Jan. 31, 2008 -- Edward De Barbieri ’08 and Nicole Prenoveau ’08 have been awarded Equal Justice Works Fellowships for innovative projects of their own design. The prestigious postgraduate legal fellowships place new lawyers in two-year assignments at nonprofit public interest organizations where they implement projects that address pressing community needs. The fellowships create partnerships among public interest lawyers, nonprofit organizations, law firm/corporate sponsors and other donors.

De Barbieri’s project, the Bronx Transactional Legal Assistance Project, will provide legal assistance to immigrants and low-wage workers in the Bronx who want to set up cooperatives and small businesses. The fellowship will be hosted by the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project and sponsored by Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.

Cooperatives are highly specialized legal entities that De Barbieri, a BLS Sparer and BLSPI fellow, has been studying this academic year in Ireland on a Fulbright scholarship at the Centre for Co-operative Studies of the University College Cork. Earlier in his law school career, he interned in New York City at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. in affordable housing development and spent a summer working at the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project. He also interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He earned a B.A. in philosophy at Boston College and an M.A. in religion at Yale Divinity School. Read more about De Barbieri’s Fulbright Scholarship.

Nicole Olympia Prenoveau ’08 won the Equal Justice Works Fellowship for her innovative project that will provide legal support for “green” community development in low-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She will be a staff attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A (Brooklyn A) during the two-year postgraduate fellowship. She will represent non-profit community development corporations in their efforts to access financing opportunities and technical assistance for green residential construction, among other projects. The co-sponsors of her fellowship are American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Prenoveau, a BLS Sparer Fellow, explains that green building “involves design, construction and maintenance with a focus on healthy indoor environments, maximum energy efficiency and conservative use of natural resources.” It reduces energy costs for residents over the long term. “The poorest, most polluted neighborhoods in Brooklyn can enjoy the health, environmental and economic benefits of green building,” says Prenoveau.

Only a few such projects in low-income areas of the city have been completed, and only a handful of lawyers know how to take the complex projects from design to ribbon cutting, according to Prenoveau. As part of her fellowship, she will build a database of green building resources and organize a network of non-profit developers and attorneys working in this nascent area.

A passion for finding solutions to systemic economic and social problems developed early in her life. Her parents came from the Philippines to settle in a suburb of Washington, D.C., where their “immigrant success story” unfolded. They stressed hard work and education as the keys to progress. Although Prenoveau agreed, she came to realize that many people face obstacles beyond their control to achieving the “American dream.” After earning a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan, her first job was as a program associate at The Appleseed Foundation in Washington, D.C., organizing start-up public interest law firms. Later, while working at the New York-based philanthropic consultant firm Lord, Ross, Ltd., she managed large grant-making initiatives focused on affirmative action and immigrant rights.

During law school, she participated in the Corporate and Real Estate Clinic and was a summer intern at Brooklyn A. She also interned at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., which provides financing and expertise to affordable housing developers.

Prenoveau looks forward to beginning her career in the law as a community economic development attorney. “What excites me most is seeing the impact of my work in a neighborhood, whether it is an abandoned factory turned into a school or a dilapidated structure transformed into a new home,” she says.