The American Bar Association (ABA) has launched a pilot program to help Afghan judges, lawyers, and prosecutors resume their careers in America after fleeing Afghanistan during or after the August 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops and the Taliban’s return to power.
The ABA Afghan Legal Professionals Scholarship & Mentoring Pilot Program has partnered with 18 law schools in the U.S. to provide 24 full-tuition scholarships to Afghan mentee fellows. By meeting certain criteria, mentee fellows can also receive $25,000 stipends to assist with rent, food, and other necessities.
These mentee fellows will receive peer-to-peer mentoring from pilot program volunteers and complete a one-year master of laws (LL.M.) program. This will allow the mentee fellows to take a U.S. bar exam and find employment within the U.S. legal system.
“We have a moral imperative to assist Afghan legal professionals who sought to uphold democracy and the rule of law alongside the U.S.,” said Mike Byowitz, chair of the ABA International Law Section’s Afghan Legal Professionals Resettlement Task Force, which runs the pilot program.
Other services the pilot program will provide include legal English language assessments; English and legal English language support; online legal research training with LexisNexis; and networking opportunities for mentors and mentee fellows.
The pilot program is intended to run for one year to provide a proof of concept for a broader scholarship and mentoring program. The future goal is to provide scholarships and mentoring to more Afghan legal professionals and to serve as a template for similar programs for legal professionals from other countries.
Donations to the pilot program are administered by the ABA’s Fund for Justice and Education (FJE), a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations can be made at
ambar.org/donateITL.
The task force is also seeking new members to serve in a variety of capacities. The task force meets once every other week and assists in contacting law schools to seek scholarships and placements for Afghan candidates; developing relationships with potential donors; developing policies and procedures for the task force and mentoring program; creating content to assist mentee fellows; connecting with potential scholarship candidates; and identifying and exploring other resources to aid in the growth of the candidates as future lawyers in the United States.
If you are interested in serving on the task force, contact Ceilanne Libber of the FJE at ceilanne.libber@americanbar.org.