|
2009-2010 HPILF Grantees
Jasmine Berndt (Class of 2012)
Legal
Aid Society Employment Law Center – San Francisco, California
A
primary task was to update the WRC Employment Law Manual, a comprehensive
resource used in all of the WRCs and sold to practitioners to raise funds
for the program. I worked with the
other Direct Services clerk on this project throughout the summer, interspersed
with our other work. I learned a
significant amount of substantive employment law through this process.
I
also had the opportunity to represent two different people in administrative
hearings, where the client was appealing a denial of unemployment insurance
benefits. I consider the work I did
with these clients as among the most valuable of the summer. In each case, I met with the client multiple
times. Some of these meetings were
interviews to learn the case facts, and in later meetings we prepared for
the trial by readying the client for direct and cross examination. In both cases, I researched the issues,
developed a theory of the case, considered employer theories, and drafted
examination questions for the client and the opposing employer and a
closing argument. I had a lot of
resources and preparation in the office, and then went to the hearings with
the clients without supervision. I
really appreciated the trust and independence, which made it easy to really
take charge of the case.
I
was already committed to working in the public interest when chose to spend
my summer at LAS-ELC. I appreciated
the opportunity to learn so much about the issues confronting low-income
workers and the creative works attorneys are doing to address that in a
systemic way. I have gained a
remarkable foundational knowledge of employment law, which I am drawing on
now in my work in the Civil Justice Clinic’s Individual Representation
Clinic, and which I expect to use in the future. Further, the incredible attorneys that I
worked with were supportive and encouraging. They made a point of talking with me
about my goals and offering themselves as resources and mentors in the
future.
Nedda
Black (Class of 2012)
California Appellate Project – San
Francisco, CA
Working
at the California Appellate Project was a truly inspiring experience, as it
provided me with the incredible opportunity to work side-by-side a
first-rate team of lawyers, advocates, investigators, and law students, on
death penalty habeas appeals. I can not think of
any other place of such a small size where one can find so many energetic,
compassionate, and dedicated people, all sharing one common goal! Every
member of the team brought to the table a unique set of experiences, insights,
and talents, not to mention their own very special sense of humor and zest
for life. The summer was as much about connecting with others as it was
about the work. Our tasks were generally matched with our experiences.
Since my own professional background is in trauma, my major project this
summer involved extracting mitigating facts from a client’s psychosocial
history and amassing a body of scientific research demonstrating the impact
those facts were likely to have upon his emotional, cognitive, and behavioral
development. The purpose of this evidence was to bolster the appeal of his
death sentence.
Meeting
face-to-face with the client provided further opportunity to explore, and
understand, in more depth, the many ways in which his upbringing affected
him and influenced the choices that he made, culminating in the tragedy
that landed him on death row. This summer has made me more determined than
ever to pursue a career in public interest law.
Christopher Curran (Class of 2011)
Sustainable Economics Law Center –
Oakland, California
My summer internship with the
SELC started off with an introduction to its five program areas. SELC’s co-directors organized one of our
first events of the summer by taking the other legal interns and I on a Cooperatives Tour to visit members of an artists’
coop, a housing coop, a bakery coop, and a community credit union. At each location, we spoke with members
and founders of the coop about its history and the legal issues that come
up in relation to how the coop is run and managed. The coops we visited had achieved
economic sustainability and profitability for their owner-employees, and
were also committed to maintaining social and environmental sustainability
in every aspect of their work. This
tour was an illuminating chance to get a sense of the inner workings and
legal organizational structures of cutting edge organizations.
I quickly delved into the heart
of my summer internship: helping to
develop an online legal resource library for urban farmers and gardeners. I created an online wiki site to upload
resources such as guides, articles, and links related to access to land,
property taxes and incentives for urban agriculture, zoning, private late
covenants and homeowners’ associations, liability and insurance, building
codes, health and safety regulations, right to farm laws and nuisance laws,
water access, and employment law issues.
