Pro Bono Awards 2019

Presented at the UCI Law Pro Bono & Student Life Awards Celebration on April 11, 2019.

Community Awards

These awards honor the pro bono supervisors and supporters, without whom the students could not do pro bono work.

  • Community Pro Bono Advocate Award: Don Daybell, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Dominique Quevedo, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles; and Justine Schneeweis, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, for their work on the Permanency Project. 
  • Community Pro Bono Partner Award: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP for providing over 1,500 hours of pro bono supervision to UCI Law students over the past 10 years.

Student Awards

The following students were recognized for going above and beyond in terms of pro bono.

  • Pro Bono Independent Spirit Award
    • Sue Chang, for the Tijuana Border Protection Project; Li Chia and Cameron Sheldon for Spring Break Immigration Detention Center Projects
  • Most Pro Bono Hours
    • Cumulative (Class of 2019): Julia Jones
    • 3L: Julia Jones
    • 2L: Emily Genzlinger
    • 1L: Kayley Berger and Alexis Weitzner
  • Pro Bono Student Leadership Award
    • Nina Benjamin and John Silverman—CARES
    • Emily Genzlinger—Civil Rights in Education
    • Emily Genzlinger and John Silverman—Disabled and Elderly Benefits (SSI)
    • Erika Bertelsen—Domestic Violence Declarations
    • Emily Engler—Elder Abuse Restraining Orders
    • Allyssa Scheyer and Janista Lee—Expungment Project - OC Clean Slate Clinic
    • Mona Goodarzi—Innocence Project Collaboration
    • Alexandra Lewis and Maryam Arshad—International Refugee Assistance Project
    • Cameron Sheldon and Li Chia—Otay Mesa Detention Center Spring Break
    • Jonhatan Aragon—Permanency Project for Victims of Crime
    • Kelsey Goldman—Pet Protection Project Los Angeles
    • Emily Genzlinger—Pet Protection Project Orange County
    • Daniel Ganz, Grecia Rivas, Joseph Shafik and Maryam Zomorodian—Saturday Academy of Law
    • Alexis Mondares and Desiree Murray—Street Law
    • Emily Johanson, Laura Alvarenga Scalia and Sue Chang—Tijuana Border Rights Protection Project
    • Caspian Nash and Matthew Arnold—Transgender Legal Assistance Clinic
  • Graduation Awards
    • Pro Bono High Honors (200 hours): Samantha Abraham, Erika Bertelsen, Nicholas Borkowski, Sue Chang, Li Chia, Cecilia Choy, Juan Garcia, Courtney Glazer-Mapfumo, Carey Hughes, Julia Jones, Desiree Murray, Caspian Nash, Fernando Nunez, Sarah Raoof, Laila Rashid, Emily Satifka, Jaquesha Scott, Cameron Sheldon, John Silverman, Denise Sorto-Solis, Jacob Stonich, Lauren Wertheimer, Brandon White, Ying Ying (Amy) Yu, Joyce Yu
    • Pro Bono Honors (120 hours): Nikki Allami, Peter Alter, Shaia Araghi, Peter Bae, Justin Berchiolli, Marcel Budiono, Maggie Chou, Olivia Durnell, Cristen Fletcher, Evan Franson, Chhaya Kotwani, Steven Lee, Rodney Leggett, Stefani Mark, Lorena Niebla, Andrea Pinango, Pooja Pujara, Caitlin Rice, Deshani Senewiratne, Karen Shin, Christopher Smallwood, Charlene Sun, Tara Teegarden
  • Pro Bono 50 & 100 (Hour) Awards: These students far exceeded the recommended number of annual pro bono hours during the 2018–2019 academic year.
