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EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW, CLASS OF 2007
Name of Host Organization: Columbia Legal Services
City, State: Seattle, Washington
Issue area: Children/Youth
Sponsor: ALM, Seattle University School of Law
THE INSPIRATION
In 2002, I began working as a counselor at a group home for adolescent boys. The youth had significant behavioral and mental health needs after years of abuse, neglect and violence. These problems were worsened by being bounced around a foster care system ill-equipped to meet their intense needs. I was a 23-year-old “parent,” raising teenage boys with other young counselors at a place I never knew existed. I became consumed with feelings of injustice and inequality, and my perception of my place in this world was transformed—for better, for worse, forever.
THE PROJECT
The long-term goals of my project are to establish a system of adequate court representation for all Washington’s foster youth by which an attorney, Guardian ad Litem and/or Court Appointed Special Advocate representation is provided; facilitate full participation of stakeholders in all geographic regions of the state in the foster care reform process; and work with service providers and youth to publish and disseminate a foster youth rights handbook.
REMARKS FROM THE 2008 AMERICAN LAWYER AWARDS DINNER
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | San Diego, California |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | My experiences at the group home and working in direct services with youth remain central to my life, fueling my desire to pursue a legal education so I could become part of the solution, part of a legal system that helps improve the fate of families and children. I am overwhelmed by the fact that I am working on the very reform effort that was underway during my days as a counselor. Ultimately, I am working on behalf of the youth that inspired me to become a legal advocate in the first place. |
Surviving law school: | I quickly got involved with the Public Interest Law Foundation, serving as President in my second year, and served as a staff member of the “Seattle Journal for Social Justice,” a student-edited, interdisciplinary journal that publishes writings on the often-conflicting meanings of social justice. In my third year, I served as an Article Editor on the Journal and I participated in the Youth Advocacy Clinic, where I represented accused juveniles at various stages of legal proceedings under the supervision of clinic faculty and public defenders. |
Recommended books: | The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care by Nina Bernstein; There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz; The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin; and of course, the entire collection of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. |
Words to live by: | "There's some good in the world, and it's worth fighting for." - Samwise Gamgee, from Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers |