Insignes
Recognizing significant legal clerkships, fellowships, and honors
Nick Opoku LLM ’24, a corporate lawyer from Ghana, is the first international LLM graduate to be awarded the Farrin Fellowship.
Funded by James Farrin ’90 and the North Carolina law firm bearing his name, the fellowship will support Opoku’s work for the next year on the redistricting and representation policy team at Common Cause in Washington, D.C.
“In the recent past, some state legislatures have instituted laws intended to politicize election administration and foreclose electoral competition via extreme gerrymandering,” Opoku said.
“As lawyers, there are many ways in which we can channel our skills and talents to addressing some of these issues. Working to support the efforts of pro-democracy institutions like Common Cause is one of them.”
While his home country is a stable democracy, Opoku noted that Ghana has experienced challenges similar to the U.S. in manipulation of redistricting processes.
“I have seen the impact it has on inclusive development and people’s abilities to equally participate in the democratic process, and it’s a privilege to be a part of this effort,” Opoku said.
Opoku earned his law degree from Ghana School of Law and worked at a corporate law firm in Accra advising local and international clients including a major oil corporation and the fourth largest U.S. bank. He also has a strong interest in constitutional, legislative, and policy reform, and has consulted on policy and governance projects for multilateral and civil society organizations and written on comparative constitutional law and legal reform.
At Duke Law, Opoku served as a research assistant for the Bolch Judicial Institute, participated in pro bono projects, and was the LLM representative for the Black Law Students Association. He received the 2024 Justin Miller LLM Award for Leadership and Community Participation.
“I am grateful to James Farrin and his law firm for this opportunity that allows Duke Law graduates to support individuals and groups who have historically faced discrimination,” Opoku said. “Serving as a fellow at Common Cause … directly serves the purpose of this fellowship.”
Madison Pinckney ’24 was awarded the Keller Fellowship to work for the next year at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, where she will focus on increasing access to higher education for people with disabilities.
The project, which she designed, is personal to Pinckney: Prior to arriving at Duke Law, she had been diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, a poorly-understood bacterial infection, after contracting it as a child and suffering with symptoms for years.
“I went undiagnosed with Lyme and tick-borne illness for about 10 years. I had been sick for most of my life while [doctors] were trying to figure out why, and that’s a very common experience for people with those diseases,” she said.
At Duke Law Pinckney worked in the Health Justice Clinic and the Children’s Law Clinic. During her 1L summer she interned with the Community Health Law Project, which provides legal representation and direct services advocacy for low-income and elderly people with disabilities and as a 2L she worked on impact litigation for employment discrimination and special education reform in the Disability Rights Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. She also co-founded, in 2022, the pro bono Lyme Disease Advocacy Project at Duke Law with classmate and fellow Lyme sufferer Luke Mears ’24.
The fellowship is named in honor of John Keller ’87, a lawyer with Legal Aid of North Carolina for more than 35 years, and was initially funded by members of his graduating class.
“The opportunity to pursue this work at a nonprofit that I’m very passionate about is an incredibly valuable thing,” said Pinckney, who plans to continue working in disability rights.
“It’s a great way to launch yourself into a career, and I’m so grateful that the Law School has that opportunity, and for receiving it.”
