Executive Director’s Message
The financial crisis in California and on Wall Street is having
a ripple effect on our economy and has disproportionally affected
poor and low-income families, who continue to face the loss of
their homes and sink deeper into poverty. Now more than ever,
LAFLA depends on corporate and individual donors to help us increase
services to communities that are struggling to survive. The year-end
giving season is a time when we ask our donors for their continued
and generous support. Please help us respond to the increased
demand for services by simply clicking on the Donate Now button.
Thank you.
Mario Salgado, Executive Director
articles
New Managing Attorneys Appointed at
East Los Angeles, Santa Monica & South Los Angeles Offices
Yolanda Arias, the former Directing Attorney for our legal work
in Government Benefits, has been promoted to Managing Attorney
of the East Los Angeles Office. Arias began working with LAFLA
as a staff attorney in 1988. Her work includes foster care litigation
(State of California, Rosales v. Thompson), health care litigation
(Harris, et al. v. County of Los Angeles) and extensive policy
work on Welfare to Work, and language access issues.
Karla Barrow, the former Managing Attorney of our South Los Angeles
Office is the new Managing Attorney of the Santa Monica Office,
where she previously worked as a Government Benefits attorney
for more than nine years. Barrow was involved with regulatory
and policy issues regarding compliance within state and federally
run benefits programs. Additionally, she worked on the Living
Wage Campaign in the City of Santa Monica.
Malcolm Carson has been promoted to Managing Attorney of the South
Los Angeles Office, where he has worked for the last six years
as a staff attorney specializing in the areas of environmental
justice, transportation equity, community-based organizations
and eviction defense. Prior to joining LAFLA, Carson was an associate
at the law firm of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, and Deputy
City Attorney for San Francisco.
LAFLA, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
Settle Housing Case
Last year, the owner of the Reseda Village Green Apartment complex
in the San Fernando Valley decided to evict over 35 senior and
disabled tenants who receive Federal Section 8 rental assistance.
He began the process by serving eviction notices without good
cause on four of the tenants. The Coalition for Economic Survival,
a tenant organizing group, referred the tenants to Christian Abasto,
Managing Attorney of LAFLA’s Central Office. Abasto and
his legal team, who specialize in eviction defense issues, recruited
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP (MTO) to assist with the evictions.
MTO and LAFLA attorneys defeated the first four eviction attempts
by the owner, and filed a lawsuit against him to prevent the filing
of more evictions against the remainder of the tenants.
With technical assistance from LAFLA, MTO took the lead on the
case. In August 2008, the owner gave up on his attempts to evict
the other tenants after hearing of the $180,000 attorney-fee award
LAFLA and the National Housing Law Project received in a similar
case (Barrientos v. 1801 Morton LLC). As part of the settlement
the owner agreed not to attempt to evict the tenants without good
cause for an additional three years.
Family Law Attorneys Handle Complex Domestic
Violence Issues
By Ana Storey, Managing Attorney, West Office
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. However, when people
hear the phrase “Domestic Violence,” they often think
of physical abuse rather than the full spectrum of insidious behaviors
designed to gain control and intimidate. These behaviors often
include preventing a partner from working or going to school;
threats to take the children or harming them; and torturing or
even killing family pets. Recognizing the complexity of the domestic
violence issue, LAFLA’s Family Law attorneys assist clients
through courthouse-based clinics, phone intake lines, and representation
of a limited number of clients in court, both at trial and the
appellate level. In fact, of the four most recent California appellate
decisions about domestic violence, three were brought by LAFLA
attorneys.
LAFLA attorneys and paralegals also use their educational background,
training and experience to further educate attorneys, advocates
and community groups about the issue. On September 18, LAFLA trained
40 in-line deputies, filing deputies, or supervising deputies
at the District Attorney College in downtown Los Angeles. Information
was provided about the civil domestic violence restraining order
system; how custody and visitation issues play into that system;
and what the interaction is between criminal and civil for our
poor and low-income clients. Stephanie Shadowens of Los Angeles
Superior Court Family Court Services was co-presentor at the training.
LAFLA attorneys are also members of, and in some cases chair,
local and state-wide consortiums that are dedicated to ending
domestic violence and strengthening communities.
