2013 Scholars

Aaron James Spencer ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He was born and raised in southwest Florida and earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and a Master of Music in Conducting from the University of Florida as well as a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Temple University. After school Mr. Spencer sang opera, oratorio, and art song recitals professionally all over the United States. During that time he was also on faculty as a voice teacher at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and Neumann University in Aston, PA. While in law school, Mr. Spencer has served on the boards of OUTLaw and the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia (GALLOP). He is also currently serving on the executive board of Temple Law’s chapter of the American Constitution Society. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Mr. Spencer interned with the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Navy, CNIC HQ at the Washington Navy Yard. His current policy focus is on sexual assault in the military and his main legal interests are in Administrative, International, Criminal, and Constitutional law.

Alexander Kipperman ’14 is truly passionate about law and public policy. Over his academic career, Mr. Kipperman has produced works on national security for the United States Government Accountability Office and environmental impact reports dealing with several water conservation efforts in California, pollution emanating from the Port of Los Angeles, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. After graduating from college, Mr. Kipperman also helped bring biofuels to Connecticut while working at the then small start-up of Greenleaf Biofuels.

In law school, Mr. Kipperman has focused his studies on both Healthcare and Gaming Law, and, over the summer of 2013, produced a white paper devising unified regulation to resolve the perennially conflicted and confusing regulatory oversight of Laboratory-Developed Tests. At the same time, Mr. Kipperman worked at the D.C. Lottery and Charitable Games Board drafting new statutory provisions and updating the entire Title 30 of the D.C. Municipal Regulations. This experience also provided Mr. Kipperman with a solid understanding of how to navigate Washington, D.C.’s highly political legislative approval process.

Mr. Kipperman is a competitive racquetball player and has been SCUBA diving around the world since he was 13. During college, Mr. Kipperman spent many hours volunteering and tutoring children at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law where he has served as Treasurer of the Jewish Law Student Association and as a member of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review. Mr. Kipperman studied Political Science at Case Western Reserve University, and has a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

Benjamin Kraut ’14 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He is a Law & Public Policy Scholar and a Rubin Public Interest Honor Society Fellow. During the summer of 2013, he interned with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kraut’s diverse experience ranges from employment law with the City of Philadelphia Law Department, to criminal defense with Goldberg, Menuix and Mueth, to strategic planning at Dragonfly Partners, a consulting firm dedicated to nonprofit organizations. His legal interests are in local and national government, foreign relations, international human rights law, employment law and general litigation.

Following his passion for public interest and public service, Mr. Kraut has served in the United States Navy, has volunteered for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and is a Big Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentorship Program for at-risk youth. He graduated from West Chester University of Pennsylvania cum laude with a Bachelors in Professional Studies with concentrations in Political Science, Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Peace & Conflict Studies and History.

Christopher Yaracs ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law, where he is a Beasley Scholar and a Law & Public Policy Scholar. Mr. Yaracs is active in several student organizations and serves on the executive board of the Temple Law chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Prior to law school, Mr. Yaracs earned a B.A. in Crime, Law, and Justice with high distinction from The Pennsylvania State University, graduating with double minors in Political Science and Business in the Liberal Arts, and earning Phi Beta Kappa honors. While at Penn State, Mr. Yaracs worked as a research assistant with The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, where his work focused on the Pennsylvania State Intermediate Punishment Program, an alternative rehabilitation program for drug and alcohol dependent criminal offenders.

Mr. Yaracs has worked as a police dispatcher in suburban Philadelphia and volunteered as a firefighter. He is interested in public service, and spent the summer of 2013 as a Law Clerk with the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Elyssa Geschwind ’14 is a Law & Public Policy Scholar at Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law. Ms. Geschwind’s elective coursework, extracurricular activities, and internships have all been geared to better understanding how inequality arises in our society and how to combat that inequality and use the justice system to eliminate barriers. During her time at Temple, Ms. Geschwind has been Chair of Law Students for Reproductive Justice and has served on the board of the American Constitution Society. While in law school, Ms. Geschwind has worked for the Hearings Unit in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Philadelphia District Office and, through the Law & Public Policy Program, for the National Fair Housing Alliance as a Public Policy Analyst. She is writing her white paper on the future of anti-discrimination laws in America.

Ms. Geschwind graduated from Brandeis University in 2006 with a B.A. with Honors in History and a Minor in Economics. After college, she moved to San Francisco, CA where she worked as a fundraiser for STAND! For Families Free of Violence, a domestic violence and child abuse agency in Contra Costa County. Ms. Geschwind’s work has shaped and solidified her desire to help others and raise awareness about issues that society often tries to ignore.

