From the COVID-19 pandemic to natural disasters to political protests, 2020 has brought challenges like we have never known. Your legal skills are needed to help our most vulnerable community members. Learn how to connect with statewide pro bono efforts, as well as free training opportunities in areas of law including housing, employment, government benefits, disaster relief and civil rights.
Maria Hall is a civil rights lawyer and director of the Los Angeles Incubator Consortium (“LAIC”), a post-graduate program funded by UCLA, Southwestern and Loyola Law Schools. LAIC helps new lawyers build sustainable, community-based, solo law firms. Maria serves on the Access to Justice Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the board of trustees for the Mexican American Bar Foundation, and is the immediate past president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
Tiela Chalmers is the Chief Executive Officer/General Counsel of the Alameda County Bar Association and Legal Access Alameda, and is a leader in free legal services for low-income communities. After working for years at a law firm, she moved to the Volunteer Legal Services Program, ultimately becoming its Executive Director.
In 2011, Tiela became a consultant focusing on legal services for low-income communities, including building the Shriver Housing Project in LA, a collaborative eviction defense project.
In 2014, she joined the ACBA/Legal Access. She brings her interactive poverty workshop to law firms, schools, and agencies to encourage understanding of poverty. She chairs the Disaster Legal Services Collaborative, a regional collaborative working throughout Northern California.
