Libby Antonneau, a 2026 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, has been selected as a 2026 Equal Justice Works Fellow, the 47th Michigan Law graduate to win the fellowship in its 40-year history. Over the next two years she will work on the housing team at Legal Action of Wisconsin, a civil legal-services organization in Milwaukee, helping low-income tenants remedy hazardous housing conditions. Our congratulations to her.
"I'm from Southeastern Wisconsin, and throughout law school, I have been drawn more and more to returning to where I grew up," Antonneau said. "It's incredibly meaningful to be given the opportunity to use what I've learned to help make my community a better place to live."
The project
Antonneau's fellowship is built around prevention. Her three-part project will run know-your-rights trainings for tenants, establish a rent-abatement clinic to help renters properly reduce or withhold rent when conditions are unsafe, and help tenants bring affirmative legal action against landlords who ignore housing laws. The point, she explained, is to reach people before they take a step that could get them evicted: "Many renters who experience substandard housing are not aware of their legal rights to habitable housing." She came to the work through Michigan Law's Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic and describes housing justice as "an extension of environmental justice, helping people create a safer physical environment that can help them succeed in other areas of life."
Her public-interest director, Emily Bretz, watched it develop. "I have worked with Libby since her 1L year, and it has been an honor watching her grow into a passionate, committed, hard-working advocate," Bretz said. "I cannot wait to see what amazing things she accomplishes as a public interest lawyer."
About the fellowship
Equal Justice Works, founded by law students in 1986, runs one of the country's flagship public-interest fellowship programs. Under its design-your-own model, a fellow and a host organization jointly design a two-year project to meet an unmet legal need; this year's class of 60 fellows is working across 21 states.
For Michigan law students
University of Michigan Law students and alumni have complimentary access to LegalAlphabet, where they can search legal jobs and internships worldwide, including the public-interest and housing roles this fellowship leads into. Visit the Michigan Law campus page, browse current openings on the United States legal jobs board, or read more from our Law School News desk.
Sources
This report is based on the announcement published by the University of Michigan Law School. Quotations are drawn from that announcement.
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