Labor and Employment Law Section Congratulates Scholarship Recipients

The Labor and Employment Law Section and the California Lawyers Foundation are committed to fostering the career growth of persons of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups who are interested in practicing labor and employment law in areas that support and promote the goal of diversity in the labor and employment law field.

We congratulate the law students and law school graduates selected for the Summer 2022 Law Student Scholarship and the Section’s Summer 2022 Bar Studies Scholarship!

These law students received a stipend to support their labor and employment work this summer and our law graduates, with a demonstrated commitment to labor and employment law, received a bar study stipend. In total, we supported our students and law graduates with nearly $60,000 in scholarships.

More information on the program is available on our website. Congratulations to all!

Law Student Scholars Victoria Chan

Raised in San Francisco's Chinatown, Victoria is a 2L at Golden Gate University School of Law. Before law school, she spent almost six years as a Senior Community Advocate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus, where she empowered and represented low-wage and immigrant workers on issues including wage and hour, retaliation, and unemployment insurance. This summer, Victoria interned for the California Labor Commissioner's Office — Legal Unit. With her bilingual skills and commitment to becoming a public interest attorney, Victoria looks forward to using her legal education to continue protecting communities like San Francisco's Chinatown.

Abigail Cruz

Abigail is a 3L at UC Hastings School of Law. Abigail worked with Legal Aid at Work this summer. Abigail is motivated to pursue a career in employment law after working on wage and hour issues with farmworkers and helping at Legal Aid at Work’s Workers’ Rights Clinic.

Marco Dell’Oro

Marco will graduate from Loyola Law in May 2023 and is interested in labor law. This summer, he was a law clerk with the Workers’ Rights Program of La Raza Centro Legal, where he worked to vindicate the rights of low-wage immigrant workers. He is passionate about defending the rights of workers and immigrants in the United States. He has worked as a translator with a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and helped obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for several underage migrants. Upon graduation from law school, Marco hopes to pursue a career in public interest law.

Brandon Dimapasoc

Brandon is a 2L at UCLA School of Law specializing in public interest law and policy. Brandon attended UC Davis, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology. Having been raised by Filipino immigrants, including a registered nurse and proud union member, Brandon was excited to work for UNITE Here Local 11 this past summer, a labor union representing hotel and restaurant workers in Southern California and Arizona. Brandon is a proud member of UCLA Law Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association and serves as its 2022-23 community outreach co-chair.

Maritere Gomez

Maritere grew up in the South Side of Chicago in an immigrant community. She is a 2L at Northern Illinois University College of Law. Maritere is a co-president of the Labor and Employment Law Society and a graduate assistant at the Undocumented Student Support Office on campus. She wants to become a labor attorney focused on the worker side. She was awarded the Embracing Diversity Award at Northern Illinois University College of Law, which will give her the opportunity to organize a Diversity Speaker Series at the College of Law. This summer, Maritere worked at Legal Aid at Work.

Katharine Hirata

Katharine is a 2L at UCLA School of Law in the Public Interest Law & Policy Program. She currently co-chairs the Advocacy & Education Committee of Tsuru for Solidarity, a grassroots, Japanese American racial and immigrant justice group. Before law school, she worked in membership at OCA — Asian Pacific American Advocates and as the Norman Mineta Policy Fellow at the Japanese American Citizens League. She graduated from UC Berkeley's history department, where she wrote her senior thesis about her grandmother's experience of World War II incarceration. This past summer, Katharine worked at the California Labor Commissioner’s office.

Emily Hyde

Emily is a 2L at UC Davis School of Law. She worked as a student volunteer for the Wage Claim Clinic during her 1L year to support California workers. This summer, she worked at the Center for Workers’ Rights in Sacramento. Before law school, Emily was a paralegal for an elder care law firm for two years. Emily graduated from UC Berkeley, and spent a semester abroad completing a Spanish immersion program at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. In her free time, she enjoys baking, mountain biking, and crossword puzzles.

Rogelio Maravilla

Rogelio was born in Santa Rosa and is the oldest of three children. His parents are from a small pueblo in Guanajuato named Iramuco. He is proudly Chicano and the first in his family to graduate from college and attend law school. Rogelio is a 2L at Southwestern Law School and worked this summer at Bet Tzedek. He hopes to continue his work as a legal advocate by providing free legal services to underserved communities and representing the needs of immigrants. When Rogelio is not studying, he likes going to the gym and hanging out with his wife and two cats.

