UCLA Law Student Chosen as First Gideon’s Promise Fellowship Recipient Student also selected for Gideon’s Promise Summer Law Clerk Program Arienna Grody ’14 , a
graduate of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, was chosen as the first Gideon’s Promise Fellowship recipient. She ARIENNA GRODY will work in the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Project (LSPP). “I am thrilled to be UCLA Law’s 2014 Gideon’s Promise Fellow. While I have no doubt that the next three years will bring new challenges, I am confident that with my three years as part of the Public Interest and Critical Race Studies communities, as well as the infrastructure of the Gideon’s Promise program, I will be equipped with the tools I need to make a meaningful contribution to equalizing justice in Birmingham, Alabama,” Grody said. Grody gained experience working as an advocate for criminal defendants during law school. In addition to participating in UCLA Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic, she spent two summers at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, where she assisted with intake interviews, plea bargain negotiations and preparation of trial motions. She also worked in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office,
splitting her time between the juvenile office in South Central and the central felony unit in downtown Los Angeles. The LSPP is a partnership among Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit organization working to mobilize and train public defenders, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and participating law schools and Southern public defender offices. The goal of the program is to help recruit talented third-year law students and place them in positions at underserved public defender offices. The program also provides a commitment of a permanent job within one year at the selected public defender’s office. UCLA School of Law was the first law school to join the coalition, which was launched in November 2013. In addition, UCLA Law student Logan Noblin ’15 was selected to join the Gideon’s Promise Summer Law Clerk Program. He is one of 16 first- and second-year law students chosen for the highly selective program, and was assigned to work in the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office during summer 2014. Noblin came to law school to pursue a career as a public defender. While at UCLA Law, he has worked as a law clerk in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, was a member of the law school’s Criminal Justice Society and served as a mentor in the UCLA Law Fellows Program. He previously worked as a law clerk in the Law Offices of Henry Salcido in Long Beach, California, and as a paralegal at Blecher & Collins in Los Angeles.
Student Serves as Reporter at ABA Intellectual Property Law Conference Stacy Yae ’16 was selected to participate in the Annual Law Student Reporters Program of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law. She attended the 29th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference in April and reported on the legal programming offered during the conference. Yae is a registered U.S. Patent Agent and was a summer associate in the Intellectual Property and Technology group at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles.
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