Past Fellows

Since 1976, the Berkeley Law Foundation has awarded year-long grants to recent law graduates or new lawyers undertaking cutting-edge public interest projects that serve legally disadvantaged or underrepresented groups.  A list of our past grantees is below.

2024-25

Gita Connolly, University of Wisconsin Law School

DALE Center for Worker Justice

Gita is creating the DALE Center for Worker Justice to expand undocumented workers’ access to legal representation and basic rights in Wisconsin. The DALE Center – while housed at the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Economic Justice Institute – will partner with worker- and migrant-focused organizations across the state.

Undocumented workers suffer disproportionately from wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and human trafficking, but are less likely to speak out about labor abuses since employers often retaliate by weaponizing workers’ status and reporting them to immigration officials. Since 2023, however, many workers who are victims of or witnesses to labor violations are eligible to apply for Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), which would protect them from deportation and allow them to assist labor investigations. This project will increase Wisconsin workers’ awareness of their labor and immigration rights, coordinate a pro bono network of attorneys to help eligible workers apply for DALE, and advocate for state-wide legislative changes to standardize agency certification processes for U and T visas.

Gita is the policy-minded, queer daughter of an Indian immigrant and advocates for the basic rights of all migrants. In law school, she served as Co-President of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Law Student Association (APIDALSA), interned at the Food Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School, supported research to increase migrants’ access to information and reduce harm in transit, and provided legal representation and support to non-citizens, including those in WI’s ICE detention center. Prior to law school, she got an Asian Studies degree from Cornell University, which gave her the opportunity to study and learn from various cultures, learn several languages, and support refugee populations living in Nepal. She also supported policy research to improve state family regulation (child welfare) systems, support youth experiencing homelessness, and help develop solutions to various racial and social inequities. She hails from the south suburbs of Chicago.

2023-24

Sarah Chen Small, UC Davis School of Law

Communities for a Better Environment

Sarah is a born-and-raised San Franciscan and a graduate of UC Davis School of Law with certificates in environmental and public service law. Sarah’s project with Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), a leading environmental justice nonprofit, seeks to empower communities in Richmond and East Oakland to lead us to a Just Transition. A Just Transition shifts us from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy, wherein communities determine their own healthy future. For decades, predominantly Black and Latinx Richmond and East Oakland residents have faced severe health consequences from industrial emissions. Currently, there are significant proposed changes in the most pollution-heavy industries in these communities, including: expanding warehouse shipping operations, Chevron refinery expansion and use of so-called biofuels, proposed airport expansion, and redevelopment proposals. This is a critical time to challenge industry’s status-quo false solutions through litigation, policy, and organizing efforts. Sarah’s work with CBE is part of a vision wherein, rather than continually playing defense against corporate pollution while the environmental crisis worsens, communities build a livable healthy future.

2022-24

Victoria Sun, Berkeley Law

Pangea Legal Services

With Pangea Legal Services, Victoria will advocate for criminalized immigrants with disabilities in San Mateo County, California through legal representation, collective action, and the creation of model post-conviction relief resources.

Criminal convictions can lead to severe consequences for immigrants, such as detention and deportation. Immigrants with disabilities are at high risk of accepting a plea deal without understanding the immigration consequences. Fortunately, California law provides a vehicle to vacate such a conviction, though the major obstacle is access to representation. San Mateo County is an outlier in the Bay Area because unlike other counties, it does not have a public defender office, and there are very limited post-conviction relief services available.

This project will expand existing access to post-conviction relief in San Mateo County. Victoria will provide full-scope post-conviction relief and deportation defense services, as well as develop legal resources and provide technical assistance to attorneys seeking post-conviction relief for immigrants with disabilities in California.

Victoria is a queer Chinese American and grew up in the Bay Area. She graduated from Berkeley Law in 2022, and went to law school specifically to become a deportation defense attorney in the Bay Area. During law school, Victoria interned with Pangea, Brooklyn Defenders, Contra Costa Public Defender, and the East Bay Community Law Center. Prior to law school, Victoria worked at a private immigration firm in San Francisco.

2021-22

Joana Peraza Lizarraga, UC Davis School of Law

Protecting DACA-Age Youth in the Central Valley

Joana spent her fellowship year working at California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF) representing DACA-age youth.