LAFLA Conducts Training On Disability Rights
LAFLA is committed to facilitating high-level training for the
continued professional development of its attorneys and legal
advocates which ensures the provision of excellent services to
our diverse client community. We regularly present in-house "nuts
and bolts" overviews of core substantive areas of legal services
practice, as well as skills trainings relevant to all areas of
practice. Recently, attorney Linda Kilb from the Disabilty Rights
Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) presented “Providing
Legal Service to Clients with Disabilities” to LAFLA staff,
and other attorneys from other legal services programs.
Kilb, a Harvard Law School graduate, has worked in the policy,
legislative and the litigation arena to enforce and advance the
civil rights of people with disabilities. Her presentation addressed
both relevant state and federal legal concepts, and practical
considerations in serving those with disabilities. Agustin Corral,
a paralegal working with our Immigration Law attorneys had this
to say: “In addition to offering the tools and insight on
effective advocacy for disabled clients, the training focused
on helping us foster a greater sense of empathy and understanding
for our clients.”
Client Councils Provide
Invaluable Community Insight
In an effort to improve our legal services and respond effectively
to the changing needs of our communities, our East Los Angeles,
South and Long Beach Offices each have appointed a Client Council,
whose members regularly meet with staff attorneys. Some of them
serve on LAFLA’s Board of Directors. Client Council members
meet the client income-eligibility guidelines, are former clients,
or work for a group that represents our client population.
“Our Client Councils are the “eyes and ears”
of LAFLA’s communities and keep us informed of community
trends, interests and needs,” explained Mary Ochs, Managing
Director of the Long Beach Office, which has a very active Client
Council.
For example, earlier this year, the Long Beach/Harbor area Client
and Advisory Councils adopted an ambitious work plan for 2008,
which includes outreach, fundraising and policy advocacy. Recent
meetings by the group focused on addressing the housing crisis
and related consumer credit issues. Recently, the Council went
into action deciding to support a Long Beach moratorium on pay-day
loan and check cashing businesses. This interim step is part of
a broader strategy to cap the interest rates on predatory loans,
which may have an annual percentage rate of over 400 percent,
in addition to a service fee and can lead to perpetual debt for
low-income borrowers. The Council has also played an invaluable
role in helping promote LAFLA’s services by doing outreach
at key events in the LB/Harbor area, where they distribute flyers
and talk about our services. They’ve also built a fund–raising
element into a few of these activities, which raised $4,000 for
LAFLA in 2007.
In the News
Pro Bono Director Tai Glenn was quoted in the October issue of
California Lawyer about the difficulty of recruiting pro bono
attorneys for foreclosure cases.
Welcome
On behalf of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA),
I would like to introduce you to our first E-Newsletter issue
of LAFLA Matters. This monthly newsletter was created to provide
you with timely information about our legal work, policy wins,
success stories, community outreach activities and upcoming fundraisers.
We hope you find this information relevant and useful. Please
help us build our mailing list by having a colleague or supporter
sign up to receive future issues online at www.lafla.org.
Mario Salgado, Executive Director
articles
New Director Named
for Private Attorney Involvement
Tai Glenn, the former Directing Attorney for LAFLA’s Housing
Unit, has been promoted to Director of Private Attorney Involvement
(PAI). Glenn joined the Foundation in 1999 as an attorney and
initiated LAFLA’s Housing Improvement Project in 2000. As
Director of PAI, Glenn is responsible for the coordination and
promotion of a comprehensive plan that nurtures current legal
support from private law firms, and develops new partnerships
to support complex poverty issues. She will also partner with
law firms to develop signature legal projects. Glenn received
her Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School. Glenn can be reached
at (323) 801-7919.
Hiring Policy Victory
Celebrated
in Community Economic Development
The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA/LA)
and the Los Angeles City Council recently passed a local hiring
policy for CRA/LA, LA Public Works and LA Harbor projects that
will benefit local community residents. The new policy which governs
development projects funded with assistance from the City of Los
Angeles now mandates that 30 percent of the construction work
hours for each trade will be completed by local residents, and
50 percent by apprentices, ensuring that local residents have
the opportunity to join the building trades unions. Former LAFLA
CED attorney, Benjamin Beach and client, United Jobs Creation
Council (UJCC) were instrumental in CRA/LA reaching this decision.
LA City residents who live in the project impact area or a high unemployment zip code are considered local residents. Furthermore, 10 percent of the construction work hours will be performed by local low-income residents. Local low-income residents are LA City residents whose income is under 50 percent of the area median, or who face certain barriers to employment, such as homelessness, lack of a high school diploma, or criminal records. These requirements will offer low-income Angelenos solid career opportunities in jobs that offer self-sufficiency wages, benefits and career advancement opportunities.
