Fordham Law Student, Anthony Damelio Awarded Skadden Fellowship to work with Catholic Migration Services to Represent Low-Wage Immigrant Workers in New York City

Catholic Migration Services is pleased to announce that Anthony Damelio, a student at Fordham University School of Law, has been selected as a 2022 Skadden Fellow to work with the Workplace Justice team beginning in the fall of 2022. A competitive program that selects 28 fellows each year to provide civil legal services to low-income clients, the Skadden Fellowship provides two years of funding to legal services organizations throughout the country to help launch the careers of public interest lawyers.

Anthony served as a 2020 summer legal intern with the Workplace Justice team. Prior to law school, he was Deputy Director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), an immigrant worker center and close community partner of Catholic Migration Services. During law school, Anthony has served as a Stein Scholar for the Public Interest and interned at Kakalec Law PLLC, a small worker-side employment firm, and the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau of the Queens District Attorney. As a Skadden fellow, Anthony will work with NICE and the Coalition for Immigrant Families to implement the New York Health and Essential Rights Act (NY HERO Act) signed into law on May 5, 2021. The law mandates extensive new workplace health and safety protections in response to COVID-19. Aside from mandating clear COVID-related protections, the NY HERO Act also provides workers the right to form workplace safety committees, with strong protections and a private right of action if their employers retaliate.

“This is an outstanding achievement for Anthony and a well-deserved recognition of the work of Catholic Migration Service’s Workplace Justice Team. We are thrilled to have Anthony, a dedicated and experienced worker advocate, join our team. Through Anthony’s project, Catholic Migration Services will strengthen its relationship with local worker centers and harness the new protections under the NY HERO Act to protect and empower vulnerable workers,” said Magdalena Barbosa, Managing Attorney with the Workers’ Rights Program.

The 2022 Class of Skadden Fellows hail from 19 different law schools and will be partnering with legal service nonprofits across the country. The program provides two-year fellowships to talented young lawyers to pursue the practice of public interest law on a full-time basis and is currently working in public interest in 42 U.S. states

“I am deeply grateful to the leadership of Catholic Migration Services, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, and the Coalition for Immigrant Families for supporting this project that seeks to empower i“mmigrant workers to reclaim their new workplace rights,” said Anthony Damelio, Prospective Skadden Fellow Class of ’22 for Catholic Migration Services. “In deciding to fund this work, the leaders of the Skadden Foundation saw the impact of Catholic Migration’s powerful model of collaborative legal representation that works closely with community partners to advocate for low-wage workers who are exploited by their employers. I look forward to getting started with the incredible team at Catholic Migration Services!”