2023 Susman Godfrey Prize Winners

Nurain Ali, University of Houston Law Center, 1L

Nurain Ali is currently ranked second in her law school class and serves as University of Houston Law Center’s representative for the Student Bar Association. She is an active member in the First-Generation Law Students Organization and Energy and Environmental Law Society. Outside the Law Center, she is a member of the Houston Young Lawyers Association and a volunteer for I-CERV, a civic council serving minority communities facing poverty in the Houston area. Nurain earned her B.S. in Exercise Science from University of Houston where she graduated summa cum laude.

Kevin Baisden, Yale Law School, 1L

Kevin Baisden is an active member of Yale Law School’s Federalist Society and is an alum of Yale’s Access to Law School’s inaugural fellowship cohort. He earned his B.A. with a joint major in Economics and Philosophy from Columbia University, where he was a Beyond the Bars Fellow at the school’s Center for Justice. Kevin also holds several Associate degrees from the Northern Virginia Community College.

Rachel Baker, Yale Law School, 2L

Rachel Baker serves as an Editor of the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Law & Policy Review, and as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the law school. She also is an Executive Board Member of Yale’s Black Law Students Association. Rachel earned her B.A. from Yale University where she graduated magna cum laude in History with Distinction in the Major & Concentration in Politics & the Law.

Harvinder Bassi, UC Berkeley School of Law, 1L

Harvinder (Harry) Bassi is a Supervising Editor of the Berkeley Business Law Journal and a member of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He was awarded the Berkeley Law Opportunity Scholarship (a full-tuition scholarship). A Teach For America alum, Harry taught middle school Math and high school English at a Houston public school for four years. He graduated magna cum laude from NYU, where he majored in Economics and minored in Chemistry. Harry was awarded the College of Arts & Science Scholarship (a full-tuition scholarship), the University Honors Scholar/Founders’ Day Award, and the Yevgeniy Marshalik Memorial Scholarship for Public Service. In addition, he interned for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Robert Clinton, Harvard Law School, 2L

Robert Clinton is an Editor and the Strategy & Oversight Chair of the Harvard Law Review, a Student Editor of the American Journal of Law and Equality and a Committee Chair of the Black Law Students Association. Robert is a Marshall Scholar who holds an MPA with Distinction from University College London in Public Administration and Management, an MSc with Merit from University College London in Sustainable Urbanism, and a B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU where he was tapped to be the All-University Commencement Speaker.

Jonathan Epps, Yale Law School, 2L

Jonathan Epps has served as a student leader in several capacities at Yale: as a student clinician in the Challenging Mass Incarceration Clinic and the Veterans Legal Services Clinic; as a Research Assistant to several law professors; and as a Teaching Fellow at the undergraduate level. Jonathan was recently named a winner of YLW+’s Second Annual Critical Race Theory Award. Before starting at Yale Law School, Jonathan graduated as Valedictorian of his class at Morehouse College where he held a 4.0 GPA, was awarded a Morehouse Academic Scholarship and earned the Robert Brisbane Award for highest GPA in the Political Science Department.

Dalaal Jaber, UCLA School of Law, 1L

Dalaal Jaber is the Managing Editor of UCLA’s International Law and Foreign Affairs Journal and the Judicial Recruitment Assistant on the Moot Court Honors Board. She participated in the 2023 1L Skye Donald Moot Court Competition and the 2022 Women Law LEAD Summit, and she is a member of the Middle Eastern Law Student Association. Dalaal earned her Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she received the Outstanding Academic Scholarship, and earned her Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Al-Quds University School of Law in Palestine, where she was Valedictorian.

Christopher Kim, NYU School of Law, 2L

Christopher Kim is a Notes Editor of the New York University Law Review and recipient of the NYU Law Dean’s Scholarship. He served as a Teaching Assistant for Civil Procedure, worked as a Research Assistant updating Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice and Procedure treatise, and was one of ten students selected for NYU’s inaugural Clerkship Diversity Program. Christopher earned his B.S. from Yale University in Computer Science and graduated cum laude with distinction in the major.

Felicitas Reyes, Columbia Law School, 2L

Felicitas (Felicia) Reyes is a Staff Editor of the Columbia Law Review, co-President of the Corporate Responsibility Association, and was a Mentor for Columbia Law’s Pathways Program and part of LALSA Asylum and Refugee Moot Court. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in American Studies. At USC she was a Presidential Merit Scholar, part of the Trojan Guardian Scholars Program and Mellon Mays Foundation. She received the Order of Troy Leadership Distinction and was a winner of both the Latino Alumni Association John R. Hubbard Award (for efforts uplifting the Latinx community) and the USC Research Symposium for her senior thesis on justice-impacted immigrant youth in Los Angeles. After college, Felicia spent time in Mexico on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Weiyan Robie, University of Texas School of Law, 1L

Weiyuan (Circle) Robie was selected to be part of UT’s Society Program as an International Dean’s Fellow, and as a Diversity Attorney Pipeline Program National Scholar from 2022-2023, and a Vinson & Elkins Law Preview Scholar. Circle is actively involved in UT’s Women’s Law Caucus and the Texas Business Law Society. She is also a member of the Asian Pacific American member Law Students Association. Before UT, Circle graduated from Shanghai University of International Business and Economics in Shanghai, China, where she won Best Oralist in the school’s Moot Court competition, was a leader in the Frank Chen Alumni Scholarship Foundation, and was a doubles champion in the Shanghai College Tennis League.

Catherina Xu, Stanford Law School, 2L

Catherina (Cat) Xu currently serves as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review and President of the Asian and Pacific Islander Law Students Association. She also leads the Housing Pro Bono Project on campus, which serves low-income communities in East Palo Alto. Cat has received the Gerald Gunther Prize for Outstanding Performance in Property, the John Hart Ely Prize for Outstanding Performance in a Policy Practicum, and the quarterfinalist distinction in Moot Court. Before law school, Cat worked as a Product Manager on Google’s Artificial Intelligence Ethics team. Cat earned her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University where she served as President of Stanford Women in Computer Science.

Shireen Younus, Columbia Law School, 2L

Shireen Younus is an Essays Editor on the Columbia Law Review, a James Kent Scholar, and has received both the Robert Noxon Toppan Prize and the Richard J. Lipson and Paul S. Lipson Prize. She has also served as both a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant to several Columbia professors. Shireen earned her A.B. from Harvard College where she graduated magna cum laude, was a John Harvard Scholar, and received the Hoopes Prize (awarded to the best senior theses). Shireen was also an Op-Eds Editor and Columnist for The Harvard Crimson.