One
of the most pressing current issues facing farmers was the pattern of
enforcement by the California Department Industrial Relations Division of
Labor Standards Enforcement putting many small and sustainable farming
operations at risk. In light of this
and other complex legal issues affecting farmers, I worked with the
director to recruit a Working Group of legal and planning experts to do
research. Our work culminated in an
“Urban Agriculture Legal Meet Up” that was held on July 12, 2010 and
attended by more than 50 farmers and urban agriculture enthusiasts. We gave an overview presentation and
responded to specific questions, and we distributed a “frequently asked
questions” document at the event. I
was very gratified to be part of an educational effort to make the legal
rules around farming more comprehensible to the people who are engaged in
the important work of growing food.
Deanna
Dyer
Women’s
Initiatives for Gender Justice – The Hague, Netherlands
Women’s
Initiatives is an international women’s human rights organization that
advocates for a gender inclusive International Criminal Court. My internship there was the best
experience I’ve had as an intern. I
learned an immense amount about international law in general and the
International Criminal Court (ICC) specifically.
Women’s
Initiatives publishes The Gender
Report Card each year which reports on the activity of the ICC,
including Court decisions, and analyzes the Court’s treatment of gender
based crimes. Women’s Initiatives
then makes The Gender Report Card
available to state parties to the Rome Statute, Judges, civil society, and
the international community in general.
The publication includes recommendations to the Court and places
pressure on the Court to fulfill these recommendations.
The
majority of my time at Women’s Initiatives was spent reading and briefing
Court decisions and important parties’ filings which will aid in drafting The Gender Report Card. I followed the activity of the Court
through reading its decisions and following the trials. This was primarily done through the
Court’s website and secondary sources; however, I attended hearings at the
Court on a couple of occasions.
Some
Court decisions warrant close examination, in which case I wrote memos that
summarized the decision, it’s connection to precedent, and it’s implication
on gender issues. Interns often
complete research assignments as well.
I completed a document that detailed the each phase of the charges
in all the cases before the ICC to track the rate that gender-based crimes
were dropped.
Dustin Earle (Class of 2012)
Disability Rights Legal Center –
Los Angeles, California
I worked in both the educational
advocacy and Civil Rights litigation departments. While working in the educational advocacy
department I was able to represent youth at their Individual Education Plan
(special education) meetings. This
experience was great because at the beginning of the Summer I would attend
these meetings with an attorney, but by the end of the Summer I was able to
attend with another intern and no attorney present. This “hands on” experience greatly
improved my negotiation skills and there was a lot of responsibility given
to us. At these meetings we would
negotiate directly with school administrators, principals, and teachers for
students special education services. All of our clients were from
under-privileged areas and many did not speak English. They were very grateful for our help with
their children’s education and it felt great providing these services for
free to families in need.
The
DRLC was very helpful giving feedback and wanted the interns to learn about
disability rights law and practicing public interest law in general. Every week there would be a class taught
to all the attorneys and interns which would range from “How to conduct class
action law suits” to “Fee Collection”.
These classes were very helpful and informative.
Corey Hall (Class of 2012)
Brooklyn Defender Services – New
York, New York
I
was hired along with two other immigration interns. Together we split up the arraignment
shifts in which we worked on the survey.
This essentially consisted of asking the public defenders to tell us
when there was a non-citizen and then going back to their holding cell and
asking them. The arraignment shifts
were a great opportunity to talk to clients with immigration issues and
learn more about the hardships that undocumented individuals face in this
country. I was amazed by the sheer
number of people without documentation and how individuals were facing
deportation even after having lived here for the majority of their life.
In
addition, each immigration intern was given files of individual cases on
which to work. These typically
consisted of following up with clients, many of whom were in Rikers Island, and seeing if there was anything we
could do to get them out of removal proceedings. One of the clients I was assigned to, an
Israeli woman who had lived in the United States
since she was three, was facing deportation over having a second crime
involving moral turpitude—a drug charge.
This woman was in an incredibly abusive relationship and her ex had
recently gained full custody of their child. She was lost, finding solace in drugs,
and now ordered deported. We were
able to get the judge to reopen her case on a VAWA (Violence Against Women
Act) petition and we were successful in getting her out of removal
proceedings. She is now clean and
working on getting custody of her child.
