Farella Braun + Martel Announces 2025 Diversity Scholarship Recipients

Over 20 years ago, Farella Braun + Martel established a Diversity Scholarship Program to help Bay Area first-year law school students offset some of their legal education expenses. Today, we are pleased to announce the recipients of our 2025 Diversity Scholarship grants totaling $45,000 to Anusha Entezari, Kasen Evans, and Shanaya Henderson.

Since its inception, Farella has now awarded $725,000 in scholarships to 98 Bay Area first-year law students whose academic achievements, employment, and community service indicate strong potential to excel in the legal profession and become future leaders in working towards equal access, opportunity, and participation for everyone in the legal community. Scholarship recipients are selected based on a combination of merit and financial need. Preference is given to applicants demonstrating a commitment to working and living in the Bay Area after the completion of their legal studies.

“We are excited to extend this year’s diversity scholarships to Anusha, Kasen, and Shanaya. They have all worked hard to inspire their communities through outreach and as role models, exemplifying the qualities of inclusion and service that Farella strives for and values,” said Don Sobelman, partner co-chair of Farella’s Diversity Scholarship Committee. “We are honored to support them in pursuing legal careers and look forward to celebrating their future successes. Congratulations!”

“This is a rewarding experience for the Farellans involved in this program because the scholarships make a big impact on the students’ lives. Learning about their accomplishments and commitment to the community was inspiring,” added Jennifer Bentley, associate co-chair of the Diversity Scholarship Committee. “They have demonstrated a strong potential to excel in the legal profession, and it is our honor to contribute to their journey to becoming future leaders in the legal industry.”

Meet the 2025 Diversity Scholarship recipients:

Anusha Entezari attends the University of California, Davis School of Law (King Hall), where she serves as the executive symposium editor for the Immigration & Nationality Law Review and is a member of the King Hall Negotiations team, having won the 2025 Intraschool Negotiations competition. Additionally, she co-chairs the First-Generation Advocates Program and co-founded King Hall's first Women of Color Collective chapter. This fall, she will serve as a law clerk for the Immigration Law Clinic. Anusha earned undergraduate degrees in sociology and dance from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she served on the executive board for the Afro-Latinx Connection de UCLA and worked with ELAS SEMILLA to empower and provide skill-building and mentorship services to Latinx youth in Southern California. This summer, Anusha is a Sacramento County Bar Association Diversity Fellow at Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard and a research assistant at King Hall for Professor Leticia Saucedo.

Kasen Evans attends the University of San Francisco Law School, where he is a member of the McAuliffe Honor Society; a CALI Award recipient in Legal Research, Writing & Analysis I, Contracts II, and Criminal Law; and a Merit Scholarship & Criminal Law Scholarship recipient. He serves as an events coordinator for Pride Law, a student-run organization at USF Law School dedicated to promoting equality and justice for the LGBTQIA+ community through the law. He is a student member of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF). This fall, Kasen will be a junior staffer for the USF Law Review Volume 60. Before law school, he worked as a family law paralegal at Baxter Law, LLC. Kasen earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia in marketing and international business and participated in academic exchange programs in Denmark and China. This summer, Kasen is a judicial extern for Senior Judge Charles R. Breyer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California through the American Bar Association Judicial Intern Opportunity Program and is working as a research assistant to Professor Lara Bazelon at USF.

Shanaya Henderson attends the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where she serves as academic chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, vice president of the Hawai’i Law Students Association, a member of the UC Law SF moot court, and a legal research and writing teaching assistant. She will be a member of the UC Law Constitutional Law Quarterly. Shanaya volunteers with the San Quentin Newsletter, a nonprofit monthly prison newspaper run by inmates. Over the past year, she has assisted with capital punishment cases as a pro bono volunteer. While earning a B.A. in political science, pre-law, with a minor in criminal justice and criminology from Washington State University, Shanaya served as a criminal justice research aide at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. This summer, she is a legal intern in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and previously volunteered in its Clean Slate Program.

Farella Braun + Martel is a leading Northern California law firm representing corporate and private clients in sophisticated business and real estate transactions and complex commercial, civil, and criminal litigation. Clients seek our imaginative legal solutions and the dynamism and intellectual creativity of our lawyers. We are headquartered in San Francisco and maintain an office in the Napa Valley that is focused on the wine industry.

Contact:
Cheryl Loof
Farella Braun + Martel LLP
415.954.4433 / [email protected]