Language Access Opens
Door to Equal Justice
By Joann Lee, Directing Attorney, Asian Pacific Islander
Services
According to recent data, more than one third of Los Angeles residents
are born in countries other than the U.S., and more than half
speak a language other than English at home and have difficulty
communicating in English. Common languages in our client communities
include Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Khmer,
Thai, Farsi, Tagalog, Arabic, Hindi, Bangla, and a growing number
of African languages. To monitor growing needs and changes, LAFLA
has a Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Taskforce, comprised of
attorneys, paralegals and support staff from throughout the organization.
The Taskforce meets regularly to monitor the implementation of LAFLA’s LEP Policy & Procedures, administer language access trainings for staff, and coordinate language access advocacy. Several years ago, the taskforce conducted an audit examining the language accessibility of the Foundation for these clients, which provided extremely valuable information for our staff to build upon in improving access to justice for all individuals.
In June, the LEP taskforce organized a training session for bilingual staff on interpreting skills, presented by Pacific Asian Language Services (PALS). More than 100 staff participated in the training, learning hands-on skills to better serve clients. LAFLA staff members also are involved in language access issues nationally through the National Language Access Advocates Network (N-LAAN). Recently, LAFLA staff coordinated a special feature on language access issues published in the MIE Journal. LAFLA also operates several language hotlines and community clinics to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate services for equal access to justice.
Homeless Veterans Project
Moves to Long Beach & East L.A.
The Bill Smith Homeless Veterans Project, a special LAFLA
program directed by Rick Little, accredited VA Claims Agent, who
handles Veterans Benefits, is moving to two new locations. The
program's main site is now housed at our Long Beach Office with
a program-satellite at our East Los Angeles Office. The Project's
objective is to protect veterans and their families by securing
government benefits and services while stabilizing their living
situation. Homeless veterans make up 25 percent of the homeless
population in Los Angeles County. Obtaining benefits and services
can greatly improve the lives of men and women who have served
our country. Rick Little can be reached at (562) 435-3501, ext.
3867. For more information, please visit www.lafla.org.
Summer Law Clerk Program
Provides Critical Training
Once again this year, LAFLA opened its doors to 33 law
students for its Summer Law Clerk Internship Program. All participating
interns completed their first year of law school from institutions
such as Hastings, University of La Verne, Loyola, Ohio State,
Seton Hall, Southwestern, Thomas Jefferson, UCLA, USC, USD, Vanderbilt,
and Williams College. The Program has been operational for more
than 20 years, and more than 500 law students have been trained
by our legal advocates in the priority areas of Immigration, Family,
Consumer, Housing/Eviction Defense, Government Benefits, Employment
and Community Economic Development.
Grand Cru Fundraiser
Deemed a Great Success
The 2008 Long Beach Grand Cru Wine Competion, considered
one of the top international wine competitions in the U.S., drew
1,947 entries from across the United States and around the world.
The Grand Cru Public Tasting, held on August 16 at Rainbow Lagoon
Park in downtown Long Beach, attracted over 1,200 wine and food
aficionados to taste competition wines and delicacies from the
area's finest restaurants. Together, the Competition and Public
Tasting raised over $320,000 to support LAFLA’s programs
and services in the greater Long Beach community. Over its 14-year
history, the event has raised more than $2 million. "LAFLA
deeply appreciates the support of its volunteers, donors and corporate
sponsors who helped make this year another outstanding success,"
said Ludmila Montoya, LAFLA Director of Special Projects. www.longbeachgrandcru.com.
Grants
LAFLA received a $770,590 grant from the Los Angeles County
Department of Social Services/Community and Senior Services to
provide assistance to domestic violence victims in the areas of
family law, immigration, consumer, housing, government benefits,
and employment law. The grant will fund both legal assistance
and case management.
In late June, the City of Santa Monica renewed its grant to LAFLA,
with a 2.5% cost of living adjustment. The nearly $500,000 grant
will support our Santa Monica office and Domestic Violence Clinic
located at the Santa Monica Courthouse. As a condition of funding,
LAFLA will provide matching funds. Our Santa Monica Office provides
general legal services to clients involving housing and tenancy;
family law, consumer law and government benefits, and also assists
victims of domestic violence at its Domestic Violence Clinic.
© 2008 Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles