Past Participants

Dartmouth undergraduates have had successful fellowship experiences in a variety of judicial settings, ranging from state trial courts, to federal appellate courts, to state supreme courts. New Hampshire Supreme Court Associate Justice James P. Bassett '78 has been central in developing both the Fellowship Program and its network of participating judges. 

Justice Bassett has had one or more Dartmouth students working in his chambers almost every term since 2017. Since then, his colleague at the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald '83, has also hosted Dartmouth undergraduate students with great success. Over a dozen Dartmouth students have held such positions at the New Hampshire Supreme Court thus far. All of the Justices have had positive and rewarding experiences and each of the students has had the opportunity both to participate in case-related work, as well as non-case-specific research projects that might otherwise not have been possible for the Court.

Students have had fellowship opportunities outside of New Hampshire as well. Dartmouth students have spent terms working with Judge Steven Menashi '01 at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, with Judge Eric C. Taylor '84 in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, with Associate Justice Gary Traynor '78 at the Delaware Supreme Court, with Vice-Chief Justice Dustin Rowe at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, with Justice Brian Zahra at the Michigan Supreme Court, as well as with Administrative Judge Ellen N. Biben and Judge Grace M. Hanlon at the New York State Supreme Court. Before retiring from the bench in 2018, Associate Judge John M. Mott '81 regularly mentored Dartmouth undergraduates in Washington D.C. at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Many of these students have said that these experiences have been life changing.

Across the country, there are approximately fifty Dartmouth alumni who are currently sitting as full-time judges on the federal and state benches, and there has been strong support for the Judicial Fellowship Program. We look forward to broadening the reach of this unique undergraduate program in the years to come, so generations of promising Dartmouth students can continue to have formative and transformative experiences with generous judicial mentors.