Joana is a 2021 graduate of University of California, Davis School of Law. During her time in law school, she interned with CRLAF and the Nevada Supreme Court, and was a student counselor at the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic. She was a co-chair for La Raza Law Students Association (now Latinx Law Students Association). Before law school, she interned at the Nevada State Legislature, U.S. Senator for Nevada Catherine Cortez Masto’s office, and volunteered at Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada in their immigration department.

Joana received her undergraduate degree from University of Nevada, Reno, majoring in International Affairs.

Joana is a DREAMer herself, coming to the United States at the age of 14. Growing up in
Northern Nevada, where the Latino population was small and access to resources was limited, instilled a desire in Joana to help others succeed, prevent family separation, and become an advocate for her community.

2020-21

Chloe Cotton, Harvard Law School

Equal Representation of Alaska Natives in Reapportionment

Chloe spent her fellowship year working at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) to ensure that Alaska Native and Native American tribes are fully and fairly represented in redistricting across the country. For this project, she was based out of NARF’s Anchorage office and primarily focused on serving Alaska Native communities. Alaska Natives have endured decades of discrimination in nearly every aspect of cultural, political, and social life; they are currently underrepresented in the state legislature as a result of discrimination in prior redistricting processes. This project sought to correct that underrepresentation, by ensuring that Alaska’s 2021 redistricting process and the maps that it produces are not discriminatory. The project also sought to serve tribes in other states through education, advocacy, and litigation around redistricting.

Chloe is a 2020 graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School, with a joint degree in law and public policy. During her time in graduate school, Chloe interned with Sonosky Chambers Sachse Miller & Monkman, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Center for Secure and Modern Elections. She served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review and was on the boards of the HLS Alliance for Reproductive Justice and the Women’s Law Association. Before law school, she worked at the Denali Commission and for U.S. Senator Mark Begich. Chloe received her undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College, majoring in Philosophy, Politics & Economics. She is a born-and-raised Alaskan.

2019-20

Ismaail Qaiyim, CUNY School of Law

Latin American Coalition

Ismaail, in partnership with the Latin American Coalition (LAC), completed the “Eastside-Westside Community Empowerment and Economic Development Initiative.” This project was designed to provide legal services and community based legal education for the purpose of empowering communities to advocate for affordable housing and anti-displacement efforts at the municipal level. In conjunction with LAC, this project aimed to assist communities vulnerable to displacement in Charlotte’s historically African American Westside and increasingly Spanish speaking Eastside.

Displacement in Charlotte, North Carolina is linked to decades of divestment from
predominately African-American neighborhoods that within the span of a few years have
become desirable places for professionals to live. These neighborhoods have remained
segregated zones wherein many of the residents are impoverished and do not have upward
economic mobility. Several studies have shown that Charlotte, NC is one of the most
economically unequal cities in the United States and one of the worst for upward economic
mobility.

Ismaail’s work is informed by his formal education and experiences working in West
Africa as a researcher and advocate for Friends of the Earth Liberia (SDI Liberia). His time
spent assisting and working alongside tenants fighting for their rights in NYC through
various internships and his legal clinic showed him the centrality of community-based
empowerment in pushing for rights and societal transformation.  Ismaail is a recent graduate of CUNY School of Law, and additionally, he holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. 

2018-19

Courtney Arnold, American University Washington College of Law

Legal Counsel for the Elderly

In 2018-19 Courtney completed her project “Bridging the DC Probate Gap” at AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE). Her project was dedicated to fulfilling a largely unmet legal need by building a network of knowledge and services around probate and estate planning in Washington, DC. 

Courtney is a dual-degree J.D. and Masters of Public Policy student at the American University Washington College of Law and School of Public Affairs. She has a passion for elder law, with a particular focus on end-of-life care, estate planning, and housing in economically disadvantaged communities of color. While in law school, she served as Chair of the National Lawyers Guild, a Student Attorney in the Women and the Law Clinic, and taught at a DC high school through the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. She was also a volunteer at the DC Bar’s Probate Resource Center. Courtney is excited to return to LCE, where she was a Summer 2016 intern with the Homebound Elderly Project. Prior to law school, Courtney served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Austin, TX and two years as an AmeriCorps Member with City Year in San Antonio, TX. She is a 2012 graduate of Furman University and a Mauldin, SC native.

