2006-2007
Ruth Chance Lecture Series (2006-2007)
- Wazhma Mojaddidi
- Abby Ginzberg
- Robert Williams
- Renee Saucedo and Anamaria Loya
- Erica Teasley Linnick
- Bob Gnaizda
- Joel Garcia
Spring 2007
Patricia Loya, Executive Director, Centro Legal de la Raza
Tuesday, January 16th 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Room 140Topic: Working for Justice: Strengthening Communities
Raised amidst the farm workers’ struggles in Indio, California, Patricia P. Loya forged an early commitment to social justice. Her parents, both educators and civil rights activists, dedicated their life towards addressing the inequities in the fields and in the educational system – a struggle that Patricia continues.
Patricia earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Irvine and went on to earn a Master of Education degree from Harvard University where she was active with MEChA and Concilio Latino. In 2001, Patricia was a fellow with the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders through the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. In 2003, she participated in the Hispanics in Philanthropy Leadership Institute at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Upon receiving her undergraduate degree, Patricia joined La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco. She later co-founded Ujima Unidos, a Saturday school for African American and Latino youth in Oakland, California. In 2000, Patricia became the Executive Director of Centro Legal de la Raza.
Now leading one of the Bay Area’s most prominent and historic legal outreach services for low-income Latinos, Patricia is inspired by the tremendous leadership that exists within immigrant communities. She takes great pride in working with students, day laborers, parents, renters, seniors, and workers, who often must take brave stands fighting for their rights and basic justice against daunting foes. Through leadership development training with a popular education approach, Patricia ensures that the most vulnerable members of our society are leaders in their own movements for social change.
Patricia is most proud of being a mother to her daughter, Christina, a senior in high school. Patricia and Christina live together in Piedmont, California.
Lewis SteelMonday, January 29th 12:45-1:45 p.m. --Goldberg Room
Topic: Living Civil Rights Law for Over 40 Years: Working to Keep a Judicial Vision of Equality Alive During Deeply Troubling Times
Lewis M. Steel is Of Counsel to Outten & Golden LLP. Before joining Outten & Golden, Mr. Steel was on the legal staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1964 to 1968 under General Counsel (now Senior United States District Court Judge) Robert L. Carter. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Judge Robert L. Carter served as chief legal assistant to Thurgood Marshall as the NAACP waged its historic campaign to dismantle racial segregation in public education. Mr. Steel, who went on to a distinguished career as a labor litigator, will reflect upon his role in spearheading the NAACP’s efforts to integrate the North East and Midwest, civil rights lawyering as a profession, and his own decision to become a civil rights lawyer. He will also discuss his current work representing a class of African-American and Hispanic employees who are suing the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation for racial and national origin discrimination in promotions, pay, and assignments. Mr. Steel has also handled a wide range of civil rights cases involving housing and zoning discrimination, as well as police brutality and criminal cases. He served as co-lead counsel in the Rubin Carter/John Artis case for which he was honored by the New York Criminal Bar Association in 2000.
*This event was co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC).
William KennedyMonday, February 12th, 12:45-1:45 p.m. --Room 140
Topic: Putting Race Back on the Table: A Discussion of LSNC’s Racial Equity Project
Bill Kennedy is the Managing Attorney of Legal Services of Northern California in Sacramento. He has spent 32 years serving low-income families at California Rural Legal Assistance, Channel Counties Legal Assistance and LSNC. His has handled major litigation under Title VII, Section 1983 challenges to the police practices of the INS, Border Patrol and cases that examine the nexus between land use and civil rights.
During the past 15years, he has pursued the ideal of community-based practice that seeks to create institutions of change soundly in the control of his clients. He has served as counsel to ACORN, The Sacramento Valley Organizing Community, (An IAF affiliate) The Mutual Assistance Network of Del Paso Heights, Asian Resources and many other neighborhood organizations.
Robert Garcia, Executive Director and Counsel
Monday, February 26th at 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Room 140
Topic: Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region
Robert García is an attorney with extensive experience in public policy and legal advocacy, mediation, and litigation involving complex social justice, human health, environmental and criminal justice matters. He has influenced the investment of over $18 billion in underserved communities, working at the intersection of social justice, sustainable regional planning, and smart growth. He graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School, where he served on the Board of Editors of the Stanford Law Review.
