Harvard Law student Lake Concetta Coreth hoped to spend her summer working at both a law firm and a public interest organization. When she learned about WilmerHale's John A. Payton Summer Associate Fellowship, she knew she had found the right opportunity.

The fellowship—established by the firm in 2014—offers one law student the chance to spend seven weeks as a summer associate in WilmerHale's New York or Washington DC office, followed by five weeks at the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund (LDF), all while receiving a summer associate salary. The award furthers the legacy of former Partner John Payton, a renowned civil rights advocate who served as the sixth president of LDF before his death in 2012.

Coreth, who became the first-ever recipient of the Payton Fellowship, recently finished her last week at LDF. She says that her time at WilmerHale provided her with a new sense of her career options. A fact-finding mission for the Investigations and Criminal Litigation Group, which required her to research Argentina's fiscal policy and tax amnesty laws going back more than a decade, particularly broadened her perspective.