Public Interest Perspectives: Katie Shelton (JD ’07)

Northwestern Pritzker Law has long been a leader in preparing students for public interest careers and pro bono work that promotes advancement of social justice. Since its founding in 2016, the Public Interest Center has worked to provide strategic leadership of key public interest activities on campus and cultivate a strong public interest culture that encourages all students to develop a public service ethic. Yet even before the Public Interest Center was established, the Law School provided ample opportunities for students who wanted to pursue public interest. One such alumna, Katie Shelton (JD ’07), has since embarked on a nearly 20-year career dedicated to public service—including six and a half years as associate director of the Public Interest Center, helping other students follow in her footsteps.

When Katie graduated college, she knew she wanted her career to involve helping people directly. At the time, however, law school was not a potential path down that road. “Law school wasn’t in my sights,” she said. “I wanted to get my master’s in social work.” That changed during her first job out of college, when she took an AmeriCorps position at Legal Aid Chicago. Working with individuals who had government benefits denied or reduced, she began to see the impact that lawyers could have on their client’s lives. “It felt like a great combination of helping people I’d imagined I’d help in social work but also having the power to fix specific problems.” After finishing her AmeriCorps service and completing an undergraduate fellowship at a think tank in Washington DC, she enrolled in Northwestern Pritzker Law to earn her JD.

Although the Public Interest Center did not open until several years after Katie’s graduation, she still found a robust public interest community at the Law School, with ample opportunity for hands-on learning.  During Katie’s time at the Law School, she quickly met other students in her 1L classes who were also focused on public interest. “I found my people very quickly, which was really important,” she says. She also found support and guidance in Professor Len Rubinowitz, adding that “[he] is very important to so many of us.” In addition to Professor Rubinowitz’s mentorship, she also cited the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s experiential learning opportunities as a key component of her law school education. Taking advantage of those opportunities “made a big difference,” she says.  “That really helped me figure it out…I did feel supported, even though I knew I was in the minority with my [postgraduate] plan.”

After graduating from the Law School, Katie spent eight years as first a staff, then supervising attorney with Legal Aid Chicago, working in housing eviction defense, family law, and public benefits. In 2015, she returned to Northwestern Pritzker Law as Assistant Director of the new Public Interest Center, working with Clinical Professor of Law Cindy Wilson, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Emerita Maureen Stratton, and Program Coordinator Melissa Montemayor. While there, she brought her experience and expertise to advise the next generation of public interest lawyers. This included counseling students in both their summer job and postgraduate job searches, advising on student loan forgiveness, and bringing in potential employers to talk to students. “It’s important to show students what the full world of public interest work looks like,” she said.

“Katie was instrumental in shaping what the Public Interest Center would become,” added Leah Gould, Assistant Dean of Public Interest at the Law School. “Long before the Center formally existed, she was already building its foundation—cultivating relationships, centering students, and articulating a clear vision for how Northwestern could support public interest careers in a meaningful, sustained way. The strength of the Public Interest Center today is a direct reflection of the care, foresight, and commitment Katie brought to its earliest days.”

In 2022, Katie took a position as Legal Director of the Children and Families Project at the Legal Council for Health Justice, where she supervises attorneys and legal advocates representing low-income families referred through medical providers. The organization works in a broad range of areas including Medicaid eligibility, benefits for children with disabilities, and special education needs.

For Katie, the most meaningful part of her work lies in the “real, tangible benefit” she and the attorneys she supervises can have on clients’ lives. “We know we aren’t saving the world,” she says, “but there’s something so valuable in being able to help somebody solve a really big problem that’s plagued them. It’s a real gift to get to work with someone who is accustomed to having to face difficult challenges alone.” Another rewarding aspect of her job lies in helping the staff she supervises learn and be confident in new areas of casework. She encourages them to “really be curious about clients’ lives and the best way we can assist them as lawyers.”

As for current students interested in public interest, Katie advises them to “stick to your guns” when it comes to pursuing a different career path than many of their classmates. “I know there are a lot of real considerations. But, if your heart’s really telling you that this is the work you want to do, you can make it happen…especially with support from people like Leah [Gould] and others in the Public Interest Center, it’s really a career worth pursuing.” She remains grateful for the support she received at Northwestern Pritzker Law. “I’m glad to have gone to Northwestern and to have found great people and a great career.”