Winter 2018

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  Gone West

  Professionals with a Kline School of Law pedigree are gradually beginning to establish a presence in the western states, especially California.

  Kline alumni stretch from the North to the South of the Golden State, working in diverse arenas of practice.

  Many are natives who decided to return to their roots. Others have pursued career opportunities there, including Hans Smith, ’12, who moved from Baker & Hostetler in Philadelphia to the firm’s Orange County office.

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  There’s No Place Like (a) Home

  As the pro bono coordinator for the Homeless Action Center in Berkeley, Charles Bruce, ’10, navigates a complex web of needs, bridging two cultures that have little in common.

  Assuming the role nearly two years ago, Bruce solicits pro bono representation for homeless clients seeking disability benefits. It’s no simple process to match clients who cope with mental illness and trauma to private attorneys who are used to negotiating deals in a boardroom or litigating cases in a courtroom. The fact that disability benefit applications take more than a year to work their way through a bureaucratic eligibility process doesn’t help.

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  On the Frontier of Justice Reform

  Jess Farris spends her days focused on the affairs of pretrial defendants who are locked up in California jails and their loved ones who are scrambling to get them out.

  The director of criminal justice and the policy and advocacy counsel for the ACLU of Southern California, Farris, ’12, is a key player in a statewide effort to advance bail reform in the state legislature.

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  Speak Softly and Carry a Big Dream

  Nothing in Nobumasa Hiroi’s placid demeanor betrays that he is an intensely enterprising individual. Don’t be fooled.

  Born in Japan, the ’12 alumnus speaks three languages and has lived in Europe and South America as well as Asia and North America. He’s been engaged in legal work in the U.S., Japan and China. His interests range from literature (he earned a master’s degree in English and creative writing) to nuclear nonproliferation (he interned one summer for the Project for Nuclear Awareness).

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  Restless Compass

  Since earning her JD in 2011, Ellie Austin has demonstrated that it is, after all, possible to be both footloose and sure-footed.

  Soon after graduating, the Golden State native returned and began practicing at a firm that represents Southern California districts in special-education matters.

  Though Austin continued with the firm for nearly four years, she worked remotely for much of that time, following geographic, professional and personal pathways in diverse directions.

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  The Outlier

  If you want to know what life is like for the typical immigration lawyer these days, don’t bother asking Ted Oswald.

  As the immigrant legal services manager at World Relief’s office in Sacramento, Oswald is quite an outlier.

  First of all, Oswald is not deeply involved in securing visas for foreign workers or fighting deportations, despite a rise in immigration arrests since President Trump took office. Secondly, most attorneys helping the Special Immigrant Visa holders who previously served as interpreters for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen their client numbers dwindle. Yet business is booming for the ’11 alumnus.

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  Class Notes Winter 2018

  Find out what your classmates are up to.
  
  

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