A Message from the Executive Director
Starting with our first in-person Clinics Open House in two years, this month has seen our clinics abuzz with end-of-semester activity: current students diligently resolving casework and new students learning about and interviewing to join next year's clinics. In this transitional moment, we reflect on the tremendous achievements of our clients this year and celebrate the outstanding 2022 graduates who represented them. As students depart for the summer, staff continue to stand with our clients – their cases don’t stop, so neither do we! We thank our supporters and colleagues for making it all possible.
-Elizabeth Bluestein
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2022 Outstanding Clinical Student Awards This year’s superlative clinical students fought to protect the education rights of foster children, removed barriers to employment for the formerly incarcerated, mediated custody agreements, obtained compensation for victims of crime, resolved tax issues, successfully represented unaccompanied minors, and welcomed clients home from prison and juvenile detention—just to name a few of the accomplishments that qualified these graduating students for 2022 Outstanding Clinic Student Awards. Read about all of them and join us in our warmest congratulations to them all!
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 LCCR Launches Mediator in Residence ProgramThis spring, the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution held its first Mediator in Residence (MIR) session at partner site Homeboy Industries. With the MIR program, LCCR brings its mediation and conciliation services directly to the community to reach individuals who might not otherwise be aware of the availability of this service. LCCR staff and students will be on site at Homeboy Industries once a month to share information and discuss the option of mediating or conciliating a range of disputes. More>>
| |  LIJC Students Realize Lifelong Dream of Immigrant AdvocacyLoyola Immigrant Justice Clinic students Thalia Acosta '22 and Yuri Blons '23 took lessons learned from representing LIJC clients in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) matters to Sacramento this week after working with partners at the Western Center on Law and Poverty to draft legislative language for Assembly Bill 2004, which creates loan forgiveness programs for "Dreamers" attending California public universities. More>>
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LPI at the Innocence Network Conference
This month, thanks to generous support from the American Bar Endowment, The Reissa Foundation and the Amgen Foundation, Loyola Project for the Innocent attorneys, students and clients headed to Phoenix for the Innocence Network Conference. In attendance were over 70 innocence organizations, and roughly 200 people who have been freed from wrongful convictions after collectively suffering 6,030 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. LPI was proud to accompany four wrongfully convicted clients: Andrew Wilson (32 years in prison, freed in 2017), Jane Dorotik (20 years in prison, freed in 2020), Janet Dixon (40 years in prison, freed in 2020) and Dwight Jones (20 years in prison, freed in 2021). Mr. Jones experienced a true family reunion at the conference when he ran into his first cousin, who was also wrongfully convicted in an unrelated matter and finally freed from prison months before Dwight was released. Because of their wrongful convictions, it was the first time the cousins had seen each other since 1994. More>>
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|  Genocide Center Eyes Issues in Russia-Ukraine Conflict The Center for the Study of Law & Genocide recently hosted a panel event examining factual, legal and humanitarian concerns at the heart of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia's claims of genocide targeting ethnic Russians in Ukraine are one of Putin's asserted rationales for invading Ukraine. Following the invasion, Ukraine filed an application against Russia at the International Court of Justice under the U.N. Genocide Convention alleging its right to be free from such false claims and not to be subjected to military operations on its territory based on such claims. Watch>>
| |  RISE Clinic Hosts Event on Criminal Justice ReformThe Rights in Systems Enforced (RISE) Clinic hosted a symposium at Loyola Law School on April 20 in honor of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Attendees commenced what the RISE Clinic plans as an ongoing dialogue that brings together judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and crime survivors to work together on identifying solutions that are culturally and socially responsive to crime victims. Sessions included Survivors Shifting The Converstation On Victims’ Rights and The Court’s Role in Victims’ Rights. More>>
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LSJLC in the News: Recent Highlights
- Sheriff Alex Villanueva is Obstructing Attempts to Eradicate Deputy Gangs from the LASD, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Apr. 8, 2022
- Gipson Bill to Protect Undocumented Victims of Human Trafficking Passes First Committee, Los Angeles Sentinel, Mar. 31, 2022
- Los Angeles County is Investigating Sheriff's Department's 'Deputy Gangs', CNN, Mar. 25, 2022
- L.A. County Panel Launches Investigation Into Sheriff’s Department ‘Deputy Gangs’, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 24, 2022
- A California Lawmaker Wants To Crack Down On Employers That Exploit Farmworkers. Will It Help?, The Counter, Feb. 21, 2022
- Who Qualifies as a Courtroom Gang Expert?, Voices of Monterey Bay, Feb. 5, 2022
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