Bethany Bandstra (J.D. ’15), the rising Eleventh Circuit Editor for the University of Miami Law Review, has been selected to receive the first-ever Stuart A. Markus Award, recognizing outstanding service in one of the University of Miami School of Law’s in-house clinics. The award was created in honor of Miami attorney Stuart A. Markus and will be given annually to a student who has made a meaning difference in someone’s life through their work with the clinic. The clinic directors vote to select the year’s winner.
From the official Southern District of Florida Blog release:
Bethany Bandstra, an outstanding member of the 2L class, is the inaugural recipient of the Markus Award. Bethany has done superlative work in Prof. JoNel Newman’s Health Rights Clinic. On the first day of school last fall, Bethany was assigned a difficult hearing before a federal administrative law judge that was scheduled for early September. She immediately and without once complaining immersed herself in the client’s factual circumstances and the law relevant to the case. She was an excellent advocate at the hearing, presenting both her client’s testimony and that of a psychiatric expert witness. She has, throughout her tenure in the Clinic this year, been handled the most difficult cases and clients with great alacrity. This spring she has completed two extremely well researched and well written appellate briefs while continuing to represent all her individual clients whose cases are in a variety of procedural postures. She has also taken a leadership role in one of the Clinic’s three policy advocacy projects this spring, working on an access to justice initiative. Bethany is so accomplished that she also served as a mentor and expert to many of her classmates.
Please join us in congratulating Bethany.
