Our “Employee Spotlight Series” will share with you who the people working behind the scenes to bring justice to our clients and their environments. This series will include interviews from both our Akron and Pittsburgh offices to give you an idea of who are and what we do.
The employee spotlight this week is Megan Goedeker who is one of our summer legal interns at the Akron Office. She will be with us for the rest of the summer. She studies at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland. Before law school, she received her B.A from John Carroll University in Cleveland, where she majored in biology and minored in history.
Q: What did you do before you got involved at Fair Shake?
A: I am a 3rd year law student. I previously also interned at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland in both the Community Engagement Practice Group and the Housing Practice Group. Prior to law school, I worked at a community development corporation as a program assistant!
Q: Tell me how you first got involved with Fair Shake?
A: I went to law school specifically to work in environmental law. When I was looking for summer positions, I was thrilled when I found Fair Shake, both because it was a great opportunity to apply for but also great knowing that an organization existed that was fighting for environmental justice in my own backyard!
Q: What is a typical day like at Fair Shake?
A: My days consist of smaller, short-term research tasks and larger writing assignments.
Q: Favorite memory from work?
A: The first project I was assigned was to help write a reply brief for a case that had been litigated extensively. The supervising attorney assigned me a specific section to write and supported me while writing it. It was great when my section was finished because it was directly placed in the larger brief that was filed.
Q: What do you like most about working with Fair Shake?
A: It has been great see the passion that the attorneys here have for the environment. It is not just a job for them. While the cases are client-driven, the attorneys also deeply care about the issues at a personal level as well.
Q: What has surprised you most about working with Fair Shake?
A: It has been surprising learning about the amount of environmental concerns that the general public does not necessarily know about that others in the community are concerned with and are fighting against. This includes myself and issues in my hometown!
Q: What do you wish other people knew about Fair Shake?
A: I wish people knew Fair Shake exists. There are so many environmental concerns that go unchallenged because of the belief that there are no affordable resources. There is a network of organizations that have information and resources to support modest means clients fight for the environment of their communities.
Q: Why do you think the work that you do is important?
A: The health of the environment effects everyone but not everyone has the resources or skills to protect it. Therefore I believe having the ability to use my skills to protect the environment and to apply legal knowledge to protect the environment is hugely important.
Q: What do you like to do when you are not working?
A: Enjoy the beaches of Lake Erie, watch my goofy dogs play, and enjoy the local Cleveland restaurants with my friends!
Q: What might someone be surprised to know about you?
A: I used to take care of and work with rats in the neuroscience lab at John Carroll.
