Upcoming Dates and Deadlines!

PILF Auction
Friday, March 28, 5 to 9pm, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
The 2014 Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) Auction promises to be the highlight of GGU’s social calendar. Tickets are on sale now! You don’t want to miss out on this fun night that also benefits your fellow students. Bid on great items such as dinner at Henry Hunan's with Professor Sylvester or dinner at Chaya with Professor Chu, stargazing with Professor Yates, or golf with Professors Porter and Calhoun! Or you can take a progressive, personalized tour of Alcatraz with GGU’s Public Interest Career Counselor and a formerly imprisoned activist!  And don't forget to buy raffle tickets for the chance to win a $500 visa gift card.  Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for non-students. Buy your tickets today! Tickets go up $5 at the door.

Pro Bono Honors Society - Applications due April 3
To honor the breadth of pro bono work performed by the GGU student body, qualifying criteria for the Pro Bono Honors Society has changed.  Applications for membership are due to Public Interest Career Counselor Cynthia Chandler by Thursday, April 3, 2014.  Golden Gate’s Pro Bono Honor Society acknowledges and rewards students who dedicate a significant portion of their time to helping others through participation in pro bono work.  Pro bono work now is more broadly defined as legal work done in service of indigent or modest means individuals or community groups, or for not-for-profit organizations or government agencies, with the primary purpose of providing services to economically disadvantaged communities, or to other not-for-profit organizations or government agencies with a purpose of increasing access to justice or improving the law and legal system.

Public Interest Specialization Certification - Applications Due April 11 for Mention at Public Interest Graduation
To acknowledge the volume and diversity of GGU Law students committed to the public interest, the qualifying criteria for public interest specialization certification has changed to completing the following: 14 units of Public Interest courses; and 135 hours of supervised legal work at a public interest organization, civil rights law firm, or government agency. You now may qualify under the new rules. All students who previously qualified will fit these criteria, too. If you have already applied for a specialization certification that overlaps with public interest work, such as litigation or environmental law, you might ALSO qualify for the public interest certificate.  To have your public interest efforts acknowledged in the April 2014 Public Interest graduation and commencement activities, applications for the Specialization Certificates are due to the Registrar's Office by Friday, April 11. The revised application form and eligibility requirements are available online.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following is the latest installment in a series of spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.

Kristi Schulenberg

Kristi Schulenberg (left) and spouse Kathryn.

Something special about Kristi’s background before she came to law school

Kristi has an impressive, diverse career in the non-profit sector. Before coming to law school, she served as the Director, National Training Program at Amnesty International USA and as Director, Social Justice Program at Catholic Charities USA. In both these positions, she directed and implemented a national training strategy to develop and strengthen advocates in promoting social justice and human rights.

Why Kristi decided to go to law school

Shortly after graduating high school, Kristi moved to Dayton, OH to work in the Office of Social Action at the University of Dayton (UD).Later, as a student at UD, Kristi attended an event where she heard Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, speak about her relationship with a death row inmate. As a result of hearing Sr. Helen’s story she became active in Ohioans To Stop Executions.

Always one to promote compassion and social change, Kristi volunteered to become a pen pal with an inmate on Ohio’s death row. Looking over a list of names, she randomly selected Daniel Bedford. Having no idea what to expect, Kristi began corresponding with Dan on a regular basis through letters, phone calls and visits. Although Dan was convicted of murder for a crime he committed in the mid 80’s, the man Kristi connected with wasn’t the monster many people might expect, but instead was a genuine and kind person who took responsibility for his actions.

Over their more than a decade and a half relationship, Kristi came to regard Dan as family. She was by Dan’s side through numerous appeals, efforts to have a stay of execution granted and even through his execution itself in 2011. Although Dan had an excellent federal public defender at the end of his life, that wasn’t always the case. Kristi’s experience with Dan opened her eyes to the need for dedicated and talented attorneys committed to criminal defense of the indigent and to the idea of creating change through the law.

Something interesting about Kristi’s Law School Experience

By participating in GGU’s Honor’s Lawyering Program, Kristi had several internships. Her first internship after HLP was with Justice Now, where she worked with and assisted transgendered clients in California’s women’s prisons. Since then, she has also interned with the San Francisco Immigration Court where she drafted decisions for asylum and motions to reopen; The Alameda County Office of the Public Defender where she drafted 995 motions and appeared on the record in support of the motions; and The California Appellate Project where she drafted a Wheeler-Batson claim. Through these internships, Kristi gained a breadth of experience and knowledge of numerous areas of criminal and immigration law.