He is a nationally recognized leader in the urban park movement, bringing the simple joys of playing in the park to children in park starved communities. He helped build and lead diverse alliances to create the state parks in the Chinatown Cornfield in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, in Taylor Yard as part of the greening of the Los Angeles River, and in the Baldwin Hills in the heart of African American Los Angeles. The Cornfield is "a heroic monument" and "a symbol of hope," according to the Los Angeles Times. The Baldwin Hills park will be the largest urban park designed in the United States in over a century. He leads the campaign to diversify access to and support for national forests. He served on the Executive Committee of the Yes on Prop 40 Campaign to help pass California's $2.6 billion park, water and air bond in 2002, the largest in United States history, with unprecedented support among communities of color and low-income communities. He served as Chairman of the Citizens' School Bond Oversight Committee, overseeing the investment of $14 billion to build green public schools as centers of their communities in Los Angeles from 2000 to 2005. He has lectured on the vision for parks, schools, health, and transit at the conference celebrating the 150th anniversary of Central Park in New York City and at conferences at Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, USC, the Getty Center, the national Olmsted Conference in Seattle, and the Olmsted Conference in Portland, Oregon. Cardinal Roger Mahony appointed him to the Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research.
He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York under John Martin and Rudolph W. Giuliani, prosecuting organized crime, public corruption and international narcotics trafficking cases. He helped release the former Black Panther leader Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt from prison after 27 years for a crime he did not commit, working with Johnnie Cochran, Stuart Hanlon, and others. He has taught at Stanford and UCLA law schools. He defended people on Death Row in Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi, and practiced international litigation at a large New York law firm. He has published and lectured widely on law and society. He has received a number of awards, including the Robert García Environmental Justice Award from the Planning and Conservation League named in his honor for improving the environment in California, the President's Award from the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, and the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Award.
Eva PatersonMonday, March 12th at 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Room 140
Topic: Lights, Camera, Action
Eva Paterson is the President and a founder of the Equal Justice Society, a national organization dedicated to changing the law through progressive legal theory, public policy and practice. Prior to taking the helm of the Equal Justice Society in 2003, Paterson worked at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, thirteen of them as Executive Director. Paterson led the organization's work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. At the Lawyers' Committee, she was part of a broad coalition that filed the groundbreaking anti-discrimination suit against race and gender discrimination by the San Francisco Fire Department. That lawsuit successfully desegregated the department, winning new opportunities for women and minority firefighters. Paterson co-founded and chaired the California Coalition for Civil Rights for 18 years, and was a leading spokesperson in the campaigns against Proposition 187 (anti-immigrant) and Proposition 209 (anti-affirmative action) and numerous other statewide campaigns against the death penalty, juvenile incarceration and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.
Monday, April 2nd at 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Room 140
Topic: Race and Redistricting: The Latino Fight for a Vote That Counts
Nina Perales is the Southwest Regional Counsel for MALDEF in San Antonio, Texas. In that role, she directs MALDEF's litigation, advocacy and public education in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and six additional southern and western states.
Ms. Perales specializes in voting rights litigation, including redistricting and vote dilution challenges. She served as lead counsel for Latino plaintiffs in the redistricting cases in Texas in 2001 which secured a Texas House of Representatives redistricting plan containing an increase of four Latino-majority districts. Ms. Perales was lead counsel for Latino interveners in Arizona in 2003 and successfully defended the Latino-majority Congressional District 4 against an attempt to dismantle it.
On March 1, 2006, Ms. Perales successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Latino vote-dilution challenge to the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan. In June, 2006 the Court struck down the redistricting plan as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Ivor Samson
Monday, April 16th at 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Room 121
Ivor Samson ‘72, is the Litigation Chair at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in San Francisco. Mr. Samson has thirty years experience in all aspects of general litigation. He has been lead trial counsel in over thirty-five cases that were tried to a verdict, including both bench and jury trials as well as protracted and complex administrative proceedings. He recently acted as pro bono co-counsel in the highly publicized case against Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the former leader of Haiti’s notorious death squad known as FRAPH. Constant was ordered to pay $19 million in compensatory damages to three women who survived rape, other torture, and attempted killing committed by paramilitary forces under his command. This verdict marked the first judgment where someone was held accountable for the state-sponsored campaign of rape in Haiti.