This
summer was an amazing experience learning about
the intersection of immigration and criminal law and I am so thankful to
HPILF for making it possible.
Working in public interest for the summer has reinforced my desire
to pursue a career in public interest law, and I am excited to continue to
learn more about the opportunities to work in public interest.
Ryan Harris (Class of 2012)
American Civil Liberties Union of
Arizona – Phoenix, Arizona
The
financial support I received from HPILF allowed me to take an unpaid
clerkship last summer with the American Civil Liberties Union of
Arizona. I was one of two interns in
an office that only had three attorneys.
We were treated like professionals on our first day in the office,
and were tasked with projects that were truly vital to our clients.
San
Francisco is a great city, and its status as a
place for activists draws bright students from around the country which
means stiff competition for jobs. But there are important legal battles
raging around the country, in many places where students would not imagine
themselves spending the summer months.
I can’t imagine I could have found an experience in San Francisco
that compared to my summer in Phoenix.
I
got an opening to work on one of the biggest immigrants’ rights cases in
years, one that may well reach the Supreme Court and have permanent
implications for immigration and civil rights. Having the opportunity to work on such an
important case may have completely changed the trajectory of my career
path. I entered law school with an
interest in working as an immigration lawyer, and while I haven’t
foreclosed that option, I discovered a great interest in impact
litigation. In addition to the legal
and procedural aspects I learned about from working on the case, I also got
a chance to see what it takes to handle communications with a diverse
coalition of plaintiffs, and how to deal with an intense media
spotlight. The case was front page
news in Arizona every day I was in Phoenix, which added an extra layer of
intensity to what we all knew was an incredibly important issue for our
clients and people around the state.
I was thrilled to be there long enough to see a victory in getting
the law temporarily enjoined.
Nadia Kayyali
Bay Area Legal Aid – San
Francisco, CA
I helped CalWORKS
recipients with the Legal Barriers to Employment Project and the CalWORKS Client Advocacy Project. With the CalWORKS
Client Advocacy Project, I got to advocate for clients with CalWORKS issues, such as underpayment of monthly aid,
welfare to work problems, and more. I also got to conduct information
sessions on due process rights for clients and teach them what their rights
are under welfare regulations and the Constitution. With the Legal Barriers
to Employment Project I got to help clients overcome legal barriers to
employment such as criminal records and suspended driver's license, but I
focused more on CCAP work.
I took on my own caseload of CalWORKS recipients quickly. Much of my work required
determining what was going on with the case by communicating with case
workers, determining what the applicable rule was, and then advocating for
the client or helping them to advocate for themselves. This meant that I
got the chance to draft many communications to the county. I was often
successful in increasing the amount of aid clients were receiving, or
resolving other issues. In fact, I made one novel argument for a client
that my supervisor had me sent to a public benefits email list, as it was
something that may be useful for other advocates in the future. I also got
the opportunity to attend and participate in monthly policy meetings with
county welfare administrators and advocate for clients in that way.
This work is important because
right now, the situation for welfare recipients is pretty dire. Conversely,
with the horrible economy more and more people are depending on welfare.
Funding is being cut left and right. Workers are also being cut, leaving
them with huge caseloads and more chance for mistakes. It is important to
never forget the bottom line; there are people who are depending on their
aid to pay their rent, to get on the bus, and to feed their children. At
the same time, legal services are absolutely overwhelmed and their funding
is getting cut too. Without the services of interns and volunteer
attorneys, their capability to assist clients would be dramatically lower
than it is.
Anna Kirsch (Class of 2011)
Urban Justice Center’s Community
Development Project – New York, New York
Unlike
a traditional legal aid organization, CDP does not provide one-time legal
services to individuals, but rather provides long-term support to
community-based organizations to encourage the creation of community-driven
solutions. I choose to intern at CDP because of its commitment to working
with organizations led by poor people and people of color, as well as its
belief that real change is achieved through community empowerment and
education.