Another highlight of Kristi’s GGU Law experience has been her involvement with The Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF). As a member of the Executive Board of PILF, Kristi has dedicated numerous hours to making sure the PILF Auction goes off without a hitch, thereby raising monies for PILF Grants to law students who seek public interest internships.

Kristi’s message to fellow law students

Kristi’s biggest piece of advice to fellow law students is to complete as many internships as possible during law school. When applying for internships and jobs, having prior experience helps make one stand out from the crowd. To help build professional skills on your resume, get involved with a SORG and take on a leadership role. For a cover letter that will get an interviewer’s attention, tell a personal story that explains why you are passionate about the position and why you would be the best fit.

If Kristi wasn’t in law school right now…

She’d love to be stand up paddling in Hawaii! However, as an alternative, you would find Kristi working as an executive director of a small non-profit focused on policy work or some sort of advocacy and continuously working towards mobilizing people for social change.

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Interviewer: Kelly Murray is a first-year law student at GGU. A life long animal advocate, she plans to focus on animal law after graduation. When she’s not stuck in case books, you can find her at the beach playing with Elly and Harry, her two crazy, senior dogs.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following is the latest installment in a series of spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.

Lindsay Frank

Tell me something special or interesting about your background before you went to law school?

I actually worked as an elder caregiver for a little while before coming to law school. Working as an in-home presented challenges and learning opportunities that I never expected, but I really value. I realized that my clients really depended on me to get through their day and that realization was both daunting and really wonderful. I liked being an elder companion and aide and I got to really know my clients and their histories. I loved hearing stories about their lives and their families.

Why did you decide to go to law school?

I started considering law school while I was earning my Community Studies degree from UC Santa Cruz. I has the opportunity to get involved with some student activism regarding University of California budget cuts and the dismantling of the Community Studies department. The meetings centered around organizing strategies and approaches really sparked my interest in finding legal solutions to what seemed to be injustices to the students.
I also took many classes that critically analyzed various facets of society, heavily focusing on the health care system and feminism from a global perspective. I came to realize that I wanted to pursue a career where I could dedicate myself to the pursuit of social justice and I was drawn to law school so that I could be a legal advocate for those that struggle to access the legal justice system, but need that access the most.

Tell me something special or interesting about your law school experience.

I am currently working with the GGU Women’s Employment Rights Clinic to advocate for domestic caregivers who are working to recover wages that they earned and are entitled to, but were never paid. It’s particularly interesting because as I previously mentioned, I worked as caregiver before coming to law school. I was fortunate enough to be adequately compensated for my work as a caregiver, but I have some idea of how difficult and exhausting this work is, which is why I am so passionate about pursuing justice for these workers.

What is your greatest source of motivation/support as you work towards a career in the public interest?

I have found the most motivation in both clients that I have had the chance to advocate for in clinical settings and other public interest attorneys who love what they do. I attended a OneJustice bus trip clinic last fall, then I had the opportunity to defend a client against eviction while working with Homeless Advocacy Project through the GGU Honors Lawyering Program, and now I’m doing advocacy work for caregivers with WERC. Getting to know real clients and knowing that I have been able to assist them in any way, even if it is just listening to their story and assessing whether or not he or she might have claim, makes all the hard work worth while.

I also have found great motivation and support from other attorneys in the field that I have met at panels, various public interest events in the area, and through volunteer, intern and clinical experiences.

What message/advice do you have for your fellow law students?

I encourage my fellow law students to seek out opportunities to volunteer and do pro bono work because you can get your feet wet doing real-life advocacy work and these experiences give you the opportunity to work alongside some really amazing and inspiring practicing attorneys.

If not in law school right now, what would you be doing?

That’s a tough question. I might still be an elder caregiver or maybe I would have sought a job as a paralegal or an assistant in a law office to get some experience in the field before actually coming to law school.

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Interviewer: Steven Sabel is a first-year law student at GGU. An east coast transplant from NY, he spent the last four years working as a firefighter. He decided to change things up a bit and wanted to pursue a career in law. Alhough always changing, his current interest is in litigation and securities.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following is the latest installment in a series of spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.

Ali Baraff

Ali Baraff is a 3L at GGU Law.
_______________________

Ali grew up in sunny Santa Monica. She
went to an all-girls Catholic high school
in Los Angeles before attending UC Irvine,
where she studied Social Ecology. After
undergrad, she took a year off, interned,
volunteered and worked for Heal the Bay.
Since beginning law school, she has been
involved in a plethora of activities, from
associate editor on the Environmental Law
Journal to law school mentor. 