Frank Iannuzzi ’15 is an evening student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Originally from the Philadelphia suburb of Abington, Mr. Iannuzzi also attended Temple as an undergraduate, where he majored in both political science and history and minored in economics. Before returning to Temple as a law student, Mr. Iannuzzi worked as a Legislative Assistant and Policy Analyst for State Representative Matt Bradford. Subsequently, he has been a Philadelphia City Council Research Fellow, the Larry Frankel Legislative Fellow for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Research Assistant at the prominent lobbying firm S.R. Wojdak & Associates. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Mr. Iannuzzi interned with Environment America, providing outreach for policy solutions to global warming. He intends to use his law degree to continue promoting progressive public policy.

Gerard Leone ’15 is a is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Philosophy and Art History, and the University of Chicago’s Master’s Program in the Humanities, where he continued his work in philosophy studying rule-following behaviors. Mr. Leone matriculated at Temple University Beasley School of Law after turns as a teacher and a rare book dealer. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, he has exchanged the philosophical question of what it is to follow a rule for the vicissitudes of agency rule-making and adjudication as a law clerk with the Office of Administrative Judges at the Federal Communications Commission. In his research, Mr. Leone examines the criticisms of the existing law regulating cable bandwidth of which one facet is net neutrality. Mr. Leone plans to continue his research and study of administrative agencies, as well as the larger philosophical problems of law.

Ikram Ally ’14 is a native of Miami, Florida. He previously attended the University of Florida on a full-tuition scholarship and graduated with a double major in Psychology and Anthropology. Mr. Ally went on to obtain a Masters degree in Public Anthropology with a concentration in Race, Gender, and Social Justice from American University. As a graduate student, Mr. Ally presented research on prison privatization and ethnographic storytelling at two nationally recognized academic conferences.

Mr. Ally is currently a student and aspiring public defender at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He was the unanimous winner of the 36th annual Samuel Polsky Moot Court Competition and recently represented Temple Law School in the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. In addition to his appellate advocacy experience, Mr. Ally is involved with the Black Law Students Association and the National Lawyers Guild. He is a recipient of the Conwell, McCool, and Samuel Polsky scholarships. In the past two years, Mr. Ally has been inducted into the Equal Justice Works Summer Corps for his commitment to public interest law.

Following his first year of law school, Mr. Ally was selected to participate in the Judicial Resources Committee and Just the Beginning Foundation’s Summer Judicial Internship Diversity Project as a judicial intern to the Honorable Karen Wells Roby of the Eastern District of Louisiana. He concurrently volunteered with the Louisiana State Bar Association, where he trained a team of high school students to write legal briefs and deliver oral arguments before a panel of three federal judges. During his second summer, Mr. Ally interned with the Bronx Defenders, which specializes in holistic indigent criminal defense. In his third year of law school, Mr. Ally was a clinical intern with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where he provided direct representation to indigent clients under attorney supervision. As a 2013 Law & Public Policy Scholar, Mr. Ally worked as a summer law clerk with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in its trial division. His research explores collateral consequences within the criminal justice system and ways to mitigate those consequences, particularly with cases that do not proceed to trial.

When not learning about the law, Mr. Ally enjoys playing chess and basketball.

Janice Arellano ’14 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. While in law school, Ms. Arellano has worked as an ABA Section of Litigation judicial intern and Marutani Fellow for the Honorable Norma L. Shapiro and the Honorable M. Faith Angell of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Ms. Arellano has been a teaching assistant for the Legal Research and Writing Program and has served on the boards of the School Discipline Advocacy Service and Latino Law Students Association. Her law and policy interests include civil litigation, employment/labor, consumer protection, media, and citizenship.

Prior to law school, Ms. Arellano worked in public education through Teach for America in Philadelphia. She was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Public Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division-Voting Section and the National Education Association. Ms. Arellano earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Ms. Arellano worked for the Federal Trade Commission, Division of Marketing Practices.

Jessica Pelliciotta ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Prior to Temple, she attended Pennsylvania State University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Political Science and minor in Science, Technology, and Society. Ms. Pelliciotta first developed her interest in Internet-related legal issues when she completed her honors thesis on U.S. cybersecurity policy for the Schreyer Honors College. She has been active in extracurricular activities throughout her educational career, including service on the Executive Boards for the Women’s Law Caucus and the American Constitution Society Temple Chapter in the 2013-2014 academic year.

Ms. Pelliciotta is grateful for the opportunity to be a Law & Public Policy Scholar. Through her research for the program and internship with Internet2, an advanced technology community, she gets to pursue her longstanding interest in the intersection of technology, law, and policy.

Kevin Brett ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. His decision to attend law school came after spending three years at a lobbying firm in the metro Washington D.C. area where he worked on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Mr. Brett’s primary area of interest is financial law. Before law school, Mr. Brett worked for a US Presidential campaign, where he simultaneously served as both a National Media Associate and a Regional Field Director. His responsibilities included managing and organizing delegate operations for caucus assemblies in Colorado and Idaho, conducting opposition research, and contributing multimedia and written statements to national press releases. Mr. Brett’s work has been published by the Washington Post, CBS News, and Huffington Post.