Throughout
the summer I worked with various community-based organizations supporting
the rights of low-income tenants, workers and consumers throughout New York
City. My housing work focused on collaborating with groups of tenants in
the Bronx who were often living in dilapidated apartment buildings with a
number of code violations. I was able to assist these tenants and their
families in bringing group actions against their landlords to remedy
life-threatening conditions in their homes. I also represented individual
tenants who were facing threats of retaliatory eviction from their
landlords for their organizing efforts.
Additionally
I had the opportunity to work with workers’ rights groups representing
individuals suffering workplace abuse. Specifically I worked with Domestic
Workers United (DWU), an organization made up of housekeepers, nannies and
care providers seeking to improve their workplace conditions. I was able to
help strengthen DWU’s organizing efforts by providing members with the
necessary legal support to change their workplace conditions.
I also worked with workers’
rights groups pursuing non-legal strategies to make long-term systemic
change. For instance I worked with a group of Spanish-speaking nannies to
form a worker-owned cooperative called Beyond Care. Helping these women
create a cooperative ensured that they would have healthy and safe
workplaces and gave them a measure of control over their employment and
their lives that they had never had before. Through this project I learned
about the importance of coupling litigation with non-legal strategies to
support community change.
Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel (Class
of 2011)
LatinoJustice/PRLDEF
– New York, New York
LatinoJustice/PRLDEF
is an impact litigation organization that strives to protect the civil
rights of Latino immigrants living in the U.S. This summer, they had a
number of active cases on their docket. I worked primarily on two cases-
one that involved unconstitutional ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) home raids in the New York area, and another case taking place
in Florida involving a §1983 claim around ICE detainers and bond posting. I
was also involved with work around LatinoJustice’s
2008 petition to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights regarding
the federal government’s inability and unwillingness to protect Latinos
residing in this country.
It felt good to be the face of
Hastings students, especially because two of the attorneys are also Hastings
alums. We were instantly welcomed
into the warm, collegial atmosphere at the office. We were constantly busy, but the staff
was committed to also showing us a good time.
Our clients comprised a diverse
group of Latino individuals. Geographically, our client base this summer
extended from West Palm Beach, Florida to much of Suffolk County in New
York. They included American citizens, legal permanent residents, and
undocumented individuals. Their
countries of origin included El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Dominican
Republic, and Mexico. Many have only a minimal level of education, and most
are low-income. Working with clients is one of my favorite aspects of lawyering, and preparing some of our plaintiffs for
their depositions was a highlight of my summer. Their stories of abuse by
the authorities were heart wrenching, and served as meaningful reminders of
why I chose this line of work. Especially interesting for me was observing
the attorneys train clients in the use of their 5th amendment rights. It is
truly inspiring to see the ways in which the U.S. constitution extends its
protection to all people within its borders, regardless of legal status.
This has been such a prescient summer in that respect, especially in regard
to the situation unfolding in Arizona and across many states.
Brenda L. Valle (Class of 2011)
Legal Aid Foundation of Los
Angeles – Los Angeles, California
During my summer employment at
the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), I was not only able to put
into practice what I have learned in the past two years in school, but I
was also able to walk away with a tremendous amount of satisfaction knowing
that I was able to help so many low-income clients.
During
my stint at LAFLA I worked in their Employment Law Unit with several
attorneys. Representing clients at
their unemployment insurance appeal hearings was one of the most rewarding
experiences. Although I was not able
to achieve a favorable outcome in all of the hearings, it felt great to be
told by the clients that they were very grateful that I was there to
represent them and they did not know what they would have done
otherwise. Although during my first
few hearings I was probably more nervous than my clients, over time and
with the guidance of the attorneys, I was able to stand up and fight for
the benefits that my clients needed.
The friendly and educationally enriching environment that was
LAFLA’s Employment Law Unit, coupled with the legal representation I was
able to provide, made my summer a memorable one.
I
can simply say that my summer at LAFLA was an extremely rewarding and
enriching experience that reaffirmed my intent to practice employment law
and help low-income communities.