Ali’s primary ambition is to make a difference in the world. When she worked for the Orange County Coast Keeper in 2009, she was involved in water quality management and explored how acidity levels in the ocean affected the surrounding areas and wildlife. This unveiled a desire to be able make a positive and lasting difference on the world. It also affirmed that law school was the right path in accomplishing her goals.

Ali is a competitive ocean swimmer. She swam in the ocean all through high school. In 2012, she was the first woman to win the Penguin Swim, a 500-yard swim on New Year’s Day at 8 AM! She even has a trophy as tall as me and I’m 5’2”. It’s safe to say, swimming is her thing.

From 2009-2010, Ali was an Aquarist for Heal the Bay in Santa Monica, CA. She fed and cleaned the marine life and logged important information about them. She also taught visitors about the animals and how they reflect the Pacific Ocean wildlife.

Ali is extremely active here at GGU. She served as the panel co-chair for the Water Law Symposium. She is active in PAD and her favorite classes so far include Real Estate Transactions and ELS.

Ali’s main source of motivation is that she never feels like she’s done enough. This is evident with her abundance of volunteer work and impressive accomplishments while at GGU.

If not in law school, Ali would be in medical school studying to be a cardio-thoracic surgeon or a pediatrician. Either way, she would be out in the world being super-woman and making an amazing impact on the world!

Her advice to other law students is to never lose track of their goals. Her specific advice to first-year students is to talk to upperclassmen. They went through the same exact thing as you and they are more than willing to share their experience.

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Interviewer: Kasee Kinzler is a first-year law student at GGU. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and went to undergrad at CSU, Chico. After law school, she is interested in pursuing a career in environmental law.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following is the latest installment in a series of spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.
  Denisse Tanasa

Denisse Tanasa is a 2L at GGU Law

Is there a particular part of your background that contributed to your decision to go to law school?

Before coming to law school, I received my BA in Justice Studies from San Jose State, which is where I had my first glimpse of the legal system. During my undergraduate years, I worked for a criminal defense attorney, which gave me practical insight into a specific area of law. I always knew I wanted to work in the public sector, but my interest in criminal justice - specifically criminal defense – came from those experiences, as well as my own family history.

My family moved to the United States from Romania when I was a young child. Having lived under the Iron Curtain of Soviet Russia, my parents instilled in me a great deal of respect for the democracy and justice of our new home. Although our system in the States is far from perfect, I have always highly valued the ideals of due process and equal protection, and felt drawn to make them part of my career.

Describe something special about your law school experience.

Law school is different than undergrad for many reasons, but the most striking to me is the amount of commitment you and your classmates show on a daily basis. In law school everyone works incredibly hard, and as a result the competition for top grades is that much more challenging than undergrad.

Fortunately, if you want help – both in class and with internships – GGU has fantastic resources to offer.

What is your greatest motivation as you advance toward a career in public interest?

I am very fortunate to have parents who support me wholeheartedly and believe in my desire to have an impact on my community. I’ve also been encouraged by the staff at the Santa Clara Public Defender's office, where I’ve interned since the spring of 2012. Here at GGU, many of my teachers, such as Professor Yates, inspire me to pursue a career in public service.

What message do you have for your fellow law students, especially 1Ls?

As far as getting through school, try to relax a bit and enjoy what you are learning. Understand that one bad exam does not tank your entire law school career. You’re going to be okay and what might feel like a crisis now will seem entirely trivial in six months.

Take practice exams! As smart as you sound in class, it does not mean you can coherently synthesize that information in writing under a time limit.

Most importantly, figure out what part of the law you love and do that before concerning yourself with making money. As a wise (and happy) attorney once told me, “Do what you love, do it well, and the money will come.”

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Interviewer: Michael Portman is a 1L Public Interest Scholar. Before coming to GGU, he spent a year as Princeton In Asia Fellow before taking a position as an investigator for the Habeas Corpus Resource Center.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following article is the third in a series of five spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.
Kalla Hirschbein

Kalla is a May 2011 graduate and an attorney and policy advisor at the Institute for Fisheries Resources. Her first job out of college was conducting legal research for National Resource Defense Council to save the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja, Mexico. It’s one of the few places gray whales go to calf, and Mitsubishi proposed a huge salt plant that would have destroyed it. She participated in one of the first internet campaigns for an environmental cause and the United Nations declared San Ignacio Lagoon a World Heritage site. She was inspired to see the place she helped save when she and her mom drove down to see the whales a few years ago.

Kalla also worked for other nonprofits, mostly in the environmental field, ranging from local small grassroots organizations to national groups including Planned Parenthood. Although she loved working for nonprofits, she decided to go to law school out of her desire to be the one to get things done, rather than merely funding it as her work entailed prior to law school.

