The Inland Counties Legal Services celebrated the past year of attorney work in downtown Riverside Oct. 12.
They honored staff tax attorney Jennifer Schinke as an outstanding advocate for pro bono, Cozen O’Connor’s Brett Watson and Tom Casparian as volunteers of the year and ICLS Board Director Elaine Rosen as a leader for justice.
They also celebrated Fenwick & West LLP as the law firm of the year. The firm provided more than 400 hours of volunteer work, from almost 60 attorneys.
The ICLS used the opportunity to tout their accomplishments in small business help and expungements over the past year. They displayed image boards that said they used more than 100 attorneys to provide more than 1,000 hours of legal guidance to 98 small businesses.
In 2023, they also launched a free expungement clinic in partnership with Mary’s Mercy Center, a transitional home in San Bernardino. They helped residents in the center seal their criminal records, opening them to housing and jobs that they may have been passed over for if background checks showed their convictions.
The ICLS also launched an LGBTQIA+ services program in November 2022. That program helps transgender people legally change their names to limit harassment, and helps people file advanced health care directives to make sure their health care wishes will be respected even when they are unable to make their medical decisions.
“There is a great passion for the work. There is a great investment in the people striving to obtain justice, in the hours that we put in every day, in the work, in the investment of our money, of our time, of our families. This justice is incredibly difficult to come by,” said ICLS Executive Director Tessie Solorzano.
ICLS Pro Bono Director Matthew Kugizaki served as the master of ceremonies.
“It’s just so amazing to see all of you, many of whom I’ve met during this time that I’ve been in ICLS, so grateful to be honoring the community and pro bono advocates that support our work and revenue,” Kugizaki said.
Kugizaki said the Inland Empire is underrepresented in attorneys. The Inland Empire makes up 13% of California’s population, but only has 3% of the state’s attorneys, he said. There are 1.3 attorneys per 1,000 residents in the Inland Empire, while Los Angeles has 5.9 attorneys per 1,000, and the average in California is 4.3, he said. That justice gap is being treated by volunteers that work through the ICLS, like Fenwick & West, Kugizaki said.
“We have a huge task—we all have to work together to close that gap,” Kugizaki said.
Fenwick & West LLP is a national law firm that lists 309 associate attorneys and 151 partners. They employ Erika Fairfield as a pro bono manager to coordinate work between attorneys and nonprofits like the ICLS. They helped 50 small business owners in the Inland Empire over the past year, ranging from an air conditioning business to the reiki provider Hug a Tree Reiki.
“Thank you so much for listening to the small businesses to find out exactly what kind of legal help they need, and how folks can best provide that, whether that’s providing presentations in languages other than English, that more people have access to this court information, whether it’s thinking creatively about different kinds of legal services that we provided,” Fairfield said.
Schinke is an attorney in ICLS’ Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, which provides help to people faced with tax issues.
Watson is the chair of Cozen O’Connor’s retail banking practice. He was recognized as lawyer of the year for his work with the ICLS’ Family Law Team and Guardianship Program, which helps guardians navigate court and help stabilize children’s situations. Watson joined the family law team after asking to be directly involved with clients instead of working at high-level claims he’s done in the past in the fields of voting rights and asylums. He helped save a girl from a life of violence by getting her placed in the care of her grandmother instead of her parents.
“That had a very rewarding and positive result, as do all the cases that (Kugizaki) and ICLS handle. It is extraordinary work of extraordinary importance. And I’m honored to be part of it,” Watson said.
Casparian was recognized as volunteer of the year for his work with the ICLS’ Systemic and Impact Litigation team. The team challenges unlawful policies in government. He saved a woman going through cancer treatments from an eviction brought by a new property owner.
“(The ICLS attorneys) were working to keep housed a very vulnerable population that was facing rent increases, were forced to sign leases and were facing eviction. These are seniors, English as a second-language women,” Casparian said.
“I had the chance, it was gratifying to work with the younger attorneys at ICLS, to mentor and advise them because they were really the ones that were on the frontline at this point. I was back in the office, just advising,” Casparian said.
Rosen has been on the Board of Directors for 18 years. She has also served as judge pro tem, mediator and as a professor at the University of Redlands; California State University, San Bernardino; the University of La Verne; and University of California, Riverside.
“I was very surprised when I was told about the award. I’m not used to that kind of thing,” Rosen said by phone. “I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life. It’s just amazing how, the older you get, the more you have on your resume.”
ICLS Board Chair Marvin Powell Jr., said that Rosen was integral as board president from 2017 to 2019 in helping the staff flourish.
“Leadership, like great policy, is all about promoting and recognizing human flourish. That’s what great leaders do. That’s what Elaine Rosen has done for the organization in the amount of time that she served,” Powell said.
As president, Rosen grew the budget from $11 million to $18 million, Powell said.
Tori Praul Hedrick, ICLS director of community development, ended the speeches by saying that the work on display was only a fraction of what the ICLS does. The ICLS has 150 attorneys, which is not small for a nonprofit, but is a number that pales in comparison to the 630,000 people living in the area.
The ICLS is going to continue to expand its programs, Praul Hedrick said. They just launched a disaster relief program by joining a statewide network of legal aid organizations that provide assistance to people affected by disasters like wildfires or winter storms. They also help people fighting evictions in every local court that handles eviction lawsuits. They are seeking funding to make legal education videos, and are attempting to break down geographic barriers to legal immigration services.
About 100 people attended the celebration, held in the Life Arts Center, at the corner of University Street and Lemon Avenue. Executive Chef Brad Martin of the Riverside Convention Center provided a table of finger food that included small beef empanadas, firecracker shrimp, tandoori chicken skewers, stuffed red skinned potatoes and chile relleno croquettes, each with their own dipping sauce. The Spanish guitar duo Cale, with Jose Preito and Victor Torres, provided music.
