At Helsell Fetterman, we are committed to your cause.

Fostering Diversity

Submissions for the 2025 Richard S. White Fellowship will be accepted Summer 2024.

At Helsell Fetterman, we believe that achieving and maintaining diversity are key to providing exceptional solutions to our clients’ legal problems. We embrace our responsibility of maintaining a workplace of inclusion, recognizing that our clients are best served by a team of attorneys and staff that is as diverse as the world in which we practice. The Richard S. White Fellowship includes both,  a 12 week summer associate position and am $7,500 academic scholarship to be remitted directly to the student’s law school at the beginning of the school year following the summer clerkship to assist in paying the student’s tuition. The summer associate position is paid at least $2,000 per week.

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Criteria

The 2025 Richard S. White Fellow must:

  • Be a rising second year law student the Summer of 2025.  If pursuing an LL.M, be a rising third year law student the Summer of 2025. Must be in good standing pursuing a law degree at an ABA-accredited law school; 
  • Possess an academic record, leadership abilities, and a commitment to personal and professional initiatives that indicate promise for a successful legal career;
  • Demonstrate an interest in furthering diversity within the community and the profession; and
  • Communicate an interest and commitment to both the practice areas represented at Helsell Fetterman and to building a practice in the Seattle area.

 

Application Checklist

Please complete the following:

  • Prepare a 1-2 page personal statement on a topic of your choice that allows our firm to fully evaluate your candidacy and ability to enrich the diversity of the legal community.
  • Complete the Richard S. White Fellowship application form. (click to open in browser or save)
  • Provide a current resume.
  • Include a copy of your final undergraduate transcript and current law school transcript, unofficial is acceptable.
  • Legal writing sample, up to 10 pages.
  • Three professional and/or academic references with contact information.

 

Submit Your Application

By Mail Please print and fill out the application form, collect all the documents listed in the application checklist, and mail your materials to:
Richard S. White Fellowship
Helsell Fetterman
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3200
Seattle, WA 98104


Online Email the application form with attachments to rswfa@helsell.com.


A short, persuasive memo reflective of a real assignment given to our Richard S. White Fellow will be required of all candidates selected for an interview.

 

Rich

Meet Rich (1920 – 2012)


Richard S. White was born in New York City in 1920. He graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover), Hamilton College and Yale Law School, where he was a member of the board of the Yale Law Journal and won the prize for best mock court presentation to a jury. With the outbreak of World War II, Rich joined the U.S. Marine Corps and studied Japanese at the Navy School at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He became a Marine combat intelligence officer, serving with the 28th Marine Regiment, which captured Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Rich earned a Bronze Star for his efforts at talking Japanese soldiers out of their caves (oral advocacy at its best), and, as he put it, he “was lucky enough to survive.” After serving in the military and a stint in peacetime Japan, Rich finished law school at Yale in 1946 and left New York “for the wilds of the Pacific Northwest.” In 1952 Rich joined the Seattle law firm of Helsell Paul Fetterman (now Helsell Fetterman LLP). His varied practice included antitrust cases in the flour, sugar, milk, telephone, whiskey, beer, sports, timber, mint oil, peat moss and cruise ship industries, among others.

Rich also represented the City of Seattle as special counsel in building Gorge Dam and in contractor claims for City Light involving Ross Powerhouse and raising Diablo Dam on the Skagit River, and in obtaining Federal Power Commission licenses for Boundary Dam and High Ross Dam. Rich liked to say that he never had a dull moment since he started practicing law and never regretted leaving Manhattan for the Northwest. He passed away in January 2012, after an esteemed career of six decades at Helsell Fetterman. Rich was an inspiration to all in terms of his hard work, vigorous advocacy, and above all, professionalism. With his years of service in the military and six decades upholding justice for all at Helsell Fetterman, Rich lived a life dedicated to his country and community. Helsell Fetterman is proud to name its diversity scholarship after Richard S. White.

Portrait of Scholarship Recipient
2023 Richard S. White Fellowship Recipient

Viktorya Saroyan

Juris Doctor expected May 2024

Originally from Yerevan, Armenia, Viktorya grew up in the city of Los Angeles where she completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following graduation, she fled for the fertile fields of the Midwest to attend law school at the University of Iowa, College of Law. There, Viktorya is a member of OutLaws, a community supporting LGBTQ+ law students and allies, and also contributes to the Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems as a student writer. In addition, she works as a Research Assistant for her law school, exploring the intersection of gender, race, and law.

In her free time, Viktorya enjoys collecting seashells, playing frisbee, and baking banana bread.


Previous Richard S. White Fellowship Recipients

  • 2023 / Viktorya Saroyan
  • 2022 / Adriena Clifton
  • 2021 / Hannah Talmage
  • 2020 / Hannah Lasting
  • 2019 / Nassor Salum
  • 2018 / Catalina Saldivia Lagos
  • 2017 / Maria Kennison
  • 2016 / Michelle Su
  • 2015 / Eduardo Reyes Chávez
  • 2014 / Emma Kazaryan
  • 2013 / Debra Akhbari
  • 2012 / Emily Yeh
  • 2011 / Cleodis Floyd