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Four students who are interested in studying the law and religion have been selected to participate in a new Notre Dame Law School fellowship addressing both areas of study.
On Sept. 30, the law school announced the creation of the Murphy Fellowship, named in honor of former and longtime Notre Dame Law professor Edward J. Murphy.
The Murphy Fellowship will be awarded annually to first-year law students and selected through a written application process. Four students have been chosen to kick off the 2022-2023 fellowship: Joseph Andres, Olivia Lyons, Hadiah Mabry and Tess Skehan.
Fellows selected to participate in the program will actively participate in the law schools programming of both the Program on Church, State & Society and the Religious Liberty Initiative. Fellows will have the opportunity during their second and third years to participate in the law school’s Religious Liberty Clinic.
Murphy, who initially joined the faculty in 1957, served as acting dean during the 1970-71 academic year and directed the Notre Dame Summer Program in Japan in 1974. He was also appointed the John N. Matthews Professor of Law in 1979, becoming the first chaired law professor at Notre Dame.
An announcement of the fellowship praised Murphy for being an “exemplary Catholic legal scholar and law teacher.”
“It is fitting that a fellowship aimed at supporting students’ engagement with questions about church-state relations and religious freedom is named for Professor Murphy,” said Richard Garnett, founding director of Notre Dame Law’s Program on Church, State and Society. “He was, for his students and colleagues, a wonderful example and role model. We at the Law School are grateful for the generous support of the benefactors who made this fellowship possible.”
Andres received his undergraduate degree from Thomas Aquinas College and completed his master’s degree in theology at Ave Maria University. He worked in sales before applying to law school.
Lyons, of Washington, D.C., received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame. She worked as a market research analyst before deciding to study the law.
Mabry, of Somerset, Kentucky, received her undergraduate degree from Hillsdale College. After graduation she was a fellow at the John Jay Institute in Pennsylvania and then worked at Hillsdale College before applying to law school.
Skehan graduated from Hillsdale College and worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania before attending law school at Notre Dame.
More information about the fellowship and its fellows can be found online.
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