Native American Law Students Association Graduation and Blanket Ceremony

The School of Law’s Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) Graduation and Blanket Ceremony took place on May 16, 2025. The ceremony honored Indigenous graduates and those involved in NALSA, the Tribal Law Journal (TLJ), the Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI), the Southwest Indian Law Clinic (SILC), and the Law and Indigenous Peoples Program (LIPP).

Graduates included: Quentin Amerpsand, TLJ; Kelsey Chalay, TLJ; Raymond Concho, NALSA; Jordan Corliss, LIPP; Myka Curtis, NALSA, TLJ, PLSI; CK (Chelsea) Ellwood, LIPP; Stephanie Flores, TLJ; Angela Griego, TLJ; Marcus Miller-Moore, NALSA, TLJ, PLSI; Amber Reano, NALSA, TLJ, LIPP, PLSI; Dakota Reynolds, TLJ; Ceryndipity Schoel, TLJ; Brianna Segay, TLJ, NALSA, PLSI; Adam Turner, LIPP; Alicia Ulibarri, NALSA.

School of Law Student Selected as 2025 Peggy Browning Fellow



Elena Purcell, a first-year law student at the School of Law, was named a 2025 Peggy Browning Fellow and will spend the summer working at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.

The Peggy Browning Fund helps law students gain experience with workplace justice advocacy by providing fellows with stipends for ten weeks of employment with labor-related mentor organizations. Purcell is one of 105 law students from around the country selected from a pool of nearly 3,500 applicants for this year’s program.

The Peggy Browning Fund selects fellows who have demonstrated both academic excellence and a strong commitment to workers’ rights. Each year, the Fund supports law students who bring a passion for labor justice and have shown dedication to the movement through their education, organizing efforts, work experience, volunteer service, or personal background. These fellowships aim to cultivate the next generation of lawyers advocating for workers and labor rights.

Purcell earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Latin American Studies at Wellesley College and a master’s degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She has a deep, personal understanding of the importance of workers’ rights advocacy in New Mexico.  As a teenager working in the service industry, she was a victim of wage theft. Although she was fortunate to receive legal assistance, she was struck by the injustice that many of her undocumented co-workers did not have access to the same support. Elena is inspired by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty’s efforts to protect low-wage and vulnerable workers, and she is excited to join their team this summer as a Peggy Browning Fellow.

School of Law Students Raise $24,500 to Support Summer Public Interest Work

The School of Law’s Association for Public Interest Law (APIL) raised $24,500 this year to fund student stipends for summer public interest work. This is nearly $10,000 more than last year. This milestone reflects APIL’s ongoing commitment to community service, legal equity, and support for underserved populations in New Mexico and beyond.

Each year, APIL organizes fundraising efforts to ensure that law students who have secured summer positions in nonprofit or government roles, many of which offer little to no compensation, can afford to accept them. These stipends help cover students’ living expenses, making it financially possible to pursue summer placements that deliver legal support to communities in need.

Thanks to this year’s increased fundraising, APIL is thrilled to support seven student awardees with larger awards that better account for rising living costs. These students will provide critical capacity to organizations facing budget cuts while gaining meaningful legal experience.

The success of this year’s fundraising campaign was made possible by the increased generosity of longtime donors, the addition of new donors, support from former APIL officers and scholarship recipients, and small-dollar contributions from the community. Additional support came from local businesses, including High and Dry Brewing, New Mexico United, Santa Fe Brewing, and Stone Age Climbing Gym, which contributed raffle items and donated proceeds to boost fundraising efforts.

APIL remains deeply grateful for the continued support that empowers the next generation of public interest lawyers. APIL extends special thanks to Singleton Schreiber, Professor Emeritus Peter Winograd, Feliz Rael, Equal Access to Justice, Smith and Marjanovic, the Soto Law Office, the New Mexico State Bar Public Law Section, Sheila Brown, and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. Their generous donations make this work possible.

APIL State Bar Liaison and second-year law student Rachel Swanteson-Franz shared, “New Mexicans come together in hard times and double down on the support and the work. APIL, our supporters, and the scholarship recipients illustrate what makes UNM’s School of Law and New Mexico so special—a deep and meaningful connection to community and a commitment to work that gives back. The 2024-2025 APIL board is so grateful for this community support and so proud of the recipients and the work they will do this summer!”

Learn more about the recipients here.

Third-Year School of Law Student Wins Second Place in the ABA Antitrust Law Section’s 2024-2025 Harvey Saferstein Consumer Protection Committee Student Essay Contest

Third-year law student Laura Creech recently earned second place in the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s 2024–2025 Harvey Saferstein Consumer Protection Committee Student Essay Contest, a national competition open to second and third-year law students with an interest in consumer protection and data privacy law.

At the School of Law, Creech serves as Editor-in-Chief of the New Mexico Law Review and Secretary of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. During law school, she gained experience as a summer associate at Bardacke Allison Miller in Santa Fe. After graduation, she will clerk for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. Creech earned her undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in Library & Information Science from Drexel University.

Her article, Buy Now, Pay Dearly Later?: Minimizing Consumer Harm Under New Mexico’s Small Loan Regulations, 55 N.M. L. Rev. 207 (2025), examines the under-disclosed risks of Buy Now, Pay Later loans and how they can negatively impact vulnerable consumers in New Mexico. It also outlines steps the state can take under current regulations to help prevent such harm. It can be read here.

2025 Law Scholarship Golf Classic

The School of Law is thrilled to announce that the 2025 Law Scholarship Golf Classic is officially sold out. Funds raised directly support the UNM School of Law Alumni/ae Association student scholarships. A big thank you to the generous sponsors and the School of Law Alumni Board for making this event possible.

Learn more about the event sponsors here.