Brandeis student awarded 10-week Peggy Browning Fellowship

The Peggy Browning Fund has awarded a 10-week summer fellowship to Carolyn Purcell, a 2L student at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.

Purcell will spend the fellowship working at the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, in Philadelphia.

Of the nearly 400 applicants from 150 law schools, only 80 public interest labor law fellowships were awarded nationwide.

Peggy Browning Fellows are awarded to students who have excelled in law school while also demonstrating a commitment to workers’ rights through their previous educational, work, volunteer and personal experiences.

Purcell first became interested in worker’s rights while performing an original play about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. She also spent time working in the restaurant industry in New York City, along with other union jobs.

In the past year, she has written on the topic of wage theft for the Louisville Law Review, joined the Wagner Labor and Employment Moot Court Team (which advanced to the quarterfinals at a NYLS event held in March), and volunteered her time at the Kentucky Equal Justice Center in the worker’s rights department.

Purcell plans to also attend the Peggy Browning Conference in October.

The Peggy Browning Fund is a not for-profit organization established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a union-side attorney who was a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1994 until 1997.