Equal Justice Works News Release

	news release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 6, 2010 CONTACT: Shirley Hochhausen (510) 238-9384	shochhausen@equaljusticeworks.org www.equaljusticeworks.org
SHIRLEY HOCHHAUSEN NAMED DIRECTOR OF EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS/WEST
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Equal Justice Works has appointed community lawyer and legal educator Shirley Hochhausen as Director of Equal Justice Works/West, its California office. Ms. Hochhausen will be based in San Francisco and will continue to build infrastructure and support for public interest attorneys in California. Equal Justice Works provides a continuum of programs that begin with incoming law school students and extends into later careers in the profession, and provides the nation’s leading public interest law fellowship program. In her role as director, Ms. Hochhausen will provide project support, coordinate training, engage Equal Justice Works alumni and promote creativity and closer collaboration among the Fellows, their host organizations and sponsors. She also will assist in the recruitment and selection of Fellows from the 22 law schools in California that are Equal Justice Works members. “I’ve spent many years working with new attorneys and volunteers to provide quality legal services to vulnerable communities in California,” said Ms. Hochhausen. “Equal Justice Works is such a vital part of legal services in this state and I’m happy to have a role to play in expanding and strengthening its programs.” Prior to joining Equal Justice Works Ms. Hochhausen served as Directing Attorney of the Anti-predatory Lending Project at Community Legal Services, as adjunct professor and Director of the Predatory Lending Clinic at the University of San Francisco Law School, and as a lecturer and Supervising Attorney for Community Economic Development at Stanford Law School and the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. Ms. Hochhausen began her law career as a legal services attorney in New York City, where she practiced poverty law. She went on to serve in the Real Estate Finance division of the New York State Attorney General’s office and as Counsel and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where she designed an innovative program to create affordable housing for teachers. Ms. Hochhausen holds a juris doctorate from Brooklyn Law School and received a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University. She currently serves on the board of Housing Rights Inc. and is the recipient of the 2008 and 2009 Silicon Valley Community Foundation Grant. “Shirley has invested much of her career in California,” said Paul Igasaki, Equal Justice Works’ Deputy Chief Executive Officer. “She shares our goal of improving legal services to low-income individuals and communities and will be a great force in helping to expand our efforts across the state.” - end - Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1986 by law students dedicated to working for equal justice on behalf of underserved communities and causes. Today, Equal Justice Works is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers as well as in urging more public interest programming at law schools. For more information, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org.
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