Banner Witcoff has awarded three law students the Donald W. Banner Diversity Fellowship. Created to strengthen diversity and inclusion in intellectual property law, the Fellowship provides recipients with $5,000 for law school tuition or other school-related expenses.
The Donald W. Banner Diversity Fellowship is open to law students who identify as members of a historically underrepresented group in intellectual property law and meet certain criteria, including academic merit, a commitment to the pursuit of a career in the field, and demonstrated leadership qualities. The firm has awarded $200,000 to law students since the program was established.
The 2023 Donald W. Banner Diversity Fellowship recipients:
- Mary Kate Nowak, is a second-year law student at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. She graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
- Eliza Yang, is a second-year evening law student at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She obtained her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park.
As part of the Fellowship, first-and-second-year law students participate in Banner Witcoff’s summer associate program.
Donald W. Banner (1924-2006) — the namesake of the fellowship and firm — was a leader in the field of patent law. A former U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, he was chairman of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, a founding member of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, president of the International Patent and Trademark Association, co-founder and president of the Intellectual Property Owners Association and director of The John Marshall Law School Center for Intellectual Property Law.
