2024 Cleveland State University College of Law graduate Anastasia Sakairoun believes she and her fellow classmates have a duty to serve their communities, and that their law degrees have trained them to be strategic thinkers who people can turn for guidance. For her leadership and the commitment and passion she demonstrated as a law student, Anastasia was selected as the 2024 recipient of CSU|LAW’s Dean’s Learn Law Live Justice Award.
“I believe that being named the Learn Law Live Justice recipient means that as law student I diligently gave equal priority to my legal studies as well as my passion for wanting to impact my community with the skills and knowledge I was simultaneously acquiring.” said Anastasia.
Each year, the Dean selects a graduating student to receive the Dean’s “Learn Law Live Justice.” Award based on academic success learning law and demonstrating what it means to live justice–to be committed to making clients’ lives better and our communities stronger.
Anastasia passions include civic education and voter turnout. Prior to law school she worked as a Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School in New York as a College Guidance Counselor. There she worked with students of limited economic means coordinating college planning and visits. But since the age of 14, Anastasia, a graduate Bowling Green State University with a degree in Political Science and Government, knew she wanted to be an attorney.
During her time in law school, Anastasia served as the Regional Director of Community Service for the Midwest Region of the National Black Law Student Association as a 2L. In this role, Anastasia coordinated community service events in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild. She also served as an Associate on the Global Business Law Review and with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s 3Rs Program. Anastasia promoted civic education in partnership with All Voting is Local, earning a grant to promote voter turnout.
“Serving as a community organizer prior to law school equipped me with the leadership skills to confidently show initiative and carry out a task, explained Anastasia. “When I notice an issue or a problem that is harming a wider group of people as well as myself, I am always motivated to offer a solution or at the very least raise awareness.”
Anastasia also accumulated a wide range of legislative and judicial experience during law school. She interned for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas- Juvenile Division, she externed for the Ohio Supreme Court: Dispute and Resolution Section, and worked as interim Council Aid for Ward 12 for her Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer at Cleveland City Council. She was also elected to the Democratic Central Committee for Cuyahoga County. Anastasia interned for Committee on Small Business for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C., under Ranking Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez from New York during her 2L summer and was a Judicial Extern at the Northern District of Ohio for Federal Judge J. Phil Calabrese as a 3L.
Anastasia, a Dean's Leadership Fellow, and 4LE Taneisha Fair were among the nine members recently appointed to Cleveland’s inaugural Commission on Black Women and Girls. Anastasia will continue working on the Commission after graduating and is joining the Commission’s Research and Public Hearing subcommittees.
“I want to collaborate with my fellow commissioners to develop policy initiatives that promote self-esteem, college access, networking opportunities to build a sense of moral and camaraderie amongst Black women in Cleveland,” said Anastasia, a Cleveland native who was raised in the Glenville-Collinwood area.
Anastasia will take the Ohio Bar Exam this summer and will work at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office in the fall. She has ambitions of working in a law firm in a Government Relations Practice group and/or serving as legal counsel for a Congress member or a Congressional Committee.