This scholarship is awarded annually to a woman high school senior, who is interested in the field of law or public service, and who was inspired in this career choice by the WLALA Foundation’s Power Lunch Program, the WLALA organization, or by a WLALA leader.
Judge O’Connell, a long-time board member of WLALA, created the Power Lunch Program to provide civic education, judicial mentorship and exposure to the judicial branch to local high school students. As part of the Power Lunch Program, students visit courthouses to have lunch with judges, lawyers, courtroom staff and members of law enforcement.
The recipient of the Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell Scholarship will receive up to $5,000.
Co-Chairs: Dara Garcia (degarcia@mayerbrown.com) and Marina Torres (mtorres@willkie.com)
Charitable Fund
The purpose of the WLALA Foundation Charitable Fund is to raise funds for the WLALA Foundation. Each year, from September 1 to January 31, the Charitable Fund runs a campaign to raise money for the Foundation. Amounts raised are used to fund the Foundation’sscholarship and fellowship programs, which include the RBG Scholarship, the Fran Kandel Public Interest Fellowship and the WLALA/ICLC Fellowship. Funds are also used to support the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law, which was founded in the early 1980s by the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association and provides family law and domestic violence assistance for low-income persons in California, and the Downtown Women’s Center, which serves and empowers women experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.
To contribute to this year’s Annual Giving Campaign, please CLICK HERE. If you would like to help in this year’s campaign, please contact the Committee Chair Susan Steinhauser at susanst2@earthlink.net.
Co-Chairs: Van Ha (vha@da.lacounty.gov) and Najah Shariff (najahshariff83@gmail.com)
Financial Development
The primary task of the Financial Development Committee is the coordination of the Foundation’s annual summer fundraising event, “WLALAPalooza,” which takes place in June or July of each year. The Committee handles all aspects of the event, including soliciting and organizing silent auction items, obtaining opportunity drawing prizes, selecting and making all arrangements for the site and catering of the event, designing the event booklet, advertising the event, obtaining sponsors, and coordinating bid finalization, item distribution and payment operations on the day of the event.
Co-Chairs: Margaret Johnson (mijohnson@foleymansfield.com) and Hon. Cathy Ostiller
Fran Kandel Public Interest Grant
The Fran Kandel Public Interest Fellowship enables law students to work with an organization or individually to develop and implement a project in the field of public interest law, in the spirit of Fran Kandel. The WLALA Kandel Fellowship is designed to fund particular projects with a tangible outcome. While not intended for purely academic research, the fellowship can support an internship with a project component.. The committee is responsible for promoting the fellowship to law students, soliciting applications, reviewing applications, interviewing finalists and selecting a candidate (s) to recommend to the Board as a grant recipient(s). Committee members volunteer to participate in some or all of these activities as they can. Even if you just have a few hours of time, we welcome your contribution to this valuable and important endeavor!
Co-Chairs: Mory Ahmadi(mory.ahmadi@thebarnesfirm.com) and Yujin Yi (yujin.yi@gmail.com)
History Project
The History Project was started by WLALA Past-President Rosalyn Zakheim during her term in 1983-84. Historically focused on collecting and preserving the oral histories of our distinguished members, the WLALA History project has collected oral histories of its members for more than thirty-five years. The collection is housed at Southwestern Law School library. If you are interested in finding out more about the collection, helping to expand it, or helping us to showcase please contact us.
Each year the Foundation supports one or more law students to spend 10 weeks working full-time at the Inner City Law Center. The fellow will work with ICLC’s Homeless Veterans Project and spend their summer focusing on issues affecting women veterans, including clients who have been victims of military sexual trauma. The liaison works with ICLC to coordinate the WLALA/ICLC Fellowship..
Co-Chairs: Sarah Gerdes (sgerdes@akingump.com), Kelly Hanker sgerdes@akingump.com), Hon. Elaine Lu, and Cynthia Organ (corgan@glaserweil.com)
Power Lunch
Judge O’Connell, who was long-time board member of WLALA, created the Power Lunch Program to provide civic education, judicial mentorship and exposure to the judicial branch to local high school students. As part of the Power Lunch Program, students come to courthouses to have lunch with judges, lawyers, courtroom staff and members of law enforcement. Approximately 75 students attend each lunch, with students from various schools coming to courthouses throughout Los Angeles County for lunch with justice system professionals including judges, lawyers and members of law enforcement. At the lunches, the students hear presentations about the Constitution and the legal system. Following the presentations, the students break into smaller groups for personal interactions with the participating judges and lawyers. The Power Lunch concludes with an interactive game of “Judicial Jeopardy.”
Co-Chairs: Carmela Pagay (ctp@lnbyb.com), and Meehan Rasch (meehan.rasch@jud.ca.gov)
RBG Scholarships
The RBG Scholarship is given to law students who plan to follow in the footsteps of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by fighting for social justice, equality and inclusion, and have a demonstrated commitment to issues affecting women, children, minorities, or other historically marginalized groups. The committee is responsible for promoting the scholarship to law students, soliciting applications, reviewing applications, interviewing finalists and selecting a candidate (s) to recommend to the Board as a scholarship recipient(s).
Co-Chairs: Chantelle Ameli (chantelle@ameligroup.com) and Jill Piano (jillpianoesq@gmail.com)
Sojourn/Domestic Violence Project
Liaison: Amy Brantly (abrantly@kbslaw.com) and Neelu K. Khanuja (neelukaur13@gmail.com)
Downtown Women's Center (DWC)
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) envisions a Los Angeles with every woman housed and on a path to personal stability. Its mission is to end homelessness for women in greater Los Angeles through housing, wellness, employment, and advocacy.
Liaisons: Lisa Freeman (lfreeman@gmail.com) and Kathleen McDowell (kathleen.mcdowell@mto.com)
Food from the Bar
Food from the Bar is a grass-roots campaign started in 2009 by lawyers to fight hunger in the Los Angeles community. It consists of a month-long friendly competition in the spring among law firms and legal offices in which participants contribute money, donate food, and/or volunteer time sorting and packing food at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.
The Food from the Bar program is modeled after a long-standing program in San Francisco that replenishes food bank supplies to meet the increased need for food during the summer months. When schools close for the summer, thousands of children are not able to access school breakfast and lunch programs, a critical source of nutrition, and so their families turn to the food bank for help.
WLALA is proud of the role it played in mobilizing the Los Angeles legal community as a whole to help alleviate hunger in our community, and hopes to continue to be a major player as Food from the Barexpands and grows. If you would like to be a part of Food from the Bar, please email kathleen.mcdowell@mto.com
Liaisons: Alyssa Dickerson (alyssadickersonlaw@gmail.com) and Neda Saghafi (nsaghafi@panish.law)
Harriett Buhai
The Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law was founded in 1982 as a joint project of WLALA and Black Women Lawyers of Los Angeles, Inc., and the Los Angeles County Bar Association joined as a sponsor in 1985. The Center provides assistance in family law matters to over 1,500 low income individuals each year. Among the services provided by the Center are its pro per program, which prepares individuals to represent themselves in court; free legal representation through the Pro Bono Panel; and community education and outreach. The Buhai Center liaison keeps WLALA and the Buhai Center apprised of each other’s doings and promote mutual support and coordination between the two organizations.
Co–Chairs: Stacy Horth-Neubert
(shorthneubert@hbcfl.org) and Susan Steinhauser (susanst2@bzzmail.com)