Fall 2006
Wazhma MojaddidiTuesday, September 5 in Room 140
Topic: How Politics Influenced the Case of U.S. vs. Hamid Hayat
Wazhma Mojaddidi is a private practitioner representing clients throughout Northern California. Her practice areas include family law, immigration law, civil rights and criminal law. Ms. Mojaddidi is active in the Muslim, South Asian and Middle Eastern communities in Sacramento and has volunteered her services for a number of outreach programs post-9/11. She received her law degree at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law where she was named in the Order of the Barristers upon graduation. Ms. Mojaddidi is currently representing several individuals who have been accused of terrorist related activities.
Abby GinzbergTuesday, September 18th in Room 140
Topic: Public Interest Advocacy Through Film
Abby Ginzberg, Independent Filmmaker and former lawyer, will present clips from a variety of her award winning films and discuss film as a medium for public interest advocacy and education. Abby taught at Boalt Hall from 1975-76, and at New College School of Law from 1981-1985. She is a 1975 graduate of Hastings College of the Law. For the past 20 years she has worked full-time as an independent filmmaker helping the legal profession toovercome discrimination within its own ranks as well as profiling positive alternatives for at-risk youth. She recently completed Soul of Justice: TheltonHenderson's American Journey, profiling federal district judge TheltonHenderson (Boalt,'62). Her film A Tale of Two Cities is about a model high school for hard to reach, hard to teach youth in the juvenile justice system, a subject she has been working on for many years. She recently produced two films for the Judicial Council of California—Obstacle Courts, a film about problems faced by people with disabilities when seeking access to the courthouse has been used widely in judicial training throughout California. Summary Judgments has been used to train judges on race, gender and sexual orientation bias. Her film, Doing Justice: The Life and Trials of Arthur Kinoywon numerous awards, including a Silver Gavel from the ABA for promoting the public’s understanding of issues related to law. It will be aired again on KQED in February, 2004. Ms. Ginzbergis the President of the Impact Fund Advisory Board, a recipient of the 2005 Award of Merit from the Bar Association of San Francisco and the 2006 honoree of the Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
Robert WilliamsTuesday, September 25 in Room 140
Topic: Protection of Indigenous Peoples' Right to Property in the International Human Rights System: The Clinical Advocacy Work of the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program
Robert Williams is the E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies and Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law in Tucson. He was named the first Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (2003-2004), having previously served there as BennetBoskeyDistinguished Visiting Lecturer of Law. His most recent book is entitled Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights and theLegal History of Racism in America, published by the University of Minnesota Press (October 2005). He has represented tribal groups before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, and served as co-counsel for Floyd Hicks in the United States Supreme Court case, Nevada v. Hicks (2001 term). Professor Williams presently serves as Chief Justice of the Yavapai-Prescott Apache Tribe Court of Appeals and as Chief Justice for the Court of Appeals, Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation. He also serves as judge pro temporefor the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Renee Saucedo, Director, San Francisco Day Labor Program
Tuesday, October 9th in Room 140
Topic: Combining Legal Advocacy and Community Organizing in the Context of Immigrant Rights
Renee Maria Saucedo is the Director of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, which focuses on meeting the unique service and organizing needs of day laborers and immigrant workers in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past ten years, she has been a leader in campaigns which advocate for the empowerment of, and continuation of services for, immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants. As the founder of INS WATCH, a grassroots, human rights organization, Ms. Saucedo has established “no-collaboration” policies between local police departments and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and ensured that San Francisco declare itself an “INS raid-free zone.”
Ms. Saucedo connects poverty and migration in the United States with global policies and injustice. Working with organizations such as Global Exchange, she travels often to Mexico and other countries to provide solidarity assistance to indigenous communities. Ms. Saucedo is frequently invited by universities and other groups to speak and conduct workshops on topics related to her work, and has received various local and national awards.
Ms. Saucedo is a second-generation Chicana, raised in Mexico City and in California. At UC Berkeley, she received both a B.A. in Political Science and a J.D.
Anamaria LoyaTuesday, October 9th in Room 140
Topic: Combining Legal Advocacy and Community Organizing in the Context of Immigrant Rights
Raised amidst the farm workers’ struggles in Indio, California, Anamaria forged an early commitment to social justice. Her parents, both civil rights activists and retired educators, dedicate their lives towards addressing the inequities in the fields and in the educational system – a struggle that Anamaria and her two sisters, Patricia and Katherine, continue.
