Isiah DiPina L’27: From Personal Experience to Policy Change

It’s not every day a law student is recognized by a Rhode Island Superior Court judge.
For Isiah DiPina L’27, it happened after he testified before the Rhode Island House and Senate Judiciary Committees in support of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), legislation designed to protect families from forced sales of inherited property.

Associate Justice Brian Stern, who DiPina externs for on the Rhode Island Judiciary, highlighted DiPina’s testimony in a LinkedIn post, noting that he did a “remarkable job.”

For DiPina, the recognition was meaningful, especially given how personal the testimony was.

When his uncle Gary passed away in 2023 without a will, the DiPina family home in North Providence, owned for decades and central to their history, became heirs’ property under Rhode Island law. When family members could not come to an agreement on the property, the home was forced into a partition sale and ultimately sold at auction.

At the time, DiPina didn’t fully understand what had happened. That changed once he arrived at RWU Law.

In Professor Natasha Varyani’s Property class, he learned about heirs’ property law and connected it directly to what his family had gone through.

“In that moment, what I had lived through just prior to starting law school became a monumental legal reality and one that fueled my passion to change the outcomes for families who are faced with the current partition law in Rhode Island.”

He went on to collaborate with Varyani on a paper advocating for the adoption of the UPHPA in Rhode Island. The article, which will be published in the Roger Williams University Law Review, became the foundation for the testimony he delivered before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

Using his family’s experience to push for change, he says, was one of the most meaningful parts of the process.

DiPina’s desire to affect change through the law dates back to his teenage years. Working at his family’s car wash, he heard people talk about their experiences being incarcerated and the injustices they faced. Those conversations stayed with him.

He attended La Salle Academy and went on to study criminal justice at Johnson and Wales University as a first-generation college student. From there, he went straight to RWU Law, an easy choice as the state’s only law school.

The summer after his 1L year, DiPina interned with Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, where he gained a clearer understanding of how the law operates beyond the classroom. That experience led him to pursue his current externship with Associate Justice Stern.

Beyond the mentorship he has received from both judges, DiPina says these experiences have given him a different perspective on how legal decisions are made. “It’s one thing to practice, but it’s another to really see how the law is decided on a day-to-day basis,” he says.

This summer as a rising 3L, DiPina will work at a Providence law firm, continuing to build hands-on experience. Next semester, he will complete a second judicial externship, giving him a full year of experience working under three judges. 

Looking further ahead, he plans to clerk after graduation, ideally in federal court, before moving into commercial litigation. 

It’s a path he’s already solidly working toward, rooted in what he’s carried with him from the start.