2017-18

Alexis Erkert Depp, Northeastern University School of Law

Southeast Louisiana Legal Services

Alexis will work at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) and partner with Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), a community organization led by and serving formerly incarcerated people. Alexis will represent formerly incarcerated people and their families in fighting evictions and loss of housing subsidies based on a criminal record; develop know-your-rights and pro se materials; and advocate with housing providers to change their screening policies.

Prior to law school, Alexis worked for six years as a policy analyst and human rights advocate in Haiti, supporting Haitian community organizations and social movements. After the 2010 earthquake decimated her neighborhood, she coordinated Under Tents, an international housing rights campaign to support displacement camp residents advocating for affordable housing.

2016-17

Mihal Rose Ansik, Harvard Law School

A New Way of Life Reentry Project 

As a Berkeley Law Foundation Fellow with A New Way of Life Reentry Project, Mihal Ansik will support families impacted by incarceration and criminalization who are navigating the dependency court process. By opening up pathways to housing, employment, education, and treatment, ANWOL provides women leaving prison with a constellation of resources to stabilize and sustain them. For many of ANWOL’s residents, this increased access is the first critical step to reuniting with their children and rebuilding with their families. In collaboration with ANWOL’s dedicated team of social workers, organizers, reentry specialists, lawyers, and community partners, Mihal will support parents navigating dependency court proceedings after incarceration, and help eligible family caregivers secure exemptions of their conviction histories so that they can keep children in their families out of foster care facilities. Through direct legal advocacy, community education, and movement support, Mihal and ANWOL will develop a project focused on sustaining family connections, building access to reunification, and ending multi-generational cycles of incarceration.

Mihal has spent the past ten years working with people in prison and their loved ones as an educator, organizer, and advocate. While earning her Bachelors’ Degree at the University of Michigan, Mihal facilitated theater and writing workshops in correctional facilities around the state. As a workshop instructor, she used rehearsal time to help the members of her workshops file grievances, connected them to community resources, and drove them home when they were paroled. Prior to starting law school, Mihal spent five years working as a Court Advocate with the Center for Community Alternatives in Brooklyn, NY, where she advocated for incarcerated youth to be released into healing and supportive community-based alternatives to detention and developed workshops to equip youth and their families with tools for advocating for themselves as they navigated the delinquency process. At Harvard Law School, Mihal has continued to advocate alongside clients entangled in punitive systems as a Student Attorney with Harvard Defenders, the Prison Legal Assistance Project, and the Criminal Justice Institute.

2015-16

Tasha Hill, UCLA School of Law

ACLU of Southern California 

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.

2014-15

Maria Sofia Corona Gómez, Berkeley Law

ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties 

We welcome our newest BLF fellow, María Sofía Corona Gómez, who recently started her work at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties. Sofía’s project, “Access to Freedom and Justice for Immigrants in Isolated Detention Centers,” will provide legal outreach to the Imperial Regional Detention Facility (formerly the El Centro facility) and promote the rights of indigent detainees to have publicly appointed counsel. The Project will provide extremely underserved immigrant detainees with legal rights presentations (Know Your Rights), individual screenings for immigration relief from detention and deportation (removal), and pro se support and representation, with a focus on bond hearings.

Sofía seeks to advance the rights of detainees to have meaningful bond hearings as a means to obtain freedom from detention and to access legal representation. Sofía brings years of experience working with community-based groups and non-profits to empower immigrant communities and people of color through popular education, mobilizing, advocacy, and litigation. She is a 2014 Berkeley Law graduate and former recipient of BLF’s Phoenix Fellowship, and holds a Master’s from the University of Texas at Austin in History. Sofía is the proud daughter of farm-workers who immigrated from Guanajuato, México to California’s Central Valley. Sofía is also an alumna of Fresno State.

2013-14

Cory Isaacson, Berkeley Law

East Bay Community Law Center

Cory Isaacson recently completed her first year of a special joint fellowship funded by the Berkeley Law Foundation and the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC). Cory’s project aims to break the school to prison pipeline. Here’s what Cory had to say about her accomplishments so far:

“I’ve now been working in the Youth Defender Clinic (YDC) at EBCLC as the BLF-EBCLC Fellow for a little over a year. I can’t believe it’s only been that long. In my position, I’ve represented dozens of clients facing expulsion and I also represent young people who are in delinquency court, as well as supervise law students working in our Clinic. I have argued at my clients’ expulsion hearings and court appearances, have attended their IEP meetings, have negotiated with their school districts, and have gotten to know them and their families and their individual needs.

