In September 2022, the Rhode Center announced its Civil Justice Fellows Program by welcoming its inaugural group of student fellows. As the work of the Rhode Center expanded dramatically over the past year, we saw multiple opportunities for students to engage in our cutting-edge work and contribute in critical ways to the research of the Center. We are pleased to welcome seven extraordinary students in our first cohort and look forward to working with this group of truly outstanding students over the next year.
Graham Ambrose
Graham Ambrose is a Civil Justice Fellow and a second-year law student at Stanford. He serves as a member editor of the Stanford Law Review and a co-president of the Jewish Law Students Association. Before law school, Graham worked as a journalist, covering local governments in east Iowa and access-to-justice problems in Kentucky family courts. Graham graduated from Yale College summa cum laude with a degree in history.
Jess Lu
Jess Lu is a Civil Justice Fellow and second-year law student at Stanford. She serves as OutLaw Co-President and Election Law Project Co-President. Jess is also a member editor of the Stanford Law Review and serves on the boards of First-Generation and Low-Income Professionals and the American Constitution Society. Prior to law school, Jess worked in Bain & Company’s Boston office. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
Alexandra Minsk
Alexandra Minsk is a JD candidate and a PhD student in political science at Stanford. Her interests include democratic theory, corporate power, and criminal law. Prior to grad school, Alex worked as a paralegal at the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
James Stone
James Stone is a Civil Justice Fellow and a 3L at Stanford Law School, where he has been part of the Stanford Law & Policy Review, the International Refugee Assistance Project, the American Constitution Society, and the Religious Liberty Clinic. James spent summers at the California Attorney General’s Office and Edelson PC, where he worked on mass tort and consumer protection issues. He has also written on issues of procedural fairness in our civil and criminal justice systems. Before law school, James earned a BA at the University of Chicago, spent a year in Los Angeles writing for television, and earned a PhD in music composition at UC Berkeley. James lives in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset; outside of school, you’ll find him skiing, at arthouse theaters, playing bridge, solving crosswords, or playing the piano.
RJ Vogt
RJ Vogt is a third-year Stanford Law School student who previously worked at the Legal Design Lab, the ACLU of Southern California, and Cooley LLP. Before law school, he studied literary journalism at the University of Tennessee and spent five years as a reporter, first for a Myanmar newspaper and later for Law360’s access to justice newsletter. Currently, he is co-president of the Kirkwood Moot Court Board and a member of First-Generation and Low-Income Professionals, the American Constitution Society, and Older Wiser Law Students. His interests include reading New Yorkers, rooting for Tennessee sports teams, and reforming unauthorized practice of law regulations.
Benjamin Welton
Benjamin Welton is a second-year student at Stanford Law School. He spent his first summer at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. Before that, he worked in the Bay Area for two years as a software engineer building privacy infrastructure. Ben is passionate about low-cost legal services and the law’s relationship with technology. He also loves movies and is an avid skier. Originally from Littleton, Colorado, he graduated from Duke University in 2019.
Catherina Xu
Catherina Xu is a Civil Justice Fellow and second-year law student. She serves as the Executive Editor of the Stanford Technology Law Review and has completed internships with Recidiviz (a criminal justice nonprofit) and the Bureau of Internet and Technology at the Office of the New York State Attorney General. Before law school, she was a Product Manager on the Responsible Machine Learning team at Google, building tools that helped evaluate the impact of algorithms on marginalized communities. Her interests include antidiscrimination law as applied to technology, access to justice, and the great outdoors. She holds a BS and MS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
