Emily KimDisability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) is pleased to welcome our new Disability Law Fellow, Emily Kim. Kim  has a sister with disabilities and attended law school with the goal to pursue a career in disability law. She graduated in 2019 from University of Michigan Law School after obtaining her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

During law school, Kim represented clients in her school’s Pediatric Advocacy Clinic in health insurance administrative appeals and on special education matters. She interned at the Disability Law Center-Massachusetts in the summer of 2018 and comes to DRNC already familiar with the mission, values, and operations of the protection and advocacy system.

Like DRNC’s previous four Disability Law Fellows, Kim will spend time working with all our legal teams to expand her experience and skills. The two-year fellowship, funded by a private foundation, allows DRNC the unique opportunity to hire new law school graduates with a passion for disability rights advocacy while providing our client community with additional staff dedicated to serving people with disabilities across our state.

“We are so excited for Emily Kim to begin her legal career at DRNC,” writes CEO Virginia Knowlton Marcus. “The Disability Law Fellowship is an exceptional opportunity for us to develop emerging legal talent, giving rising stars like Emily a ladder toward their career goals, while expanding our capacity to deliver the legal advocacy services that people with disabilities so urgently need.”

Kim, who was sworn into the Massachusetts Bar on October 24, shared that having a sister with multiple disabilities inspires her to forge her unique path. “I have been so impressed by the work that my colleagues at DRNC are doing in many areas of disability rights. It is inspiring, and I feel very fortunate to be a member of this team. I am eager to fight for healthcare justice and the right to live one’s life with meaning and dignity in the community.”

DRNC also hosts Equal Justice Works Fellow Joonu Coste. Coste, who joined DRNC in September, focuses her fellowship on reducing North Carolina’s over-reliance on Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTFs) and ending the “PRTF-to-prison pipeline.”