Social Justice Thursday Speaker Series

Joining theory and practice, the Center sponsors a lunchtime speakers' series on contemporary social justice issues. Speakers include local attorneys who describe their practices as well as scholars who discuss recent work.

Fall 2010 Social Justice Thursday Speaker Series

The Fall 2009 series is held in Bannan 139 from Noon to 1 p.m. where food is provided.

August 26: Public Interest and Social Justice Law Welcome Day

An Introduction to Resources at SCU

Facilitator: Stephanie M. Wildman

September 23: Funding Summer Work: Public Interest and Social Justice Law Board Summer Grants, LGBT Grants, and Stevens Fellowships Information Session

Learn about funding social justice summer work.

Featuring: Richard Berg: Professor of Law Emeritus and Board Member, Public Interest and Social Justice Law Board; Ken Manaster, Professor of Law and Chair, Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship Committee; and Vicki Huebner, Assistant Dean of Law Career Services.

September 30: Pursuing Justice: A Life in Public Interest Law

Fall 2010 Visiting Practitioner: Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice)

Nan Aron is the President of both the Alliance for Justice (AFJ) and its partner advocacy organization, the Alliance for Justice Action Campaign (AFJAC), has been a leading voice in public interest law for over 30 years. She founded AFJ in 1979 and continues to guide the organization in its mission to advance the cause of justice for all Americans, strengthen the public interest community’s influence on national policy and foster the next generation of advocates. In 1985, she founded AFJ’s Judicial Selection Project, now the country’s premier voice for a fair and independent judiciary and a major player in the often-controversial judicial nominations process. In addition to increasing judicial advocacy, Nan has led AFJ for Justice to expand its programs to support the participation of nonprofit and foundation staff in public life. Throughout the nation, Nan is unequivocally recognized for her vast expertise in public interest law, the federal judiciary and citizen participation in public policy.
 

Spring 2011 Social Justice Thursday Speaker Series

The Spring 2011 series is held in LOC TBA from Noon to 1 p.m. where food is provided.

February 17: Actualizing Your Passion for Social Justice Through the Private Practice of Human Rights Law

Spring 2010 Visiting Practitioner: Sonia Mercado (Sonia Mercado & Associates)

Sonia Mercado, received her B.A., from Atlantic Union College, Mass. and Séminaire Adventiste du Salève, France in French Literature, in 1971; she received her M.A. in French Literature from UCLA in 1976; her Ph.D. was in progress when she entered UCLA Law School and obtained a J.D. from UCLA in 1983. Ms. Mercado was UCLA Law School’s first participant in its International Law Judicial Externship Program in the Superior Court, Mexico City, 1982. Prior to founding her own law firm, she worked at the firm of Cummins & White doing defense, business and professional liability litigation. In 2006, she was nominated as one of the top women litigators in the State of California by the Daily Journal Legal Newspaper, who had also previously recognized her work in civil rights.

Ms. Mercado specializes in the area of Civil Rights, with a focus on deliberate indifference to Medical Care. She has successfully obtained six published opinions, including two District Court opinions on issues of jail medical care and a novel opinion regarding internet jurisdiction. She successfully represented a class action and obtained an injunction and a consent decree regarding the unconstitutional (tortuous) use of a restraint chair in jail, which particularly punished and harmed the mentally ill/disabled. This resulted in a first national opinion by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal prohibiting this unconstitutional use. She successfully represented families in wrongful shootings and police brutality and enforced the constitutional rights of inmates to obtain discovery generally claimed as privileged, such as quality assurance and peer review documents. Ms. Mercado’s recognized expertise in this area has brought her to lecture in the United States and in England and Israel. She has lectured in legal education seminars and symposiums to lawyers, judges and NGO, at the Summer Institute on International Human Rights, Oxford University, England, in numerous law schools nationwide, the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), Haifa University, Haifa, Israel; and at the "Institute of Jurist, Judges and Prosecutors from Argentina," at Southwestern School of Law.

Her frequent lectures in the area of Civil Rights, Police Brutality and medical rights of the incarcerated include such seminars as: Protecting Civil Rights Under Section 1983; Civil Rights in a Growing World Economy; Human Rights: a Comparative Study of French and U.S. Human Rights Developments; Deliberate Indifference to Medical Condition; Symposium on Public Interest Law in Eastern Europe and Russia; The Distinction Between Deliberate Indifference and Medical Malpractice; Civil Rights Procedure/Discovery in Federal Court; and Discovery in Medical Malpractice Actions. She defines professional success by whether the cases she undertakes vindicate and enforce the “Constitutional Rights” of all.

Ms. Mercado’s volunteer work focuses on the educational rights of mentally ill/disabled children. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic (providing educational and mental health services to inner city indigent children); a Member of the “Learning Rights Project,” (which provides free seminars to parents and free legal services to indigent children with educational disabilities); and until recently a member of the Board of Trustees for Vistamar School (a school dedicated to a diverse student population and a global perspective). Sonia has volunteered on the Inglewood School District Bond Oversight Committee, and received an award from the State Bar of California Board of Governors for her contributions to pro bono work.
 

Previous Social Justice Thursday Speakers