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A Word From The Executive Director
Overflowing with gratitude as we prepare to close out the semester and look toward 2026. The Law Center is about hope, growth, and moving in solidarity through challenges. This year has been like no other and we are committed to bringing as much good to it as we can. What a gift it is to share our time, talent, and legal resources in service with and for consumers, immigrants, workers, and the unhoused in our community. Below are semester highlights. Thank you for supporting our efforts to educate, advocate, and serve. Be blessed, Consider making a gift to keep our programs strong; we’d be quite grateful. LAW CENTER IN THE COMMUNITYWe stay engaged and energized through our work. Over the past several months, we’ve increased the community education and outreach and one-on-one client services. Through legal trainings and workshops, advice clinics, legal screenings, and collaborative partnerships, the team has worked to expand access to legal services throughout Santa Clara County. We strive to meet folks where they are. We’ve tabled at high schools, churches, a union hall, local gardens, summer festivals, held trainings on Zoom, and offered pop-up legal clinics in the community for the unhoused. Since July 2025, the Law Center has held 34 advice clinics and participated in 15 community education and outreach events; combined these efforts reached over 790 people.
EXPANDING OUR IMPACT THROUGH OUR PEOPLE Our team expanded over the summer and fall and we are grateful for the additional resources: their time, energy, and effort brought to the Law Center team. We are especially pleased to introduce our newest clinical supervising attorney, Brie Frank Mendoza, and our Unhoused Advocacy work. Hear reflections below: WELCOME – Clinical Supervising Attorney – Brie Frank Mendoza, Unhoused Advocacy Practice 
“The work of the Unhoused Advocacy Clinic has taken me out into the community—meeting unhoused residents to address legal needs like record clearance and property loss during displacement. This semester, students have already interviewed over a dozen community members. As a prior public defender, I saw our legal system criminalize survival rather than confront the inequities that cause it and how urgently it needs reimagining. Every conversation serves as an act of resistance by reclaiming dignity in a system that too often strips it away. It’s a privilege to help guide students in discovering the law’s true power lies in solidarity, not control.” THANK YOU – Cindy Avitia Immigration Justice Summer Fellow - Cesar Lugaro-Velazquez ’27 
This paid Fellowship is funded by the generous support of the Santa Clara County La Raza Lawyers Charitable Foundation. “I was inspired to become a lawyer after witnessing firsthand the struggles the undocumented community faced during the pandemic. The lack of resources and support this community endured and my inability at the time to do more was a turning point in my life. As the Cindy Avitia Fellow during yet another tumultuous period in immigration law, I'm proud to have been selected to aid the Law Center in representing underserved immigrants and their families. It's been the experience of a lifetime connecting with the community and being a force for positive change and results.” THANK YOU- to our Summer Undergraduate Interns We owe a deep debt of gratitude to our two undergraduate summer interns who assisted with everything from staffing the front desk, to client intake, to helping with marketing and communications. Their support was invaluable! Alejandra Cobarrubia, SCU ’26 Jillian Roa, SCU ’25 KGACLC ANNUAL CELEBRATION – October 3, 2025!
We are truly grateful for your generous support of the Law Center’s recent Community, Commitment & Courage Celebration at Santa Clara University’s Recital Hall on If you could not join the Celebration, we truly missed you! You can still contribute to the efforts with a gift to keep our programs strong. Together let’s continue to work with and for others to build a more humane, just, sustainable and faith-filled world. Thank you to our generous sponsors! Check out photos from the Celebration! BRIDGE TO JUSTICE – October 25, 2025.Hosted by the Latinx Law Student Association (LLSA) in partnership with the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, the semiannual Bridge to Justice (B2J) legal clinic was held on Saturday, October 25, 2025. This semester’s clinic was staffed by over twenty law students, five attorney volunteers, and six from the KGACLC team. Together, they provided free information and advice for twenty individuals & their families with immigration and workers’ rights matters. In addition to serving the community, the B2J fosters connections between law students and alumni, enriching the experience for everyone involved. For almost a decade, the B2J has paired law students and attorneys serving community at an all-day free legal services Saturday clinic. The law students coordinate the event — preparing the flyers, outreaching to student volunteers, and for the event. The Law Center trains and supervises the student volunteers, obtains the attorney volunteers, and provides the legal infrastructure for the event. “The Bridge to Justice does meaningful, uplifting work that reminds me why I came to law school: to help people feel supported, empowered, and seen through the law,” shared Zoie Reyna ’27 B2J co-coordinator. Like many of the Law Center efforts, volunteer power is key—THANK YOU to the fall 2025 B2J alumni volunteers: Robert Greeley ’97 Tremendous gratitude to student coordinators Cesar Lugaro-Velazquez ’27 and Zoie Reyna ’27, and also to Prof. Evangeline Abriel and the KGACLC team. Together their time and leadership made for a seamless clinic. The B2J embodies service learning; it is beautiful to see the various parts of our Santa Clara Law community come together to assist others. Please let us know if you can join this volunteer efforts; we could use you! KGACLC - Magic in Action - Felipe Romero's ’20 Social Justice Journey  KGACLC's mission is to train law students while igniting a passion for lifelong social justice advocacy. Alum Felipe Romero, Class of 2020, embodies this mission through his zealous work as an immigration attorney at Human Agenda. Despite his busy schedule, he remains committed to giving back to the community, volunteering at the annual Bridge to Justice (B2J) event to help law students serve the immigrant population. Felipe, who once volunteered as a law student, reflects on his journey: "As a law student, when I participated in B2J, I understood how important it was to get practical experience. As an attorney participating in B2J, it's rewarding to see and assist students embark on that social justice journey." Felipe's path has come full circle—from learning from lawyers as a student to guiding them as a practicing attorney. This is KGACLC magic in action! Share your time, talent, and treasure Interested in volunteering with the Law Center, funding a fellowship, or joining the Advisory Board? Contact Deborah Moss-West or Board Chair Delma Locke to learn more. Volunteer and supporters keep our program strong!
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Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center Phone: (408) 288-7030 | Fax: (408) 288-3581 |