Robert B. Fiske Jr., ’55, HLLD ’97, understood that having government service experience early in a professional career can be formative. To make it easier for Michigan Law students to pursue that experience, he endowed the Robert B. Fiske Jr. Fellowship Program for Government Service at Michigan Law in 2001.
Over the last 25 years, the program has annually selected up to four Michigan Law students and graduates, providing a $10,000 stipend and debt-repayment assistance to cover payments on all educational loans (not just law school loans) for three years. Since the inaugural class of Fiske Fellows, nearly 90 Michigan Law graduates have received fellowships.
Fiske, who remained deeply connected to the University of Michigan throughout his life, including meeting each new class of fellows and hosting occasional reunions for all Fiske Fellows, died on December 4, 2025, at the age of 94. Law Quadrangle spoke with Fiske Fellows from years past to learn more about the impact the fellowship has had on their careers and pay homage to the profound influence it and Fiske have had. Read his obituary.
“Following my clerkship, I was an attorney in the US Department of Justice for nearly 15 years, including time spent in the Federal Programs Branch, as chief of staff of the Office of Legal Policy, on detail to President Obama’s White House Counsel’s Office, and as a consumer fraud prosecutor. In 2017, I went to work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for more than eight years, leaving in 2025 as deputy general counsel. I am now a senior legal adviser at Democracy Forward, a national nonprofit organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education, and regulatory engagement.
As a member of the inaugural class of Fiske Fellows, I remain extremely grateful for the financial support the fellowship gave me and to have had Robert Fiske as an example of what a career in law and service can look like.”
—Steven Bressler, ’01
2002 Fiske Fellow
Senior Legal Adviser, Democracy Forward
“As the parent of a child with dyslexia, my early legal career in public service laid the foundation for the work I do today as a structured literacy specialist and educational therapist. While I no longer practice law, the Fiske Fellowship has played a critical role in enabling me to pursue my passion for public service.
After law school, I clerked for the now-Senior Judge Stephen H. Glickman on the DC Court of Appeals, served as a government lawyer in the executive branch and as an assistant parliamentarian with the US House of Representatives, and worked in law school administration at Georgetown Law. When my older son was identified as dyslexic, I became deeply curious about why some children struggle to read. That curiosity led me to pursue a master’s degree in special education at American University.
The Fiske Fellowship allowed me to pursue my passion for public service, and that freedom to follow my passions has informed my work since.”
—Tara Sarathy, ’02
2003 Fiske Fellow
Structured Literacy Interventionist, District Kids
“The Fiske Fellowship was formative for me in shaping my career path and making my career in public interest law—and, ultimately, academia—financially possible.
At the start of my fellowship, I worked as a trial attorney in the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section. In 2018, I left the DOJ to work at Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Policy Program and then joined the ACLU of Kansas in 2020, where I went on to serve as legal director. I am now a member of the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law as an associate professor on the tenure track. Much of my academic scholarship and teaching focuses on things I learned and experienced at the start of my career with the DOJ.”
—Sharon Brett, ’12
2013 Fiske Fellow
Associate Professor, University of Kansas School of Law
“One thing that Mr. Fiske and I have in common is an appreciation for the quote from Rudyard Kipling: ‘For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.’ No quote better encapsulates my experience in federal service.
The financial support I have received through the Fiske Fellowship has aided me in pursuing a path of public service, which has been a calling for me my entire life. Thank you, Mr. Fiske.”
—Jessica Kraft, ’15
2018 Fiske Fellow
Trial Attorney, US Department of Justice Criminal Division, Tax Section
“The Fiske Fellowship has been integral in helping me achieve financial stability in a notoriously overworked and underpaid field. It has made it easier to pursue a less traditional legal career that gives me the opportunity to fight for the ideals I believe in every day. I deeply appreciate Mr. Fiske’s recognition of the importance of public service and the impact it can have not just on those of us who do it but also on all those we do it for.”
—Katie Teleky, ’21
2021 Fiske Fellow
Deputy Chief of Staff to US Sen. Amy Klobuchar
“I’m remarkably grateful for the Fiske Fellowship’s support as I’ve pursued my career. With it, I began working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Enforcement, where I remained for nearly nine years. Now, I am an attorney at the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. Through it all, I’ve obtained stability in life that will allow me to continue doing rewarding public-sector work for years to come.”
—Ben Clark, ’14
2016 Fiske Fellow
Attorney, Maryland Office of the Attorney General
