This month, Schenck Price welcomes two interns participating in the firm’s first Diversity & Inclusion Law Student Internship Program. The students are Walter Atencio, a second-year student at Rutgers Law School in Newark, and Matthew Morales, a second-year student at Seton Hall University School of Law.  The internship was coordinated by the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.  The goals of the Committee include promoting equal opportunity for all our attorneys and professional staff and supporting the firm’s commitment to building a diverse team and an inclusive workplace while promoting and fostering cultural competence.

“We are excited to have Walter and Matthew participate in the internship.  Both students have superior academic credentials and bring different perspectives to the firm based on their own backgrounds and experiences” says Farah Ansari, Chair of the Firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.  During the internship, the students will be conducting research, preparing memoranda and taking part in depositions, motions and other “real world” attorney events.   

Mr. Atencio, who is fluent in both written and spoken Spanish, is the first in his family to have graduated from a four-year university and attend law school.  Last summer, he was a legal intern for the Child Advocacy Clinic at Rutgers Law School – Newark, where he worked on issues ranging from asylum cases for women to DACA renewals for eligible clients.  As the son of immigrants from Central America, he was gratified to be able to help those with similar family stories.  In addition to being on the Rutgers Business Law Review, Walter serves as Co-President of the Association for Latin American Law Students.

Mr. Morales and his parents arrived in the United States five weeks after he was born in the Philippines, and he says the “cultural duality of my upbringing sparked a lifelong affinity for immigrant cultures and communities.”  At Seton Hall Law, he serves as vice chairperson for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Student Bar Association as well as on the Executive Board of the school’s Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, where he helps organize community discussions and speaker events. 

Student interns Matthew Morales and Walter Atencio