Members Who Inspire

Melanie Kalmanson dedicates pro bono work to death penalty education

When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the death penalty case Hurst v. Florida in January 2016, it effectively changed the course of Melanie Kalmanson’s career. “That’s when my passion for these issues started, when I was seeing it in real life, living these cases, working on these cases, seeing how it affected Florida,” Kalmanson says. “The thing that really hit me was how little society knows about the reality of the death penalty.”

Oct 1, 2024 1:00 AM CDT

Judge’s advocacy for domestic violence survivors changed Arizona laws

“When I first became a judge, law enforcement and judges basically had the same attitude for domestic violence,” says Judge Elizabeth Finn. “They were quote unquote ‘family disputes,’ and we just wanted them to go away.”

Sep 12, 2024 3:15 PM CDT

Seattle attorney Mason Ji supports immigrants and cultural awareness

At 30, Mason Ji, an associate in the Seattle office of Perkins Coie, is keenly focused on community. While his legal practice involves complex litigation, international sanctions and international trade, Ji’s spare time is spent helping Asian immigrants struggling to succeed in the greater Seattle area.

Aug 1, 2024 12:40 AM CDT

ABA Medal recipient puts democratic principles and indigent defense at center of long career

During next week’s ABA Annual Meeting, Emmet Bondurant will receive the ABA Medal—the highest honor bestowed by the association—for his own longtime dedication to righting wrongs in the legal system.

Jul 24, 2024 10:10 AM CDT

Coast Guard veteran speaks out for military sexual assault survivors

In December, Melissa McCafferty sat before members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs and spoke candidly about the darkest times in her life. While at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the late 2000s, she was sexually assaulted by male cadets two separate times. She chose not to report the incidents, fearing no one would care or that she would face discipline.

Jun 1, 2024 12:50 AM CDT

Labor attorney uses art and law to draw attention to workers’ rights

Mark Gaston Pearce uses his love of oil painting and expertise in labor history to highlight the lives of workers. Pearce, an ABA member, graduated from law school in 1978 and joined the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo, New York, serving first as a field attorney and then as a district trial specialist. “We have seen that art contributes substantially to identifying the feelings and the desires and the power of working people. I hope to continue to facilitate that.”

Apr 1, 2024 12:30 AM CDT

Nina Olson has devoted her career to protecting taxpayer rights

When Nina Olson retired from the Internal Revenue Service in 2019, she knew her work wasn’t finished. “I kept saying, ‘I’m privileged and lucky to have been in the IRS for 18 years, and to have a sense of how the IRS works,’” she says. “I needed to share it in some way.” That same year, Olson started the Center for Taxpayer Rights.

Mar 28, 2024 2:55 PM CDT

GC Fatheree III uses real estate law skills for history-making pro bono cases

In 2020, GC Fatheree III began what became his most notable pro bono case, representing members of a Black family in their quest to secure “Bruce’s Beach,” a stretch of oceanfront property that was taken from their ancestors nearly a century earlier by officials in Los Angeles County who cited eminent domain. It was unprecedented because, according to Fatheree, stolen property had never been returned to a Black family or community in the United States.

Feb 1, 2024 12:30 AM CST

Living through Hurricane Katrina inspired Alessandra Jerolleman’s disaster justice advocacy

Alessandra Jerolleman lost her home, her car and much of her community to the Hurricane Katrina’s powerful surge and flood waters. But Jerolleman found the hurricane also changed her life in another profound way.

Jan 24, 2024 2:32 PM CST

Meet 12 ABA members who inspired us in 2023

In this year’s Members Who Inspire series, the ABA Journal featured 12 exceptional ABA members who impressed and invigorated us through their good works.

Dec 18, 2023 8:15 AM CST

Armin Salek builds new pathway to profession for aspiring first-generation lawyers

At age 33, Armin Salek has his dream job. He is the founder and the executive director of the Youth Justice Alliance, a nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, that provides aspiring first-generation lawyers with financial and institutional support starting in high school.

Dec 6, 2023 10:01 AM CST

Amer Zahr uses passions for law and comedy to promote Arab rights

To Amer Zahr, the worlds of law and comedy aren’t that different. “Law school teaches you to think in a way and advocate in a way where you are brief and to the point,” Zahr says. “Comedy is the same thing.”

Dec 1, 2023 12:40 AM CST

Helping others is at the center of Holly Dolejsi’s practice

Holly Dolejsi has made pro bono—and, in particular, helping transgender and nonbinary individuals change their names—a central part of her practice.

Nov 30, 2023 9:04 AM CST

Keramet Reiter helps build in-prison education programs in California

Keramet Reiter has spent countless hours inside prisons, working with individuals who are incarcerated and studying the impact of prison and punishment policies on them, their communities and the legal system. As part of her work, Reiter has focused on expanding access to in-prison education programs.

Nov 9, 2023 10:02 AM CST

Youth Movement: Sarah Medina Camiscoli works for and with young leaders in New York City

For Sarah Medina Camiscoli, profound questions of how and why educational and legal systems exclude and harm young people arose from her own experience as a public school student in New Jersey. “For me, I think there’s sort of a deep inner child longing to make sense of, ‘Why wasn’t I given certain opportunities in school?’” says Medina Camiscoli, an assistant professor at Rutgers Law School who teaches education law and critical youth legal studies. “And why was I able to get access to a very resourced school district, though, where some other people in my community and my family weren’t necessarily given the same opportunity?”

Oct 1, 2023 1:50 AM CDT