Fourteen months ago, I started with very little knowledge of the school discipline system and how it operates; now, I know it (unfortunately) very well. It is a heavily bureaucratic, counterproductive, and harmful system, and I’m making my way through it with an eye toward long-term change. Luckily, YDC has been very successful in our school discipline cases and few of our clients have ultimately been expelled. But they’ve still been harmed by the process.

As my work continues over the next year, I hope to use holistic practices more often in order to do more to make the process less painful for our clients. My ability to screen and address peripheral life and legal issues gets better everyday, and it’s exciting to be able to do this work with a holistic focus. A social work program is also just getting off the ground in YDC, which will be a crucial resource to ease some of the collateral damage created by the school discipline and court systems.

With most of the foundational knowledge and experience under me, I’m looking forward to the final year of my fellowship. There’s a lot to be done, and a lot I hope I can do. Thanks to BLF and EBCLC for giving me that opportunity.”

Cory graduated from Berkeley Law in 2013, where she focused her energy on indigent criminal defense.  She worked as a law clerk in the Contra Costa Public Defender’s Office, and was a BLF summer fellow while working at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.  She also spent a semester in the Clean Slate Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) and two semesters as a clinical student in Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic.

2012-13

Sebastian Sanchez, Seton Hall Law School

Make the Road New York

Mr.  Sanchez is a 2012 graduate of the Seton Hall Law School, where he was a Center for Social Justice Scholar for the Urban Revitalization Project.  Sebastian also worked as an immigration paralegal with the New York Legal Assistance Group in New York, served as an interpreter for community groups like Domestic Workers United and the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, and helped to develop an emergency hotline for immigrants facing immigration raids in New Jersey.

As a scholar at the Center for Social Justice, Sebastian developed and presented know-your-rights presentations on immigration, mortgage-fraud, and tenants’ rights. He also helped draft briefs on education law issues, challenging the reduction in State funding to public schools in New Jersey, and State control of the Newark public school district. He focused his summer work on the experience of immigrant workers, working at Make the Road New York (MRNY) and the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center, organizations with extensive histories combating exploitative working conditions, particularly in low-wage and immigrant communities.

As a BLF fellow, Sebastian returned to MRNY, a unique organization that empowers Latino and working class communities, through organizing, policy innovation, education, and direct services. Sebastian joined the legal team at MRNY to help pilot a new initiative to provide legal advocacy, community education, and policy support to the car wash worker community in New York, a population that suffers rampant wage theft and abuse.

Sebastian’s project worked closely with organizers to reach out to workers, identify wage theft, and develop strategies and responses. The campaign provided direct services to car wash workers in matters of wage theft, workers’ compensation or other legal issues that arose in relation to their employment. Sebastian also worked to develop know-your-rights seminars for workers and draft legislation to improve regulation of the industry.

2011-12

Lydia Edwards, American University Washington College of Law

Brazilian Domestic Worker Legal Clinic

Prior to her fellowship, Lydia volunteered with the Brazilian Immigrant Center for two years, where she learned Portuguese, before clerking for the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

In her fellowship, Lydia worked at the Domestic Worker Legal Clinic Project, which is the legal component of the Brazilian Immigrant Center’s Domestic Worker Organizing Initiative. The Clinic represents domestic workers in dealing with the most common workplace abuses of wage theft and underpayment. In addition, the Clinic operates as a “think tank,” and takes on impact litigation cases that challenge state laws to better protect domestic workers, especially in the area of employment discrimination, where, by definition, domestic workers are excluded from protection. The clinic works heavily with the Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers as way of assuring the legal component follows and supports wider, on the ground organizing efforts to achieve a new Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

The Clinic seeks to empower domestic workers. It has a Domestic Worker Council that consists of domestic workers from various backgrounds, which is tasked with keeping the Clinic abreast of new trends in workplace abuses, guiding the Clinic’s outreach efforts, and consulting on the preparation of materials for educational workshops. Finally, the Clinic helps train domestic workers in mediation with the intended goal of establishing a Domestic Worker Mediation Panel, which will create a safe place for undocumented domestic workers to invite their employers to come so that they may resolve workplace issues with them. The panel will help both parties come to a resolution, which will be memorialized by the Clinic and enforceable in court.