Anamaria is a graduate from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Halls School of Law where she was active with the La Raza Law Students Association, the La Raza Law Journal, the Coalition for a Diversified Faculty, and student government. Upon graduation, she joined the law firm of O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles where she focused on youth and immigrant rights. While at O’Melveny and Myers, Anamaria worked with a program providing mentorship and guidance to incarcerated youth. She participated as a lead delegate of a Human Rights Delegation investigating human rights abuses on the San Diego/Tijuana border.
Anamaria returned to the Bay Area to work with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, specializing in bilingual education, affirmative action, racial and gender equality, and disability rights. During this time, Anamaria also founded a Saturday school based on Oakland, which was staffed and operated by attorney volunteers who worked with African American and Latino youth struggling within the Oakland public schools. She also was a founding editor of a Latino youth magazine called, “Fuerza,” created by and for Latino junior high and high school students. Through both these efforts Anamaria worked with youth to develop strategies for achieving social and political justice grounded in grass roots community activism.
In 1995, Anamaria joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund as an education civil rights attorney. At MALDEF she worked with her colleagues to challenge the implementation of Proposition 187, as well as provided legal guidance and education regarding affirmative action programs and policies in the state. In 1996 she was recruited to join La Raza Centro Legal and direct the Youth Law Project. Soon thereafter, she became La Raza Centro Legal’s first woman executive director.
Anamaria focuses on developing and implementing strategies to achieve social change, which extend beyond traditional methods of legal representation. She believes in incorporated community-based leadership and grass roots organizing into all aspects of radical lawyering.
She is a board member of the Institute for Multi-racial Justice, a Leaderspring Fellow, and a Women’s Leadership Circle Fellow.
Erica Teasley LinnickTuesday, October 25th in Room 140
Topic: Coalition of the Willing: The Benefits and Challenges of Legal Advocacy by Coalition
Erica Teasley Linnick joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) as Western Regional Counsel in January 1999 after three years as a business litigator at SteefelLevitt & Weiss in San Francisco. During her tenure at Steefel, Erica was a member of the firm’s hiring committee, and also served on the Board of Directors of both the Lawyers’Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the ACLU of Northern California. In 1996, she took a leave of absence from her law practice to serve as the Northern California Coordinator of the No on 209 campaign, battling the infamous statewide anti-affirmative action initiative.
Bob GnaizdaTuesday, November 6th in Room 140
Topic: Public Interest Lawyers Can Make a Difference in Many Legal and Quasi-Legal Forums
Robert Gnaizdais General Counsel and Policy Director for the Greenlining Institute and is a co-founder of Greenlining Institute. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Yale Law School. Prior to Greenlining, he co-founded Public Advocates, the West Coast's first public interest law firm, and was Statewide Litigation Director for California Rural Legal Assistance at its founding. He also served as California's Health Director and Chief Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Prisons under Governor Jerry Brown and was the State Bar representative for the Federal Judicial Selection Committee. Mr. Gnaizdahas been chief counsel in over 100 class action court and administrative cases focusing on minority economic empowerment and civil rights.
Joel GarciaTuesday, November 20th in Room 140
Topic: Health Rights and Community Health Centers
Joel Garcia is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc., a multi-site and multi-service not-for-profit federal-qualified community health center that provides primary care health services in southern Alameda County. He has held that post since August 1992 and prior to that time he held academic appointments at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Public Health and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Colorado, Denver. Between 1983 and 1993 he helped develop and directed a multidisciplinary graduate student exchange program known as the U.C. Berkeley-Universidad de Guadalajara "Intercambio Academico."
Garcia received an undergraduate degree in Political Science form the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1969 and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School in 1973. He has published research on health policy, law, and administration in the United States and abroad.
His professional involvements and contributions have centered on rights of access and the creation of delivery systems that secure those rights to health and human services for those most in need in the United States. Founding, managing, and supporting community-based and directed groups and institutions, with emphasis on the Latino community, has been the focus of his thirty-five years of active service.
Garcia currently serves as President of the California Primary Care Association, Chair of the Board of Directors of Eden Medical Center, Board Member of the Alameda Health Consortium and Community Health Center Network.