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Alabama Law Student Receives Peggy Browning Fellowship

July 2, 2020

The Peggy Browning Fund has awarded a paid fellowship to Rubayet Lasker, a rising 2L.

Lasker said she is honored to receive the fellowship, which will help her connect and network with other law students who have similar interests around the country. During her fellowship, Lasker will work at Adelante Alabama Worker Center in Birmingham.

“I feel so lucky to be one of the recipients of the Peggy Browning Fellowship,” Lasker said.  “I hope to use what I learn this summer to further empower low-income communities of color that do not have as much access to our legal system.”

Rubayet Lasker stands outside.

Rubayet Lasker

The application process for the Peggy Browning Fellowship is highly competitive, with over 500 applicants competing for the honor this year. The fellows are distinguished students who have not only excelled in law school but who have also demonstrated their commitment to workers’ rights through their previous educational, work, volunteer, and personal experiences.

Lasker’s passion for justice is strongly informed by her identity as a first-generation Bangladeshi American. Throughout her childhood, her parents and grandparents would tell stories of their experiences living through the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation War. Later in college, Lasker learned that the Liberation War was also one of the worst instances of mass genocide in history. Over time, she realized that her people were still recovering from its bloody history and that the Bengali diaspora constituted the poorest working-class populations around the world. As a result, Lasker is drawn to work centered around empowering the Bengali community and increasing its visibility.

 The Peggy Browning Fund is a not-for-profit organization established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a prominent union-side attorney who was a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1994 until 1997. Peggy Browning Fellowships provide law students with unique, diverse, and challenging work experiences fighting for social and economic justice. These experiences encourage and inspire students to pursue careers in public interest labor law.


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