2010-11

Daniel Redman, Berkeley Law

Del Martin LGBT Elder Advocacy Initiative

2009-10

Riddhi Mukhopadhyay, Seattle University School of Law

Detainee Mental Health Advocacy Project with Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

Riddhi is a graduate of Duke University and Seattle University School of Law. She has worked in the domestic and sexual violence field, focusing on the immigrant and GLBT communities. A speaker of Bengali, Hindi and Spanish, she co-authored the human rights report, Voices From Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the Northwest Detention Center. As an immigrant, she looks forward to this opportunity to continue working on issues surrounding immigrant rights, civil liberties and access to justice.

Riddhi spent the year working in collaboration with the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project to enforce and expand the fundamental rights of low-income immigrants with mental illnesses who are placed in detention centers pending deportation or resolution of their immigration proceedings. Thousands of immigrants are placed in these prison-like facilities each year without any proper mental health advocacy. When mental illnesses are triggered or aggravated by abuse and neglect in detention, many detainees are unable to fight their deportations. Despite their mental impairments, in gross violation of their due process rights and governing regulations, their cases continue to be processed for removal, leading to the deportation of hundreds everyday. Through individual representation, impact litigation, pro bono recruitment efforts and media campaigns, the Detainee Mental Health Advocacy Project worked to create and implement a policy of proper representation for detainees with mental illness and improve conditions for those requiring mental health care in detention.

2008-09

Veena Dubal, Berkeley Law

Bringing Justice to SF’s Taxi Workers with Asian Law Caucus

A graduate of Stanford University and Berkeley Law School, Veena has worked for years as a community activist focusing on issues of racism, imperialism, and war. A speaker of Gujarati, Spanish and Hindi/Urdu, Veena has advocated extensively on behalf of the diverse South Asian American communities in the Bay Area. She recently completed a Fulbright in India where she conducted doctoral research on the legal aftermath of communal violence.

Veena’s project focused on improving the working conditions of San Francisco taxi drivers, whose industry is among the most low-paying, dangerous, and economically unstable in the country. Working with the Asian Law Caucus, Veena used litigation, advocacy and community organizing to secure workplace safety and fair wages for drivers.

Britton Schwartz, Harvard Law School

Water Governance & Civil Rights Reform in Tulare County with Community Water Center 

A native of the arid Southwest, Britton has worked as an advocate for rural communities in Arizona and Latin America. This work has reinforced her understanding that preserving access to clean water is a basic human right and a fundamental prerequisite to community development. Britton is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she studied international human rights and environmental justice.

Britton’s project assisted low-income communities of color in California’s Central Valley to secure safe, affordable drinking water. Hundreds of rural communities in the Central Valley lack access to safe drinking water as a result of intensive agriculture and a water governance system that excludes poor communities. Working with the Community Water Center, a grassroots nonprofit, Britton provided legal assistance, advocacy and capacity building structures to ensure access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water.

2007-08

Caitlin Barry, Temple University, Beasley School of Law

Philadelphia Immigrant Defense Partnership with Nationalities Services Center 

2006-07

Marcela Ruiz, Berkeley Law

Low-wage Workers Rights Project with California Rural Legal Assistance

2005-06

Shane Caya, Golden Gate University School of Law

Transgender Family Law Project with Transgender Law Center

2004-05

Aila Malik, Santa Clara University School of Law

Legal Education and Advocacy Project for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System with Fresh Lifelines for Youth

Patricio Rossi, Northeastern University School of Law

Mediation Assistance for Indigent Litigants in the Northeast Housing Court of Massachusetts with Neighborhood Legal Services

2003-04

Alegria De La Cruz, Berkeley Law

The Indigenous Farmworkers Project with California Rural Legal Assistance Project

Maria Jaime, Lincoln Law School

Kinship Caregivers Advocacy Project with California Rural Legal Assistance Project

