A Message from the Executive Director
This month we congratulate our students and clients as they celebrate graduations and other hard-won achievements during the past year. And we welcome back our faculty, staff, students and clients as we prepare to return to campus for fall 2021, when we expect to unite the innovations developed during remote learning with the enhanced collaboration made possible by being together in person.
For returning students, there are still opportunities to participate in fall clinics. Take a look if you’re interested in joining our clinic community.
To our supporters, we extend our gratitude for making our work possible and creating opportunities for our students and our clients to shine.
-Elizabeth Bluestein
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Independent Forensic Gang Expert College Graduates 10 Community Resource Workers as Legal Gang Experts
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In June, the Center for Juvenile Law & Policy (CJLP) concluded its inaugural Independent Forensic Gang Expert College (IFGEC), a training series for forensic gang experts. Significantly, all 10 of the program graduates were involved both in gangs and the criminal legal system as juveniles.
The long-time brainchild of CJLP Director Sean Kennedy, the IFGEC finally came into being with a generous grant from the California Wellness Foundation. With an educational team coordinated by Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing (JIFS) Clinic Staff Attorney Marisa Harris and featuring Juvenile Justice Clinic (JJC) Director Brooke Harris, JIFS Director Chris Hawthorne, Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) Director Marissa Montes and law student Sierra White '22, the IFGEC is designed to provide a balance to the one-sided gang narrative in criminal trials and proceedings. Read more>>
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Juvenile Justice Clinic (JJC) Welcomes Brooke Harris as Clinic Director
Brooke Harris, who has been a part of the JJC since the fall of 2016, is a leader in juvenile justice reform in Los Angeles and beyond. Harris’s leadership helped pivot the JJC amid the pandemic, helping students adapt to virtual trial work. She also presented novel legal arguments related to COVID-19 and its unique challenges for her clients. Under her direction, JJC student advocates managed to help clients find freedom with COVID-19-related arguments. Read more>>
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Clinic Students Become EJW Fellows
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Join us in congratulating Heidi Gonzales '21, former LIJC student, and Tanling Nancy Hsu '21, a former student of JIFS and LCCR, who have both been named recipients of a 2021 Equal Justice Works Fellowship, one of the most prestigious and competitive post-graduate legal fellowships in the country.
As an EJW Fellow, Heidi will be hosted at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), where she will represent indigenous unaccompanied immigrant children in the San Francisco Bay Area and train law students in immigration law. Her fellowship is cosponsored by the Microsoft Corporation and Reed Smith LLP.
Nancy will provide community-based advocacy and legal support to address access barriers to mental health care for low-income children and youth in California. She will be hosted by the National Health Law Program. Her fellowship has been funded by an anonymous supporter.
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 | LIJC Client Graduates from Cal Poly Pomona with Degree in Aerospace Engineering
In 2020, the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) secured legal permanent residency through Special Immigrant Juvenile status for siblings Chris O and Christy O. Chris recently reached out to inform our team that due to the efforts of LIJC securing his legal permanent residency, he was able to return to school and has now graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. Read more>> | |  | Dependency Court Mediation Assistance Clinic (DC-MAC) Resumes Remote Mediations
In January 2021, after 10 months without offering dependency court mediations for families, the Court announced that it would allow remote mediations. Since then, the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution's DC-MAC, with the support of student Lisethmarie Lopez '21, has conducted 57 remote mediations. DC-MAC student Amal Sardesai '23 found her passion for mediation this summer. Read more about her experience here>>
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LPI Client Janet Dixon Completes Parole Early
Free from All Restrictions after Just One Year
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In 1980, Janet Dixon was arrested at just 18 years old, threatened with the death penalty, convicted and illegally sentenced to die in prison. After nearly 40 years of wrongful incarceration, the Loyola Project for the Innocent (LPI) helped secure Janet’s release in 2020.
Janet was ordered to comply with stringent parole conditions for five years, but last month, the court agreed that Janet had satisfied all conditions of her parole in just one year and terminated her parole early. Read more>>
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 | YJEC and JJC Celebrate Clients' High School Graduations
Youth Justice Education Clinic (YJEC) Staff Attorney Vivian Wong and student Drew Jorgensen '22 met “Angel” when he was a high-school junior. After advocating for an evaluation of his educational needs, YJEC helped Angel obtain long overdue special education and related services, including the court-ordered counseling that enabled him to complete a condition of probation. Read more>>
| |  | LIJC Staff Discuss Status Pending Film with Documentary Participants
In April, LIJC staff attorneys and LLS Alumna Maria Villa '86, hosted a screening of the documentary Status Pending. After the screening, Villa and the LIJC team joined immigration attorneys featured in the film, which brings to life the struggles of immigrant advocates fighting on the front line, in a discussion of how LIJC prepares lawyers for the challenging realities of immigration law. Learn more & watch LIJC's panel discussion>> | |
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Nhut Vo: From Life Sentence to Living Life
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|  | Since his release, Nhut Vo (left) has continued to embrace his art and is working with the Pawsitive Change program, which he first encountered while incarcerated.
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Nhut Vo, who was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole as a juvenile, received a lifeline when the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles to life without parole constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic (JIFS) reached out to Nhut, persuaded that he should not have received the sentence he did. Nhut was represented by numerous students through the years, including Michael Petersen '16, now a staff attorney for LPI, Jonathan Bremen '19, Tara Khani '17, Christina Bazak '15, Kristen Durkan '22 and Claire Kennedy '20. Read more>>
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LSJLC In The News: Recent Highlights
- Defense: New Findings Show Evidence Against Valley Center Woman in Decades-Old Murder Case Is Unreliable, The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 19, 2021
- Licensing Nonlawyers to Practice Would Exacerbate ‘Notario’ Problem, The Daily Journal, April 19, 2021
- The Battle to Root Out Police Gangs Like the Executioners from LA County Sheriff’s Department, The Independent, June 10, 2021
- Are Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s “Criminal Investigations” of So-Called Adversaries Chilling Oversight of the LASD? A Report Says Yes, WitnessLA, July 15, 2021
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