Ismail Mahomed Fellow 2021 - 2022 to study at Fordham University in 2021

Samantha Brener, the Ismail Mahomed Fellow for 2020-2021, will be heading to Fordham University in New York City to study towards an LLM in International Law and Justice in 2021.

Samantha Brener is currently a practicing attorney working at human rights organisation SECTION27. Her work focuses on the right to basic education and uses strategic litigation and advocacy to achieve improvement of South Africa's basic education at a systemic level.  She has a Bachelor of Science Hons and an LLB (distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand, and clerked at the Constitutional Court of South Africa under Justice Johan Froneman.

Samantha has secured a place in the Vivian Leitner Global South Scholars' Program, which along with the the Ismail Mahomed Constitutional Court Trust Fellowship, will allow her to attend the University of Fordham Law School.

Samantha says: 

"I am incredibly delighted and very grateful to have been given such a rare and valuable opportunity to further my studies and knowledge at such an excellent college. This opportunity will provide me with unmatched exposure to a very diverse class of human rights practitioners and students from all over the world (a diversity that LLM programmes tend to be known for). This will improve my current human rights practice by enhancing my ability to think creatively about how to develop the law to improve social justice outcomes when I return to South Africa. It will also challenge me academically - providing a platform for possible longer term future endeavours in teaching."