2002-03

Melissa Froehle

FATHER Law Program with Central Minnesota Legal Services

Eddie Genna, Berkeley Law

Protecting Low Wage Workers’ Rights with Community Legal Services of Phoenix

Tirien Steinbach, Berkeley Law

Suitcase Clinic Legal Services with the East Bay Community Law Center

Dean P. Spade, UCLA School of Law

Gender Identity Law Project with the LGYP Urban Justice Center in NY

Project became the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

2001-02

Monalisa Vu, University of San Francisco School of Law

Advocating to Prevent Vietnamese Domestic Violence with Nihonmachi Legal Outreach (now Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach)

Jessica Boell, Berkeley Law

Immigration Detention Outreach and Litigation Project with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project

2000-01

Jon Givner, Berkeley Law

Alkali Flat Family Law Project with Legal Services of Northern California

Daniel Tellalian, Berkeley Law

Collaborative Brownsfields Revitalization Project with the Urban Analysis Project

1999-00

Martha Chavarin-Romero, Berkeley Law

Protecting Abused Immigrant Children with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center of San Francisco

Sarah Price, Berkeley Law

The Education Access Project for Homeless Children and Youth with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

1998-99

Lisa D’Souza, Harvard Law School

Migrant Poultry Worker Justice Project with Texas Rural Legal Aid (now Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid)

Julia R. Wilson, Stanford Law School

CalWORKS and Disability Project with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County

1997-98

Vitaly Kurlyand, UC Hastings College of the Law

Sexual Minority Youth Law Project with Legal Services for Children

Andrea G. Black, New York University School of Law

The Eloy Project with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Project

1996-97

Caleb Rush, Berkeley Law

Redwood Employment Advocacy Project with Redwood Legal Assistance

Aliza Organick and Leslie Mansfield, University of New Mexico School of Law

Access to Health Care and Economic Justice for Minors

1995-96

Erica Etelson, Berkeley Law

Women’s Economic Agenda Project with the Welfare Fraud Defense Center

Amagda Perez, UC Davis School of Law

Citizenship Campaign with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic

1994-95

Cynthia Dailard, Berkeley Law

Women’s Health Access Project for Incarcerated Women with National Women’s Law Center

Rebecca Gudeman, UCLA School of Law

School-Based Children’s Advocacy, School-Site Outreach Project with Public Counsel

1993-94

Noelani Loo Jai, Berkeley Law

Children’s AIDS/HIV Project: Free Legal and Social Services for Children, project name became HOPE Project (Hands Outreached for Positive Empowerment) with Legal Services for Children

Cristina Guerrero, Arizona State College of Law

Proyecto San Pablo: El Centro Immigrants’ Rights Project, project name became Justicia Y Derado – Detention Representacion Project

1992-93

Rosa Fregoso, Berkeley Law

Battered Immigrant Women and the Marriage Fraud Act with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center

Heather MacKay, Berkeley Law

Pelican Bay Prison Project with Redwood Legal Assistance, Prison Law Office and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Christopher Jones

Equal Access to Medical Care with Greater Orlando Area Legal Services

1991-92

Dayna Deck, Washington University School of Law

Legal Information and Referral Network for People Living with AIDS Project

Julie Gutman, Stanford Law School

Community Preservation and Economic Development Project with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project

Alyssa Simpson, Berkeley Law

Legal Project to Guatemalan Refugees who are Affected by the American Baptist Church Case Settlement with the Central American Refugee Center of Los Angeles

1990-91

Natalie Hanlon, Harvard Law School

Welfare Reform/Self-Sufficiency Project with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver

Claire Schwartz, UC Hastings College of the Law

Legal Action Center for the Homeless of Alameda County with the Berkeley Community Law Center

Project became the Homeless Action Center.

Dania Wong, UC Hastings College of the Law

Watsonville Cannery and Farm Workers’ Housing Advocacy Project with the Legal Aid Society of Santa Cruz Project

1989-90

Kim Baker, Berkeley Law

Welfare Rights Education Project with the Income Rights Project (San Francisco, CA)

David Robinson, CUNY School of Law

Homelessness Prevention Project with the Community Action for Legal Services Legal Support Unit

1988-89

Lisa Parsons, UC Hastings College of the Law

The Homeless Advocacy Project with the Bar Association of San Francisco (CA)

Alison Hardy, UCLA School of Law

AIDS in Prison Project with the Prison Law Office

Brad Adams, Berkeley Law

Berkeley Community Law Center Project

Founded nonprofit organization (now East Bay Community Law Center).

