Justin Hamano

Justin Hamano, a 31-year-old third-year Penn Law student, died on October 15.

Mr. Hamano grew up in Japan before coming to the United States in high school. He studied theater at New York University, graduated in 2009 and worked as a paralegal and labor organizer before beginning studies at Penn Law. He also held a master’s certificate of labor studies from CUNY.

While at Penn, Mr. Hamano served as political director of Lambda Law, deputy voting rights director of the Democracy Project and senior editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

He won a 10-week summer fellowship from the Peggy Browning Fund, which provides “public-interest labor-law fellowships” to students with a demonstrated commitment to workers’ rights. He used the fellowship to spend the  summer of 2016 working at the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C.

He is survived by his parents, Sylvia Brown, L’84, and Kenzo Hamano, Gr’86.