2009 Award Winners

Community Award -  Jacquetta Lannan

"I credit the Alexander Community Law Center for teaching me how to be a lawyer. Most importantly, I learned that one of the most satisfying things you can do as an attorney is to be the voice for someone who doesn't otherwise have one."

Jacquetta M. Lannan ’06 participated in the Community Law Center’s Workers’ Rights, Workers’ Compensation and Consumer clinics throughout her law school years. During that time, she logged more than 100 client interviews and hundreds of hours of legal work on behalf of the Community Law Center’s clients.

Upon graduation, she continued to work on her pending cases while waiting for the Bar exam results. She was then invited to serve in the Center’s Advisory Board, and has been recently nominated to serve as the Board’s chair for 2010. For the last three semesters, she has taught a wage-and-hour seminar to the law students who participate in the Workers’ Rights Clinic, where she also consistently serves as a supervising attorney.

Currently an attorney at Pierce & Shearer, she dedicates her time to employment, civil rights and property right cases. Previously, she was an associate attorney at Hinkle, Jachimowicz, Pointer & Emanuel, working on plaintiffs’ employment law.

Commitment Award - Bramson, Plutzik, Mahler & Birkhaeuser LLP

Honoring the law firm of Bramson, Plutzik, Mahler & Birkhaeuser LLP for its dedication to consumers, to consumer law, and to high ethical standards in the prosecution of consumer class actions. This award also recognizes that the firm has provided important support to the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, and to many other legal service agencies throughout California.

Bramson, Plutzik, Mahler & Birkhaeuser, LLP enjoys a national reputation for successfully prosecuting consumer, antitrust, and investor class actions and other complex litigation matters. The firm has over 25 years of experience handling complex litigation in both federal and state courts in California and nationwide. In addition to its class action expertise, the firm has also represented individual clients in cases raising significant issues under the federal and state antitrust laws and provisions of constitutional and telecommunications law.

Courage Award - Sandra Gonzalez

"It felt good that so many people were able to achieve some level of justice. From the beginning, I placed my entire trust in the Law Center. [The Law Center] always kept me informed as to the progress of the case; I don’t know what I would have done without [its] assistance.”

Sandra Gonzalez, a long-time San José resident and mother of six, withstood seven years of litigation in a consumer class action suit even though she was offered a settlement early on.

In 2001, she co-signed a contract for the purchase of a truck for her father. Out of a job, her father missed some payments on the truck, which was quickly repossessed by the finance company and sold below market price. The finance company then contacted Ms. Gonzalez to pay the balance owed on the vehicle. The company made a large number of collection calls to Ms. Gonzalez over several months, always over-stating the amount due. It was later discovered that the company repeated the same process with thousands of consumers throughout California.

In 2004, the finance company offered Ms. Gonzalez a generous settlement to drop her case, which would have deprived the class action of its last representative. She courageously declined and elected to go forward representing the other members of the class. The case was finally settled favorably in 2009, recovering over $1 million for the entire class.