Please join us for our annual summer seminar series!
Summer Kick-Off Event
Wednesday, June 6th (12-1pm)
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Eva Patterson
President and Co-Founder, Equal Justice Society
Join our staff and law clerks to celebrate the beginning of our Summer Seminar Series! Come hear Eva Paterson offer words of welcome and inspiration to this year’s summer law students working for public interest organizations in the Bay Area.
Eva Paterson has passionately campaigned for civil rights for more than three decades. She co-founded and currently serves as president of the Equal Justice Society, a national organization dedicated to changing the law through progressive legal theory, public policy, and practice. Previously, Eva worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, half of which she spent as Executive Director. Eva led the organization’s work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. She also co-founded and chaired the California Coalition for Civil Rights, co-founded A Safe Place (a shelter for battered women in Oakland), and has been a leading voice in numerous statewide campaigns against the death penalty, juvenile incarceration, and discrimination.
- Co-sponsored by NCYL and Bingham McCutchen LLP
- The event will be held at the Bingham Offices in San Francisco: Three Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111. Please enter on the 27th floor.
- For this event ONLY, please RSVP to rvelcoff(at)youthlaw.org by Monday, June 4th, if you plan to attend. (Your name must be on the list for admittance.)
- For this event ONLY, lunch will be provided.
Thursday, June 14 (12-1pm) Advice on Pursuing a Career in Public Interest Law
John O'Toole, Director, National Center for Youth Law
John has been a poverty lawyer and child advocate for his entire career. Come hear his words of advice for the next generation of public interest lawyers and learn what to do in law school to get the job of your dreams!
Thursday, June 21 (12-1pm) Public Interest Post-Graduate Fellowships
Diane Chin, Associate Dean for Public Service and Public Interest Law, Lecturer in Law, Stanford Law School
Brian Blalock, former Skadden Fellow, Youth Projects Director, Bay Area Legal Aid Kate Walker, Equal Justice Works Fellow, National Center for Youth Law
Have your questions about preparing for the fellowship process answered by the former Director of Equal Justice Works/West and hear reflections on the experience of two recent fellows.
Thursday, June 28 (12-1pm)Psychotropic Medications and Foster Children
Bill Grimm, Senior Attorney, National Center for Youth Law
Edward Opton, Of Counsel, National Center for Youth Law
The issue of the overmedication of foster children has recently gained traction on the national scene, but it is a problem that NCYL’s clients have long confronted. Come learn more about the history of this problematic practice and about how NCYL is using recent interest in the issue as an opportunity to promote what is best for each foster child and youth.
Thursday, July 5 (12-1pm) Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Adolescent Access to Health Care
Rebecca Gudeman, Senior Attorney, National Center for Youth Law
Access to health care is critical for youth who are considering or involved in risk taking behavior. While ideally parents and youth work together to access health services, minors in every state have the right to access certain health care confidentially. Come learn more about what minor consent laws say, the social science research behind these laws, the tension between minor consent and other laws, and what it is like for medical providers and other professionals to implement these laws.
Thursday, July 12 (12-1pm) Katie A. v. Bontá: Mental Health Reform in California
Patrick Gardner, Deputy Director, National Center for Youth Law
Each day, thousands of California’s foster children are needlessly confined in institutions because they cannot get the mental health services they are entitled to under federal law. Learn how the Katie A. lawsuit is changing all that. Receive an overview of a class action lawsuit that has spanned ten years and learn what this lawsuit now means for children’s mental health in California.
Thursday, July 19 (12-1pm) Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System
Michael Harris, Senior Attorney, National Center for Youth Law
Fiza Quraishi, Staff Attorney, National Center for Youth Law
Learn more about NCYL’s efforts to address racial disparities in the juvenile justice system nationwide. This talk will place a particular emphasis on how race affects youth who are pushed out of schools and into the juvenile justice system.
Thursday, July 26 (12-1pm) Clerkships: Insights for Aspiring Public Interest Attorneys
Angela Chan, Staff Attorney, Asian Law Caucus, and former Law Clerk for the Hon. Napoleon A. Jones of the Southern District of California
Madeline Howard, Staff Attorney, Bay Area Legal Aid, and former Legal Research Attorney for the San Francisco Superior Court
Elisabeth Voigt, Senior Staff Attorney, Public Counsel, and former Law Clerk for the Hon. Richard A. Paez of the Ninth Circuit
Come hear inside tips on how to obtain a clerkship and learn how the clerking experience can be useful for a career in public interest law.
All sessions except the kick-off event will be held at NCYL on the 16th Floor. NCYL is located at 405 14th Street, Oakland, 94612 (corner of 14th and Franklin) — just one block from the 12th Street Oakland City Center BART Station. Please feel free to bring your lunch. NCYL will provide treats. Email Erin Liotta with any questions.
