Published:
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The ACLU of Washington has many wonderful interns who assist with our work. We would like you to meet some of them.
Legal intern Michael Marchesini is excited to be working on criminal justice and voting rights for the ACLU in his home state. He is proud of Washington for its recent advances in civil liberties, including marriage equality and marijuana legalization, as well as the Governor’s moratorium on the death penalty and the ACLU’s work against debtors’ prisons.
He says the latter is a perfect example of the kind of issue he wants to work on: No one should be sent to jail because they cannot pay fees imposed by courts in a legal case, and the poor should not be disproportionately punished. Michael hopes as a lawyer to tackle similar problems surrounding immigration and immigrants’ rights. He decided to intern at the ACLU specifically because of our holistic approach to issues – he believes that our combination of litigation, legislation, and community organizing is essential to bringing about social change.
Michael grew up on Bainbridge Island and attended Whitworth University in Spokane. After graduating, he spent two years in Nicaragua with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, teaching math and Spanish and helping to operate a micro-lending program for local women in small businesses. When he returned, he worked as a paralegal in Seattle focusing on immigration cases. His exposure to the disparities affecting poor immigrants in cases involving civil rights and criminal defense sent Michael to law school, where he has just finished his first year at UC Berkeley.
In his spare time, Michael tries to get into the great outdoors to hike and camp. He taught himself to play the guitar, and has been playing whenever he gets the chance. He also loves weekend brunches and is looking forward to attending as many Mariners, Sounders, and Storm games as he can this summer.