Mr. Brett earned a B.A. from the University of Delaware and is a graduate of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He was proud to serve as President of his 1L section at Temple Law. Mr. Brett has quickly become a dedicated supporter of both the Temple Owls basketball team and the North Philadelphia food truck economy. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Mr. Brett worked on banking legislation in the United States Senate.

Lauren Marsh ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law, where she is a Beasley Scholar. Ms. Marsh graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a B.A. in Anthropology, a B.A. in Art History, and a minor in Architecture.

Prior to entering law school, Ms. Marsh spent a year volunteering at Unidas Para Vivir Mejor (UPAVIM), a Guatemalan women’s cooperative working to empower women who live in marginalized communities on the outskirts of Guatemala City. As a result of this unique experience and her extensive travel in Europe, Central America, and South America, Ms. Marsh entered law school with the goal to effect positive change in the arena of international human rights. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Ms. Marsh served as a policy research intern for AEquitas: The Prosecutors’ Resource on Violence Against Women, a non-profit organization involved in influencing legislation affecting violence against women.

Leslie Allen ’14 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She spent her 2013 Fall semester studying in Beijing. Ms. Allen is originally from Denver, Colorado. She graduated from the University of Colorado, where she majored in economics and wrote her thesis on the impact of changes in mental health care spending on patient outcomes. This work sparked her interest in disability rights and ultimately led her to attend law school. During law school, Ms. Allen worked for the National Nursing Centers Consortium, a group that advocates on the federal level for laws that are conducive to increased nurse autonomy, which is an essential piece of providing cost effective care to presently undeserved communities. She also worked for the Public Health Law Research Institute where she interpreted and coded public health laws to create a legal database for use in analyzing the effectiveness of laws in changing behavior. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Ms. Allen interned at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section, which is responsible for the enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. While in law school, Ms. Allen has volunteered for the Innocence Project, the ACLU, and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

Michael Resnick ’14 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law and a 2013 Law & Public Policy Scholar. While in Washington, Mr. Resnick worked at Doyle, Barlow & Mazard, a boutique antitrust and international trade law firm. His work at the firm included providing antitrust and economic analysis on a variety of proposed mergers, including the Smithfield-Shuanghui pork production and Stewart-SCI funeral home deals. He also drafted responses and summary judgment motions for clients’ civil, commercial and contractual matters. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Mr. Resnick has focused his policy research on proprietary trading, the Volcker Rule and reforming financial regulation.

In his time at Temple Law, Mr. Resnick has served as Director of the School Discipline Advocacy Service, staff member of the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review and a VITA certified tax planner with Temple Law’s tax faculty. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Resnick taught European and U.S. History at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He was also a Philadelphia Teaching Fellow for two years, teaching African-American History and U.S. Government in West and North Philadelphia. Mr. Resnick graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006.

Rachel Matesic ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Ms. Matesic graduated from Saint Joseph’s University in 2010 with a B.A. in English and a minor in Marketing. She interned at the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before beginning at Temple. Ms. Matesic has experience working in marketing and communications, and is interested in continuing to center her career around business practices. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Ms. Matesic interned at the Small Business Administration, in both the Office of Entrepreneurial Development and the Office of the General Counsel. At the SBA, Ms. Matesic worked to develop policy initiatives, particularly studying how to stimulate the growth of women-owned and women-led small businesses.

Sarah Escalante ’14 graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Before arriving at Temple, Ms. Escalante worked as a paralegal at Jackson & Hertogs, LLP, an immigration and nationality law firm, in San Francisco, California. She spent the first half of her first year summer in Rome, Italy, as a Temple Law Global Scholar and the second half as a Judicial Intern for the Honorable Gloria M. Burns, Chief Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey. During her second year, Ms. Escalante served on the Student Bar Association as a Class Senator and as Co-Chair of both the Women’s Law Caucus and the Tax Law Society.

As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, Ms. Escalante worked as a Legal Research Intern in the Federal Judicial Center’s Research Division in Washington, DC. Her research focused on multidistrict litigation, Rule 12(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the advancement of courtroom technology.

Victor de Meireles ’15 is a student at Temple University Beasley School of Law and a Temple Law & Public Policy Scholar. Mr. de Meireles earned his B.A. cum laude with departmental distinction and University honors as well as his leadership certificate from the University of Minnesota Duluth with majors in political science and music. He served as Student Body President, donated over 270 hours of volunteer service to his local communities, and was a founding member of the Tau Delta chapter of the Mortar Board National Collegiate Honor Society. In 2011, Mr. de Meireles was recognized as an Industry Leader in Higher Education, the only student recognized as such by Covington Who’s Who.

Mr. de Meireles’ law and policy interests include nuclear and sustainable energy policy, mental health and criminal law, and immigration reform. As a Law & Public Policy Scholar, he was a legal intern at the Law Offices of Irena I. Karpinski. His work includes conducting legal and factual research as well as drafting documents for immigration, removal, and asylum proceedings. In his spare time, Mr. de Meireles will be on the soccer field, pursuing his goal of becoming a top-flight professional soccer referee.