Ewuare Osayande

Ewuare (he/him) is the founder and principal of ORIJIN, a consultancy that provides critical equity and racial justice training for nonprofit organizations through an intersectional lens. He is presently pursuing a law degree at the University of District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law in Washington, D.C. Previously, Ewuare was chief diversity officer with the American Friends Service Committee, where he provided leadership on policy development and management that addressed and redressed issues of identity, inclusion, and equity. A former adjunct professor of African American Studies at Rutgers University, Ewuare is the author of several books, including “Misogyny and the Emcee” and “Commemorating King: Speeches Honoring the Civil Rights Movement.” His latest book is a collection of poems entitled “Black Phoenix Uprising,” published by Africa World Press. Ewuare is a 2019 Fellow of the Georgetown University Nonprofit Executive Management Program. His vision is advancing justice for BIPOC workers and establishing relationships of accountability between nonprofit organizations and the communities impacted by their work. Ewuare worked at Legal Aid at Work this past summer.

Hailey is a first-generation, 2L student at the UC Irvine School of Law. This summer, she participated in a judicial externship with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Hearings Unit. Hailey became interested in labor and employment law after taking business law courses at California State University, Northridge, where she learned about discriminatory employment practices and became inspired to pursue a career providing justice in labor and employment disputes. This past spring, Hailey completed pro bono work for Bet Tzedek’s Employment Rights Project, where she assisted clients with employment disputes. Hailey intends to dedicate her career to labor and employment law.

Maribel Villarreal

Maribel is a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, a first-generation college graduate, and a first-generation law student at UC Hastings. Before law school, Maribel immersed herself in local politics with the goal of improving the lives of working-class immigrant families in Santa Clara County, a place she calls home. As campaign manager, Maribel won two local government campaigns that elected and re-elected a progressive, pro-union, and pro-working class elected official onto the San Jose City Council. She also served as a socially conscious policy analyst with the Office of Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, where she advocated for working-class people and city employees through public policy. Two of her biggest accomplishments were authoring a police reform ordinance that was unanimously approved by City Council and successfully reinstating the janitor’s union contract with the city. Maribel currently serves as co-president of the UC Hastings Latinx Law Students Association and continued her passion for social equity this summer with the labor and employment team of the Office of the County Counsel in Santa Clara County.

Chelsea Viola

Chelsea is a 2L at Loyola Law School. She was chosen as one of the Public Interest Scholars for the 2021 entering class because of her volunteer work with Fresh Lifelines for Youth, a Bay Area nonprofit that empowers youth in the juvenile justice system. Chelsea graduated from UCLA and founded and served as president of the Pilipinx Pre-Law Pipeline (3P), currently the only pre-law organization for Asian American students at UCLA. For the summer of 2022, Chelsea worked with the California Attorney General’s Office’s Employment and Administrative Mandate section. Chelsea hopes to become a legal advocate for underrepresented workers in the future.

Bar Study Scholars

Janani Natarajan

Janani is a graduate of Loyola Law School and is incredibly excited to advocate for workers upon graduation. Her interest in employment law stems from her own time working in the restaurant industry before law school. Over the past three years, Janani investigated workplace retaliation claims with Loyola's Employment Rights Clinic and worked as a law clerk for the Disability Rights Legal Center and Legal Aid at Work. Janani is incredibly grateful to the California Lawyers Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section and the California Lawyers Foundation for the 2022 bar study scholarship and is looking forward to continuing to be a strong advocate for workers in the future.

Gillian Teng

Gillian is a 2022 graduate of UC Hastings School of Law. She grew up in Oceanside and received her bachelor of arts degree in women, gender, sexuality studies, and psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In her free time, Gillian enjoys writing poetry, playing video games, and exploring museums. She hopes to use her law degree to represent workers and advance civil rights for queer and trans people of color.

Fabiola Martinez

Fabiola is a first-generation college and law student. She attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate studies where she developed a passion for social justice. After graduating, she worked at a San Francisco public interest law firm, Public Advocates, for two years before attending Southwestern Law School. Fabiola plans to pursue a career in employment law and has interned with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. She currently works at a law firm representing workers. After law school, Fabiola hopes to use her law degree to continue advocating for working-class communities.

Brisa Martinez

Brisa is a first-generation college graduate who proudly represents her Mexican culture with a lot of love. She graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law and plans to practice employment and labor law. Brisa’s passion for the law lies in seeking justice for individuals of marginalized communities, and she hopes to use her degree to stand up for those who have been wronged and silenced by society. Her journey as a law student was not easy, as it was hard to find mentors to help guide her. Growing up, Brisa did not have many people of color in her life, if any, who held positions of power or pursued higher education. As such, she strives to give back to future generations of aspiring law students by offering support and mentorship to navigate through law school. As Dolores Huerta said, “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we were put on the earth for.” She is excited to start her journey as an attorney and to help as many workers as possible receive fair and equal treatment in the workplace.