Education Advocacy Project
Karen Tamis
As a Skadden Fellow, Karen Tamis is a Staff Attorney in the Education Advocacy Project of the Disability Rights Legal Center. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation provides funding for approximately 25 graduating law students nationwide who wish to devote their professional lives to providing legal services to the poor, the elderly, the homeless and the disabled, as well as those deprived of their civil or human rights. Ms. Tamis is the first Skadden Fellow at the DRLC.
In collaboration with Loyola Law School’s Center for Juvenile Law and Policy, Ms. Tamis represents youth with special education needs in the juvenile delinquency system to ensure that they receive appropriate education and related services.
Prior to her fellowship, Ms. Tamis clerked for the Honorable Justice Norman Epstein on the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. Before entering law school, Ms. Tamis started a literacy tutoring program in Bay Area public elementary schools, coordinated volunteers for the San Francisco chapter of the nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together, and completed a year of service with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps.
Ms. Tamis graduated from Cornell University in 1997 with a B.A. in History. She received her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2005, and was a participant in the Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. During law school, she served on the board of the Public Interest Law Foundation, volunteered in Public Counsel’s juvenile hall clinic, and was an editor of the UCLA Women’s Law Journal.