apollo Global Management. She has also completed internships at JLL Capital Markets and the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations. At NYU Law, she is also a Jacobson Scholar in Law and Business and on the board of the Asian Pacific Allied Law Students Association. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in Urban Studies and French. 

 

Sam Ozer Stanton

Sam Ozer-Staton is a second-year student at NYU Law. He is from San Francisco, California, and graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a B.A. in Political Science. Prior to law school, he worked as a writer and podcast producer at Vox Media, where he wrote a weekly legal newsletter and helped produce former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s podcast, “Stay Tuned with Preet. He spent his 1L summer working on housing and land use issues at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. He hopes to pursue a career focused on housing and economic justice, civil rights, and urban policy.

 

Shantelle Brown

Shantelle Brown is a rising second-year student at NYU School of Law. Prior to law school, she was a Paralegal at Brooklyn Defender Services, where she worked against the adverse impact of socioeconomic disparity, housing inequality, and insufficient in-community healthcare within the child welfare system. She is a 2023 Sponsors for Equal Opportunity (SEO) fellow who spent her pre-1L summer at Milbank LLP., supporting Finance attorneys in Alternative Investment Projects and, Energy and Infrastructure matters. She holds a B.A. in Biology, Hispanic Literature and Cultures, and Neuroscience from Wesleyan University, where she founded a non-profit venture as a Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship Fellow and received the Davis Projects for Peace Prize.