In April and May 2020, the Skadden Foundation awarded $10,000 Flom Incubator Grants to 28 former Fellows to support their work addressing critical legal needs amplified by the pandemic. The distribution marks an expansion of the existing FIG program, which has awarded more than 140 grants to support innovative legal projects by former Fellows since 2011.

The COVID grant recipients have taken on a variety of legal issues related to housing, domestic violence, education, juvenile detention and other matters impacting low-income communities and vulnerable populations. We spoke with two recipients, Nisha Kashyap and Charlotte Tsui, about their projects.

In her work with the Reentry Justice Project at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, current Fellow Satcha Robinson helps people who have been involved with the criminal justice system overcome the obstacles they face.

…There are so many problems that people experience when they come into contact with the criminal justice system aside from just the punishment that they might receive if they're convicted...the stigma associated with having an arrest or criminal conviction needs to end. I think there needs to be a holistic view of what happened then, what was going on in that person's life, and where are they now.

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An attorney at A Better Balance, Carl Charles seeks to extend workplace protections to LGBTQ and chosen families so that no worker has to choose between their job and caring for their family.

My work focuses on ensuring that legislation and policy across the country for paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave is inclusive of chosen family…that they can take time off to take care of themselves and to take care of those families, regardless of whether or not they have a biological or legal relationship to those people.

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