RHLS Welcomes 2025 Dechert Fellow Blayne Cekine.

RHLS is proud to welcome Blayne Cekine, Dechert Impact Fellow, to our staff.

Launched in 2024, the Dechert Impact Fellowship Program allows incoming first-year associates to spend a full year with a leading pro bono organization. Through this program, Dechert Impact Fellows hone their legal skills and gain valuable hands-on experience while helping advance access to justice by providing legal services to underserved communities.

Blayne went to law school with a desire to work in public interest law, where they developed a specific passion for tax law. During their first summer, they interned at a legal aid charity providing free legal services to small businesses and nonprofits. They found this work extremely interesting and fulfilling, and as a result, continued to study nonprofit corporations and taxation and did an internship that focused entirely on nonprofit tax law.

The work included nonprofit formation, advising, and helping already existing charities make grants and take donations. They also worked at a Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic during their last semester of law school, representing low- and middle-income taxpayers in disputes with the IRS. This included defending against IRS efforts to collect taxes and claims against the IRS for money that clients were owed. Initially, Blayne had planned to work at the IRS after graduating from law school, but the federal employee hiring freeze caused their offer to be rescinded.