Contact: Stephanie Titzel and Kate Sherman, Pennsylvania Bar Association Communications, [email protected], 1-800-932-0311
Student at Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University Receives Bednarik Scholarship From Pennsylvania Bar Foundation
HARRISBURG, Pa. (June 20, 2024) — Natalee Codispot, a third-year student at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, is the recipient of the 2024 Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik Memorial Scholarship offered by the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation. This year’s award is $5,400.
The Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik Memorial Scholarship Fund was created by Bednarik’s husband, Joseph, to support the annual award of a scholarship to a law school student who pursues an interest in animal welfare as part of daily activities and legal training. It can also serve as a grant to a young lawyer who pursues an interest in animal welfare as part of daily activities or law practice. The award celebrates Bednarik’s life and her work in protecting animals, reforming the commonwealth’s animal laws and mentoring those who chose to use their law degrees to ensure better treatment for animals.
Throughout high school, Codispot’s passion for animal welfare led her to volunteer at two animal rescue centers, Animal Friends and Orphans of the Storm. She also was involved in her school’s Youth and Government Club, for which she drafted mock legislation to increase highway protection and decrease the amount of roadkill on Pennsylvania roads. During college, she worked at Pet Palace, a pet boarding and daycare facility, and adopted her Pitbull mix dog, Winston, from the Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh.
After entering law school, Codispot joined the Animal Law Society and Animal Legal Defense Fund. She competed in the school’s write-on competition, authoring an article about the intersection of animal law and environmental law. Her focus was on the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, which addresses regulations for the treatment of animals on large-scale animal feeding operations. Her article was published and she was selected to join Joule: Duquesne Energy & Environmental Law Journal, a journal-blog hybrid forum for students and industry professionals to discuss legal concepts, for which she is the executive editor.
Since June 2023, Codispot has worked as a law clerk at Rosen Family Law Group, Pittsburgh. After graduation, she plans to use her law degree to represent clients seeking justice for animal abuse cases, draft legislation to ban inhumane farming practices and lobby for animal law policy changes at the local, state and national levels.
Codispot earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from Duquesne University.
About the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation The Pennsylvania Bar
Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Pennsylvania Bar Association,
improves the public’s understanding of the law and its appreciation of democracy and strives to ensure that citizens, particularly Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable, have full access to our legal system. The foundation accomplishes its mission by making grants, seeking financial support from individuals and organizations both within and outside of the legal community, and encouraging bar members to donate their time, talent and expertise in service to the public. Follow the foundation on Facebook. Visit www.pabarfoundation.org to learn more about the Foundation and the Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik Memorial Scholarship Fund.
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Editor’s note: Download a photo of the recipient here: https://bit.ly/4b3O9bV
Source: Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, 100 South Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101