Brandeis Law students awarded Frost Brown Todd diversity scholarship

Two Brandeis School of Law students are among the latest recipients of Frost Brown Todd's Diversity Scholarship. 

"The FBT Diversity Scholarship Fund helps promote a pipeline of diverse attorneys in our legal community," says Kim Amrine, the firm's director of diversity and inclusion, in a news release. "It also serves as an extension of the mentoring and support that our attorneys provide to local law students."

Second-year student Candise Caylao and third-year Souhila EL Moussaoui are both nontraditional students and parents who are balancing their studies with several other responsibilities and activities.

Caylao, who earned a master's degree in justice administration at the University of Louisville before entering law school, has long had her eye on a career as a lawyer. In high school, she was involved in teen court and as an undergrad, was a runner for Dinsmore & Shohl.

She originally enrolled at Brandeis in 2010, but the birth of her daughter made it necessary for her to step back from her law studies. She spent several years earning her master's degree and working as a quality engineer at a local manufacturing company, coming back to Brandeis in 2015.

She is considering focusing on transactional law.

This semester, she is enrolled in a heavy course load — 18 credit hours as compared to the typical 15 taken by full-time students. In addition, she is an academic fellow, admissions ambassador, member of the Journal of Law and Education and a participant in the law school's Central High School Partnership, where she teaches street law to high school students.

Caylao was a summer associate at Louisville's Bingham Greenebaum Doll in 2017 and expects to go back to that firm in 2018. 

Originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky, Caylao set her sights on studying and working in Louisville. 

"I knew that this would be a great place for me to be," she says of the Brandeis School of Law.

EL Moussaoui's path to Brandeis is similarly impressive. 

Born and raised in France as the daughter of Moroccan immigrants, she first came to the United States in 2010 as a foreign exchange student at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. It was there that she met her now-husband, who is from Louisville. 

In France, EL Moussaoui had studied law. After she immigrated to the United States, she took the LSAT and enrolled in the Brandeis School of Law. She credits her parents — whom she hasn't seen since she began law school in 2015 — with emphasizing the importance of education.

She also credits their experiences for her interest in labor and employment law. Her father, who has a middle school education, has worked factory jobs. Through him, EL Moussaoui saw the ways that employees can benefit from unions and became interested in workers' rights. After taking employment law with Professor Ariana Levinson, her interest was solidified. 

In 2017, she was a summer associate at Frost Brown Todd, working with the firm's labor and employment attorneys. The firm made her a job offer pending her graduation in the spring of 2018, and she hopes to continue that work. She is also interested in immigration law.

On top of her course load, EL Moussaoui teaches in the Marshall Brennan Program, a collaboration to enhance the quality of life for residents of West Louisville by improving education attainment. She also has a young son. 

"People try to tell you you can't do it all," she says, noting Caylao's busy schedule as well. "We're both proving them wrong. I hope that no one else gets discouraged just because they're a parent or have other responsibilities."