Brittney Taylor, a third year law student from the New England School of Law, joined the ACCESO Team in early June. Working as a Researcher and Program Assistant with ACCESO Director James Cooper, Brittney has dived headfirst into the craziness of the office. She is working on a
report on Mexican judicial reform and coordinating the ACCESO Capacitacion program in Santiago de Chile for prosecutors in late September 2004.

Brittney first learned about ACCESO when she was touring the San Diego campus of California Western School of Law - the U.S. headquarters of ACCESO - last year. Given her undergraduate background, Spanish-speaking abilities and interest in judicial reform, a summer with the ACCESO gang seemed like a good idea. We welcome Brittney and look forward to hearing more about her time with ACCESO until mid-August.

Brittney's law school - New England School of Law - is a partner with California Western School of Law in the Consortium for Innovation in Legal Education (click here to see the CILE website )."

Brittney´s letter

After returning to Boston from a vacation in San Diego in March 2003, not only did I momentarily regret not applying to a law school in paradise, I raced to a computer to research a program I saw advertised on the walls of Cal Western during a tour of the fellow Consortium school.

Proyecto ACCESO seemed to be an incredible mix of all my academic interests: Latin America + progress + law. With tremendous respect for the American judiciary, an unexplainable fascination with Latin America, and an first hand appreciation for good teaching, I wanted nothing more than to become involved with the initiative.

I knew I would be spending the summer of 2003 in Galway, Ireland on a summer abroad program, but the summer of 2004 was a blank slate that I wanted to fill (I’m a girl who appreciates the "five year plan"). Upon returning to New England School of Law for the fall semester, I sent a letter of inquiry and interest to Jamie Cooper and after a whole lot of finger-crossing, I was invited to participate with the program.

I am in to my second week at Proyecto ACCESO and have learned so much already. In addition to mastering the filing system and adding a little flair to the office, I have embarked on a number of drafting and research projects that will undoubtedly foster a deeper understanding of the obstacles facing various American states, including the U.S., as well as legitimate methods to overcome them. As I hope to someday be an undergraduate professor to pre-law students, I hope my time at ACCESO will provide a clearer picture of the inner workings of the adversarial system and the means by which the rule of law fosters true justice.