1987-88

Sandy Weiner, UC Hastings College of the Law

GAIN/AFDC Advocacy Project with the Income Rights Project in San Francisco (CA)

Jennifer Linder Wright, Stanford Law School

Immigration Amnesty Project with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County (CA)

Angelo A. DiGangi, CUNY School of Law

Preventative Legal Services for the Elderly Through Education and Advocacy with Community Advocacy Center, CAC

1986-87

Karen Schryver, Berkeley Law

California Institute for Women in Prison Project with Prison Law Office in San Quentin

Lee Brooke Phillips, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law

In Defense of Sacred Land and Its People Project with the Big Mountain Legal Defense/Offense Committee

1985-86

Benjamin Schatz, Harvard Law School

AIDS Civil Rights Project with a grant from the Harvard Justice Foundation

Gail Smith, New York University School of Law

Legal Aid for Mothers in Prison Project with John Howard Association & the Committee to Aid Inmates in Need

Project became Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM).

Michael Harris, UC Hastings College of the Law

Public Housing Monitoring Project with matching grant from San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation

Sandy Weinter, UC Hastings College of the Law

Refugee Childrens’ Advocacy Project with El Rescate

1984-85

David Schott, Santa Clara University School of Law

Assistance for the Developmentally Disabled Project with the Mental Health Advocacy Project

Bess Murchison Brewer, University of Michigan Law School

Medicare Advocacy Project with the National Senior Citizens Law Center & the National Health Program

1983-84

Sharon Ngim, UC Hastings College of the Law

Asian Womens’ Legal Assistance Project at San Francisco Chinatown’s Cameron House

Eliseo Sisneros

Imperial Valley Immigration Project with California Rural Legal Assistance

Enrique Monguia, Berkeley Law

Mission Community Defense Welfare Advocacy with Mission Community Legal Defense, Inc. 

1982-83

Elizabeth Hendrickson, Golden Gate University School of Law

Alameda County Domestic Violence Project with Bay Area Battered Womens’ Shelters

Randy Shaw, UC Hastings College of the Law

Anti-Displacement Project with the North of Market Planning Commission

Miriam Hayward, Berkeley Law

Central American Refugees Program housed in The Most Holy Redeemer Church

Peter Pitegoff, New York University School of Law

Industrial Cooperative Legal Education with Industrial Cooperative Association

1981-82

Jo Ann Abramson, Catholic University of America, and Karen Knopp O’Kinski

D.C. Housing Law Project

Harriet Prensky, UCLA School of Law

Nursing Home Advocacy Project with Bet Tzedek Legal Services

Jay Koslofsky, University of San Francisco School of Law

Oakland Eviction Defense Center with the Oakland Tenant Union

Ramiro Castro, UC Hastings College of the Law

Undocumented Immigrants’ Rights Project with La Raza Centro Legal

1980-81

Amanda Hawes, Harvard Law School, Carolyn Langenkamp, UC Davis School of Law, Blythe Nikelson

Electronics Committee Legal Component with the Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety and Health

Tom Nazario, University of San Francisco School of Law

Street Law Project with USF Community Legal Education Program

1979-80

Rita Bank, Columbus School of Law

Family Abuse Project with Columbus Community Legal Services Clinic

Donna Meyers Ambrogi, Stanford Law School

Legal Resources and Education Center for the Elderly with Legal Assistance for the Elderly

Nicholas George Rodriguez, Berkeley Law

Pasadena Community Development Monitoring and Advocacy Project with El Centro de Accion Social

1978-79

Lujuana Treadwell, Berkeley Law

Family Day Care Law Project with BANANAS in Berkeley and the San Francisco Lawyer’s Committee on Urban Affairs

Ellen Barry, New York University School of Law

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Jointly funded by BLF and NYU Public Interest Law Foundation. Project became a continuing nonprofit organization.

1977-78

Paul Silver, Berkeley Law, and Bob Funk, UC Davis School of Law

Disability Law Project with the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley

Donna Hitchens, Berkeley Law

Lesbian Rights Project with Equal Rights Advocates

Project became the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

1976-77

Victoria Chin, Berkeley Law

Employment Labor Project for Asian Workers with the Asian Law Caucus