LAAC is happy to announce three Dan Bradley Fellows for Summer 2010!

Elizabeth Aakhus (UC Hastings, class of 2011) will spend her summer at the Delano office of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). Ms. Aakhus spent much of her childhood in nearby Bakersfield and wants to return to the community as part of her commitment to a career in rural direct legal services. She will maintain her own caseload of housing and employment cases and will be living with a Spanish-speaking family.Ms. Aakhus' volunteer experiences are extensive and reach back to a three-year position beginning in 2001 as a tutor at the Arab American Family Support Center in Brooklyn. More recently, Ms. Aakhus spent two years as a paralegal at The Impact Fund and last summer as a Housing Practice Law Clerk at the East Bay Community Law Center.

Maria Olaguez (Southwestern, class of 2012) will spend her summer in Compton at Community Legal Services. Ms. Olaguez also grew up in the Central Valley and hopes to one day start her own law firm there. Ms. Olaguez has also shown a commitment to rural California with a history as an organizer for United Farm Workers and a volunteer trip with the Public Interest Clearinghouse to Paso Robles to provide for free consumer debt and housing clinics. She has also volunteered as a tutor and mentor for at-risk, gang-oriented youth and as a translator for Spanish-speaking parents at Teen Court.

Cristina Chavez (UC Hastings, class of 2012) will spend her summer at the San Bernadino office of Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS), helping to create a model community consumer clinic to be replicated in ICLS' other offices. Ms. Chavez is not new to ICLS, as she spent two years as a paralegal and landlord-tenant advocate in their Riverside office. Ms. Chavez' knowledge of the challenges faced by those who possess a limited education, low English-proficiency, and limited financial resources has led her to want to educate and empower low income consumers and employees so that they may preserve and defend their rights.