    • 100 Hour Award (3L): Justin Berchiolli, Li Chia, Maggie Chou, Juan Garcia, Courtney Glazer-Mapfumo, Julia Jones, Steven Lee, Lorena Niebla, Sarah Raoof, Emily Satifka, Cameron Sheldon, John Silverman, Denise Sorto-Solis, Lauren Wertheimer, Ying Ying (Amy) Yu
    • 100 Hour Award (2L): Madelaine Ambrus, Mackenzie Anderson, Nina Benjamin, Cristina Butoiu, Paige Cavendish, Emily Croucher, Travone Davis, Suzanne Denbow, Ashleigh Dennis, Pilar Escontrias, Emily Genzlinger, Patrick Hulbert, Nicole Kennedy, Correy Miller, Alexis Mondares, Yingge Ning, Allyssa Scheyer, Raina Sharma, Spencer Shure, Cayla Whitley
    • 50 Hour Award (1L): Elena Aguirre, Matthew Arnold, Hannah Bartlett, Sumouni Basu, Kayley Berger, Lynda Bui, Melanie Chaewsky, Melissa Colon, Ricardo Corte, Pauline Duong, Xudong Fan, Kari Ferver, Curtis Franklin, Emma Garcia, Emily Goldstein, Amelia Haselkorn, Angelica Hernandez, Joshua Himmelstern, Samuel Johnson, Christopher Lawrence, Stephanie Lee, Lindsay Marum, Alexander Morrow, Sarah Mousa, Thomas Multari, Allyson Myers, Erica Navarro, Anne Nicholson, Kaitlin O’Donnell, Michaela Posner, Catherine Rosoff, Jenae Rusch, Yasmeen Sayyah, Akila Shenoy, Allison Staumont, Hedyeh Tirgardoon, Kyle Warren, Harrison Weimer, Alexis Weitzner, Margaret Woodruff
  • Pro Bono Achievement Award Winners: The Pro Bono Achievement Awards recognize all students who met the recommended number of pro bono hours (50 hours for 2Ls and 3Ls; 20 hours for 1Ls) during the 2018–2019 academic year.
    • Class of 2019: Nikki Allami, Shaia Araghi, Peter Bae, Jumana Bambot, Erika Bertelsen, Nicholas Borkowski, Sue Chang, Cecilia Choy, Olivia Durnell, Evan Franson, Ethan Greene, Susan Libicki, Stefani Mark, Desiree Murray, Fernando Nunez, Andrea Pinango, Pooja Pujara, Laila Rashid, Deshani Senewiratne, Karen Shin, Jacob Stonich, Brandon White
    • Class of 2020: Jonhatan Aragon, Markie Betor, Dion Diederich, Ksenia Gracheva, David Hazelton, Emily Johanson, Janista Lee, Dana Lui, Olivia Meme, Viridiana Chabolla, Tess Messiha, Kyoolee Park, Grecia Rivas, Pacifico Soldati, Brian Sutter, Julia Taing, Maryam Zomorodian
    • Class of 2021: Nafisa Ahmed, Fahad Ali, Richard Angel, James Arias, Sharon Baek, Stephanie Berardino, Simran Brar, Angelina Caplanis, Carson Capps, Alexandra Carubis, Gabriela Centeno, Bowen Cochran, Michael Damasco, Sunny Dillon, Charles Feigelstock, Lya Ferreyra, Marquise Findley-Smith, Daisy Flores, Dylan Gera, Arya Ghadimi, Henry Glitz, Kelsey Goldman, Arianna Goolsby, Anna Hales, Luke Hartman, Christopher Harvey, Kennedy Holmes, Cheyenne Hunt-Majer, Isabel Ignacio, Sarah Kahn, Betty Kim, James Kim, Ahmad Krecht, Amanda Lapato, Joelle Leib, Courtney Lem, Robyn Lin, Wei Liu, Justin Livingston, Jordan Lowery, Caleb Martinez, Benjamin McClain, Anthony Mendez, Jennifer Meyer, Christa Millard, Zeina Mousa, Alexander Nguyen, Nick Nikols, Emily Osgood, Sophie Paeng, Arjay Parhar, Julienne Pasichow, Morgan Peterson, Michelle Pujol, Katherine Raitz, Sarah Sakr, Angela Shen, Kevin Shone, Tyler Shum, Garrett Stallins, Rose Statman, Christopher Steinke, Emily Tsai, Ryan Ventura, Brandon Washington, Tatum Wheeler, Jordin Wilcher, Aoyu Yang, Reed Zaiss, Amanda Zemel