Board of Directors

Mark Aaronson, Clinical Professor of Law and Civil Justice Clinic Director for UC Hastings, has served on the PIC Board since 2004. He joined the Hastings faculty in 1992 to establish the in-house Civil Justice Clinic as part of the academic curriculum. Prior to his tenure at UC, Professor Aaronson was Executive Director of S. F. Lawyers' Committee for Urban Affairs (currently Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights) for 14 years, shepherding projects such as the nascent Child Care Law Center and the Bayview Legal Advocacy Project.  

Maureen P. Alger is a partner in the Cooley Godward Kronish litigation department, and also serves as the firm’s Pro Bono Partner .  As Pro Bono Partner, Ms. Alger is responsible for the development and administration of Cooley’s Pro Bono practice.  Prior to her concentration on the Pro Bono practice, Ms. Alger’s practice focused on complex commercial litigation matters and appellate and writ proceedings.  In addition to founding the Bay Area Pro Bono Roundtable and the National Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo), Ms. Alger is a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Pro Bono Committee as well as the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services (SCDLS). She received a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she served as an editor for the Columbia Law Review. 

Marc Axelbaum is a Senior Associate with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.  He concentrates his practice in white-collar criminal defense, SEC enforcement actions, and corporate investigations, as well as complex civil litigation.  Mr. Axelbaum also represents indigent clients in both civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts.  He is a past Chair of the Criminal and Constitutional Law Section, San Francisco Barristers Club; and is a Steering Committee Member of the San Francisco Young Lawyers Division of the ABA/White Collar Crime Committee.

Estela Casas is the Executive Director of Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, Inc. An attorney for 15 years, Ms. Casas works indefatigably to support the legal needs of the residents of Kern County, California, one of the poorest regions in the nation. GBLA's focus is on those legal needs that address issues of economic and family stability, physical security, and access to high quality education.  

Lisa Dickinson has been the Attorney Recruiting and Professional Development Manager for Kirkland & Ellis LLP since early 2007.  Prior to this, she served as the Director of the Office of Career Planning at USF for several years.  She has always been very involved in the work of PIC and is a strong advocate of PILP.  She has served as President-elect of NALP-The Association of Legal Career Professionals. Ms. Dickinson also served as the President of the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association and is actively involved in the Consortium of Northern California Law Career Services Offices, the sponsor of Public Interest/Public Sector Legal Careers Day. Ms. Dickinson is also an accomplished athlete and has completed two Ironman triathlons, competing as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program.

Joan Messing Graff, Executive Director of the Employment Law Center, celebrates 21 years of service on the PIC board. Ms. Graff has extensive experience in employment law, particularly in sex discrimination, and was co-founder of Equal Rights Advocates, one of the first law firms in the nation dedicated to legal issues affecting women. She served on the Board of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and, we are proud to announce, is the 2006 recipient of the State Bar's prestigious Loren Miller Legal Services Award in recognition of her efforts to extend legal help to the state’s poor.  

Luis Jaramillo, Board Vice-President, is Deputy Director of California Rural Legal Assistance. CRLA, with 22 field offices throughout the state, has advocated for California farm workers and the rural poor since 1966. Luis has served on the PIC Board since 2001.  In addition to his statewide work, Luis recently completed a six-month assignment as Acting Special Counsel to LSC President Helaine Barnett and is a member of the Civil Policy Group of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.  

Stacey Leyton, an attorney at Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain, represents labor unions, non-profit organizations, and individual clients in civil litigation and other matters.  After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1998, Ms. Leyton clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California . She is Co-Chairman of the PIC Fund-Raising Event Committee.  

Jack Londen, a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, joined PIC in 1996 and has served as Board President since 2001. A champion of legal aid, Mr. Londen co-founded Californians for Legal Aid in 1995 and has served on the boards of numerous local and national non-profits. He is the Vice-Chair of the California Commission on Access to Justice and Chair of Californians for Legal Aid, and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco. Mr. Londen has been acknowledged with many awards for his public interest work, including the State Bar's 1996 Loren Miller Legal Services Award.

Judi McManigal, an attorney specializing in immigration law, joined PIC’s Board in 1996, and recently accepted the responsibility of Treasurer. She is an associate with McCown & Evans LLP, a San Francisco firm specializing in all areas of business immigration law. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the San Francisco Bar Association, and her extensive travels have augmented her fluency in Spanish and elementary Hindi.  

Max Ochoa is currently VP & General Counsel to Adify Corporation, where he holds overall responsibility for the vertical networking & online advertising firm’s legal and regulatory affairs. He was previously General Counsel at Aliph. Mr. Ochoa has also served as Associate General Counsel at TiVo and was an Associate with Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. During his time at Cooley Godward, Mr. Ochoa worked to coordinate the Pro Bono Participation by the firm’s business group. He holds an S.B. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Michigan, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Carmen Ramirez is the coordinator of one of the Ventura Superior Court’s Self-Help Legal Access Centers. She is one of two attorneys who staff the Mobile Self-Help Unit, which travels to communities in outlying areas of Ventura County. Ms. Ramirez was President of the Ventura County Bar Association in 1998, is currently a member of the Volunteer Lawyers Committee and the Lawyers’ Referral and Information Service Committee, and also serves on the State Bar's Board of Governors.

Toby Rothschild, General Counsel for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, has served on the PIC Board since 2000. He is the current Chair of the California Legal Services Coordinating Council, and prior to joining PIC, served as Vice-Chairman for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and President of the Legal Assistance Association of California. Mr. Rothschild was honored as “Lawyer of the Year” by the Long Beach Bar Association, and was honored by the State Bar in 1995 with the Loren Miller Legal Services Award.  

Nancy Strohl, former PIC Executive Director, and a member of the Board since 2002, is Executive Director of the Child Care Law Center, an organization th at uses legal tools to make high quality child care accessible to every child, family, and community. Ms. Strohl serves on the State Support Center Committee for the Legal Aid Associ ation of California, and serves on the Steering Committee of Californians for Legal Aid. Prior to joining CCLC, Ms. Strohl served as Executive Director of Contra Costa Legal Services Foundation, a California legal services program; and program coordinator of the Alameda County Bar Association Pro Bono Program.  

Robert Thompson, a partner with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, also celebrates 21 year’s service on PIC’s Board. Mr. Thompson is active with several bar associations, and has served on the Board of the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco, Youth Law Center, Chinese Community Housing Corporation, and San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Urban Affairs. He has lectured extensively on real estate lending and development matters for California Continuing Education of the Bar and the Practicing Law Institute, and has taught real estate law as an adjunct professor at two local law schools.

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