Thank you HPILF for awarding me the funds and contributing to my
rewarding summer in a wonderful organization like LAFLA.
Veronica J. Williams (Class of
2011)
Texas RioGrande
Legal Aid – El Paso, Texas
TRLA
provides free civil and criminal legal services to residents of Southwest
Texas and it is the principal provider of these services in 68 Texas
counties. Eighty percent of TRLA’s
clients are of Mexican descent and poor—to qualify for free civil legal services,
clients must have an income at or below 125 percent of federal poverty
guidelines. This summer I served the
public interest by serving communities that are in need of free legal
services.
Working with TRLA furthered my
goal of representing marginalized communities. I was primarily involved in the areas of
labor and employment, probate, housing, public benefits and consumer
law. I drafted discovery requests
for a retaliation case and reviewed discovery produced in an age
discrimination law suit. I
represented a client at an eviction proceeding before a Justice of the
Peace Judge. I also successfully
negotiated a settlement agreement between a landlord and former homeless
client facing potential eviction.
Towards the end of my clerkship I did outreach in Van Horn, Texas, a
rural community outside of El Paso, Texas.
In addition to learning different litigation strategies and refining
my research and writing skills, I had the opportunity to interview clients
and learn about how individuals who are oppressively poor deal grapple with
their legal options. Overall, my
fellowship experience was outstanding and confirmed my interest in pursuing
a career in public interest law.
Sheila Winslow (Class of 2011)
Bay Area Legal Aid – San Francisco,
California
My summer law clerkship at Bay
Area Legal Aid was fulfilling and educational. I learned a lot about the substantive and
procedural aspects of Civil/Administrative law for the communities I am
interested in working with. These
communities include those with disabilities, immigrants, single parents,
and those recently released from incarceration. I was able to take on my own cases and
research and write about broader subject matter that affects Bay Legal
Clients more broadly.
I worked in the Housing Law
unit. The cases I took on included
those of eviction, public housing denials, and a small claims case for
non-English speaking immigrants. I
also was able to represent two clients at administrative hearings who had
been removed from the public housing waitlist. This was very rewarding and educational
because I was able to write a legal position statement, get to know the
client personally, and see the case through to the end.
I also wrote two research pieces
on the larger legal issues that were questionable and affected a great
amount of the clients Bay Legal serves.
This reminded me that the work I do as a law student, contrary to my
occasional doubt, is actually important in the larger scheme of things.
My experience as a law clerk at Bay
Area Legal Aid opened my mind to the range of legal services I can provide
and the clients I can serve. It has
affirmed my goal of becoming a Public Interest Lawyer. I am incredibly appreciative of the funds
I received from the Tobriner Grant and the
Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation.
This made it possible for me to fulfill my goals and continue on my
path as a Public Interest lawyer.
Elaine Zhong
United States Department of
Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel – San Francisco, CA
I intend to practice
environmental law in the public sector in the future, so the USDA was
generally a great place for me to learn the General Counsel office culture
and to understand how politics, law, and various competing interests (the
“general public”, private companies, and non-profits) intersect to
influence decision-making at the federal agency level.
I
was able to do research on the National Environmental Policy Act and its
interaction with climate change. I
also read practitioner’s guides and other guidance published by other
federal agencies on this issue. Near
the end of my internship, I was able to sit in on a webinar hosted by
researchers at the University of Washington that explained how climate change
vegetation models worked. I was also
able to do a small research assignment on how the USFS can discharge its
duties under the Endangered Species Act when monitoring the Northern
Spotted Owl.
I
was also able to work on an extensive research memo providing
recommendations for a First Amendment free speech issue on national forest
service grounds. The memo explored
various ways to cite visitors under the Code of Federal Regulations and
explored First Amendment defenses that such visitors might raise. For the assignment, I was able to speak
to a USDA attorney in the D.C. office who specialized in civil rights.
My
experience at the USDA really cemented my desire to work in the public
sector, especially in environmental law.
I found that the USDA attorneys got to work on cutting edge issues,
such as the climate change/NEPA issue.
|
