As of the fall 2022, BLF has a new postgraduate fellow and five new Broussard Phoenix fellows! Learn about these amazing fellows and the great work they are doing in our recent newsletter.

Read about our new Broussard Phoenix fellows who arrived at Berkeley Law in the fall of 2021, as well as our new post-graduate fellow for 2021-22 in our fall 2021 newsletter!

BLF welcomed two new Broussard Phoenix fellows to Berkeley Law in the fall of 2020! Read about them in our fall 2020 newsletter, and also find out more about our new post-graduate fellow working with the Native American Rights Fund based in Anchorage, Alaska!

In the fall of 2019 BLF welcomed two new Phoenix fellows to Berkeley Law, and welcomed a new post-graduate fellow working in partnership with the Latin American Coalition in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Read more about all of their great work in our fall 2019 newsletter!

Congratulations to Courtney Arnold – who has been selected for BLF’s post-graduate fellowship for the 2018-19 year. Read more about Courtney’s exciting project working with AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly here.

In the fall of 2017 BLF welcomed two new Phoenix fellows to Berkeley Law, and welcomed a new post-graduate fellow starting her housing justice work at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services. Read more about all of their great work in our fall 2017 newsletter!

BLF’s 2016-17 fellow, Mihal Rose Ansik, has been working with a New Way of Life Reentry Project to support caregivers in California and to reform California law regarding the use of criminal convictions in the foster care process. Read more below about the amazing work Mihal has been doing!

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41611-new-legislation-would-soften-foster-care-rules-that-tear-extended-families-apart

In the fall of 2016, BLF welcomed its new post-graduate fellow Tasha Hill, who started her fellowship project entitled “Reducing LGBTIQ Criminalization and Discriminatory Incarceration in California Counties” through the ACLU of Southern California.

BLF was also proud to welcome two new Phoenix Fellows to Berkeley Law this fall, Hamza Jaka and Paul Monge Rodriguez.

Read more about Tasha, Hamza, and Paul in our newsletter!

Berkeley Law Foundation is thrilled to announce the selection of our year-long fellow for 2015-2016, Tasha Hill.

Tasha’s project at the ACLU of Southern California will work with California county Sheriffs’ Offices to reduce discriminatory profiling of LGBT people, as well as discriminatory conditions of confinement for LGBT people in county jails.  LGBT people are around three times more likely to be incarcerated than their straight/cisgender peers.  Once incarcerated, LGB people are ten times more likely and transgender people are twenty times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other inmates.  The project will provide “Know Your Rights” information and trainings to at-risk LGBT people, including youth, transgender women, people of color, and gay men.  The project will also work to reform Sheriffs’ Offices through staff training, advocacy, and litigation.

Tasha brings substantial professional advocacy experience to her work with vulnerable LGBT populations, having served for over a decade as deputy and executive director for LGBT organizations in Las Vegas, Colorado Springs, and Washington, D.C. Tasha is a 2014 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. While in school she co-founded the Criminal Justice Society and was instrumental in bringing a California prison parole curriculum to UCLA. During her law school summers, Tasha interned for Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Southern California’s LGBT Project, focusing on criminal justice issues and equal marriage. Prior to her fellowship, she clerked for the Central District of California.

NPR’s Latino USA program recently featured the Domestic Worker Mediation Project founded by Lydia Edwards (2011-2012 BLF Fellow) as part of the Brazilian Immigrant Center’s Domestic Worker Legal Clinic in Boston.  The mediation project is an innovative program training domestic workers and employers to resolve disputes through co-mediation.  Listen to the story here.