While in law school, Kalla spent two years on the Environmental Law Journal. She spent her 1L summer interning with San Diego Coastkeeper. During her 2L summer, she studied international environmental law in Costa Rica.

The ocean is Kalla’s greatest source of motivation as she works towards a career in public interest. She grew up in San Diego going to the beach and tidepools. She has been scuba diving for 14 years and lives to travel to dive spots. Seeing how much the habitat has declined has been very depressing but also has made her more determined. In addition, through her recent work for a nonprofit representing small commercial fisherman she has become acquainted with a number of people who depend on the ecosystem for their livelihoods. She is motivated to do everything she can to help them continue to fish.

Kalla advises her fellow law students to be persistent and assertive with what you want to do, especially regarding jobs and internships. If you get turned down, follow up and take them for coffee. Eventually you will find a position. It is also extremely beneficial to get to know your professors.

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Interviewer: Alexandra Baraff is a 2L student and an Environmental Law Scholar. Last summer, she served as a legal intern at Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CARE). Currently, she is interning in Kalla's office, the Institute for Fisheries Resources.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following article is the second in a series of five spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.
Milo Beitman

Milo Beitman’s passion for helping others led to her decision to go to law school. In particular, she wanted to help people navigate the excessively bureaucratic and complex legal system.

Her interest in landlord-tenant law stemmed from an electrical fire that destroyed her house. There were several housing code violations constituting a breach of the warranty of habitability; the electrical outlets and the fire alarms were not functional and did not go off. This experience prompted Milo to volunteer with the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco and assist people who were in similar situations.

Further, her internship with The Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) showed her how poorly California prisons treat transgender people. Consequently, her desire to be part of the necessary systematic changes to policy and legislation pertaining to the treatment of prisoners motivated her to seek a legal education.

While in law school, Milo served as co-president of The Queer Law Student Association (QLSA), enabling her to find and build a community of wonderful students and host events addressing queer issues through a social justice lens. She also worked at the California Appellate Project, where she helped a client on Death Row at San Quentin obtain legal recognition as a member of a Native American Tribe and permission to practice his religion at the prison. She found it very rewarding to help her client get through the day-to-day realities of prison life where rights are so few.

As she works towards a career in public interest, she looks forward to using her legal expertise to continue to help underserved and marginalized communities who do not generally have access to the law.

Milo’s advice for fellow law students is to find balance, to put yourself and your passions out there and be open to the opportunities that come to you. Also, she recommends to find what rejuvenates you and do it, whether it is yoga, dance or something else. Moreover, Milo suggests sharing your story with other people, since sharing our stories brings people together and breaks down the feeling of isolation that can exist in law school.

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Interviewer: Kelly Densmore is a 1L student. She is interested in Public Interest and Civil Rights Law. When she is not being a law student, Kelly likes to garden in her backyard in Oakland, ride her bike and spend time with her family and friends. Kelly is very proud to have been born and raised in the Bay Area.

Public Interest Scholar Spotlights

The following article is the first in a series of five spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.

Jonah Minkoff-Zern (JD 11)

Jonah Minkoff-Zern graduated from GGU in May. He currently serves as the Senior Organizer for the Constitutional Amendment Campaign for Public Citizen.

After completing his undergraduate degree at Cornell University, Jonah traveled around the country for two years speaking and working for a national student organization which he started, Student Alliance to Reform Corporations. STARC challenges corporate influence on university practices and challenges the environmental and humanitarian impacts of corporate globalization. In 1999, Jonah helped organize a mass protest in Seattle against the World Trade Organization’s international meeting. About 50,000 people attended the protest which halted the WTO’s agenda and influenced significant changes in WTO’s approach to labor and environmental issues.

His experience as an Oakland school teacher prompted him to co-found the nonprofit Education Not Incarceration to address the problem of student dropouts ending up in prison. He played an influential role in persuading the National Education Association to make the issue of dropouts a national priority.

Jonah decided to go to law school to acquire new skills to advance his work for youth justice. While in law school, Jonah brought more youth law opportunities to Golden Gate and helped increase student involvement in social justice work.

Jonah advises fellow law students to remember we are privileged to be in law school and to use that privilege to benefit others and the earth. He adds that having a law degree should not separate us from our clients; we should always remember to treat our clients with dignity, as fellow human beings.

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Interviewer: Elvin Vu is a 1L from San Francisco, California. He attended undergrad at Chico State. He is currently working with the Asian Law Caucus, the GI Rights Hotline, Asian American Bar Association, La Raza Student Group on Campus and is running for Social Chair of the Student Bar Association.