The visiting practitioner program brings prominent attorneys to campus to counsel students on pursuing public interest and social justice careers and to share their work.
YVONNE MARIAJIMENEZ
(Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County)
“Why Public Interest Law Matters”
Food will be provided
Wine and cheese reception at 5:00 p.m., Bergin Hall Strong Common
Yvonne Mariajimenez is a Los Angeles native, born and raised in East Los Angeles. She holds a B.S. from USC in Business Administration and a J.D. from Loyola Law School. She has dedicated her entire professional career as a lawyer working with and advocating on behalf of the poor. Her work is very personal to her having been born into and raised in poverty.
Ms. Mariajemenez is the Deputy Director for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (NLSLA), a private, nonprofit law firm funded to provide free legal services and advocacy to poor and low income families and individuals residing in Los Angeles County. She helps to oversee a budget of $13 million, a staff of 100, including 42 lawyers. In 2014, NLSLA served over 80,000 individuals. Ms. Mariajimenez works closely with immigrant communities and addresses issues that most often impact the poor such as housing, employment, public benefits, health care, family law, domestic violence and immigration. She began her legal services career in 1978 at San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services where she specialized in federal subsidized housing and equity fraud cases. She currently focuses on policy advocacy projects related to housing/foreclosures, health care, domestic violence, workforce development and immigration.
Ms. Mariajimenez oversees NLSLA’s four (4) Medical Legal Community Partnerships (MLCP) which use the power of doctors, lawyers, other health professionals, including, but not limited to, physician assistants, Masters of Public Health, nurses, and social workers to identify and ameliorate the social determinants of health impacting both individual and community health status.
In 2014, Ms. Mariajimenez was awarded a Where Health Meets Justice Fellowship by the National Medical Legal Partnership Foundation to support her efforts to seek sustained funding for NLSLA’s MLCP. She has partnered with the County of Los Angeles via the Department of Health Services (DHS) in this effort.
Ms. Mariajimenez was a nominee for Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Bar Association. Yvonne is a former member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, an advisory group to former President Vicente Fox, Republic of Mexico. She is past Vice-President for the Los Angeles County Commission for Women and member of Comision Femenil, was named Loyola Law School Public Interest Attorney of the Year, honored as a Pioneer Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles City Council and is a recipient of the 2013 Opening Doors to Justice Award in recognition for her work on behalf of Californians in need.