Congratulations to former NCYL law clerks Franchesca Gonzalez, Maria Segarra, Regina Waugh, Erica Franklin, and Jenny Yellen, who all graduated from Berkeley Law on May 14!
Abby Barnes, NCYL's communications intern this past spring, will be interning this summer in the Office of the District Attorney of San Francisco. Abby will be conducting legal research, assisting in the preparation of prosecutions, and observing courtroom activities. She hopes to attend law school after graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2011.
Peter Bull, who preceded John O'Toole as NCYL's Director, was recently honored by Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth in San Francisco for his longtime service on the organization's board and his many contributions to the well-being of children.
NCYL intern in 2003-04, Josh Friedman finished his J.D. last December at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is now externing at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica in exchange for credits towards the final semester of his concurrent Master's degree in international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. After graduating from both programs in May and taking the California bar exam this summer, he will start a two-year judicial clerkship at the Los Angeles Immigration Court through the U.S. Attorney General's Honors Program.
The Citizens' Committee for Children of New York Inc. (CCC) has issued a new report, The Wisest Investment, an analysis of New York City's Preventive Service System in the context of child welfare. Former NCYL law clerk Stephanie Gendell is the CCC's Associate Executive Director.
Chiara Grabill, a NCYL law clerk during Summer 2006, will be married in Lake Tahoe in August. Chiara, who earned her law degree at Columbia University, is an associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City.
Former NCYL intern Whit Griffinger is a staff attorney at the East Bay Children's Law Offices (EBCLO). EBCLO, a nonprofit organization, provides free legal representation to children and youth who are the subject of abuse and neglect proceedings in Alameda County Juvenile Dependency Court.
Former NCYL Assistant to the Director Frankie Guzman will be clerking this summer at Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles with the Immigrants' Rights Project (IRP). The IRP represents individuals seeking asylum, and assists victims of trafficking and violent crime. It also helps abused or abandoned children who have no lawful immigration status in obtaining permanent residency. Frankie was recently awarded scholarships from Fulbright & Jarowski, LLP, a private law firm, and La Raza Lawyers Association of Central Valley.
Sunny Rosenfeld Lerner, a 1996 NCYL law clerk, is an attorney for the California Prison Health Care Receivership Corp., a non-profit created to house the activities of the federal Receiver. The Receivership was established by U.S. District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson as the result of a 2001 class action law suit (Plata v. Schwarzenegger) brought against the State of California over the quality of prisoners' medical care. Sunny's husband is a professor at Santa Clara University. They have two children, Jeremiah, 4, and Ellie, 7.
A 2003 NCYL law clerk, Karie Lew recently celebrated three years with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and remains a Senior Attorney at Legal Advocates for Children and Youth.
Former NCYL Assistant to the Director, Joanne Lin is now legislative counsel for the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office. After leaving NCYL, Joanne attended law school at New York University and was a fellow at the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation (now Bay Area Legal Aid). She also worked as a senior staff attorney for the Legal Momentum Immigrant Women Program.
Former NCYL Skadden Fellow Angie Schwartz has left the Public Interest Law Project in Oakland and is now a staff attorney for the Alliance for Children's Rights' in its new San Francisco office.
Former NCYL Skadden Fellow Eve Stotland has graduated from New York University Law School and accepted a job as Director of the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center in New York City. Eve lives in Jackson Heights, Queens with her husband Ben Schmerler and their two-year-old daughter, Sophie.
Former NCYL law clerk Marc Tafolla, now a staff attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, has been named the 2010 Healthy Schools Hero for his work leading the Lawyers' Committee's Education Opportunity Project (EOP). A joint project with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and in partnership with leading law firms, EOP works to ensure all students have equal access to quality education. Using the landmark Williams v. California settlement, the EOP advocates for clean and safe facilities, qualified teachers, and up-to-date text books in California schools.
Charles Taylor, a NCYL law clerk during Summer 2009, is an editor for Inter Alia, the new online companion to the Yale Law and Policy Review. The site serves as a forum for shorter, nonpartisan, and more informal legal scholarship at the intersection of law and policy.
In April, Michael Umpierre started a new job as Special Assistant to the Director of the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Michael was formerly with the Juvenile Public Defender's Office in Washington, DC, where his supervisor was Hannah McElhinny, a former NCYL law clerk. She is now Deputy Trial Chief, Juvenile Section, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
Karen Worthington, a NCYL law clerk in 1993, is leaving the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University to start a writing and consulting business with a focus on child welfare and juvenile justice in Maui. She is married with two children, Maile, 7, and Grace, 2.
A 1999 NCYL law clerk, Ava Yajima is now Deputy General Counsel for the California Department of Education.
