Megan E. Helfend

Ms. Helfend is entering her third year at Loyola Law School this fall.  Ms. Helfend has demonstrated a strong commitment to issues involving children.  Following her first year at Loyola, Ms. Helfend served as a summer intern at the Children’s Law Center of California (“CLC”), where she worked with foster children involved in abuse and neglect proceedings pending in dependency court.  Ms. Helfend found her experience at CLC and her interaction with very resilient young clients so fulfilling that she extended her internship into the fall of 2015. 

During her second year at Loyola, Ms. Helfend joined the school’s Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (“Center”), where she was a clinical student in the Youth Justice Education Clinic.  She will be continuing with the Center this coming school year, but will be working instead with issues concerning juvenile sentencing. 

Ms. Helfend was also recently accepted as a participant in the Civil Rights Litigation Practicum at Loyola where she will learn civil rights advocacy in the fall semester of 2016, and will be placed as an extern in the spring semester.  She plans to seek placement in an agency specializing in education issues, as she believes education should be a fundamental right afforded to all children.  Additionally, Ms. Helfend was appointed as a board member of the Children and Family Law Society at Loyola.  As a board member, Ms. Helfend organizes events to educate other law students about children’s rights under the law. 

Ms. Helfend is furthering her litigation skills by working with a civil rights defense firm in Pasadena this summer.  She plans to focus on indigent juvenile criminal defense after graduation from law school.

Ms. Helfend is passionate about helping youth and attended law school with that goal in mind; she is prepared for a low paying career as a children’s rights advocate and is already looking into loan forgiveness programs and grants in order to make her goal a reality.