Law Students to Help Katrina Victims
New Campus Organization Arranges Spring Break Trip To New Orleans
Still hurting from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents will receive some measure of relief this spring when 11 UC Davis law students spend their spring break providing free legal aid.
The UC Davis School of Law students, representatives of the Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization, will be working with the Student Hurricane Network, a student-run organization that coordinates law-student trips to the Gulf Coast. Once the students reach the area, SHN pairs them with local legal agencies and law firms to provide free legal aid to residents.
The students do not know yet what exactly they will be doing, said Ramaah Sadasivam '09, co-chair of HALO.
"We should know our exact assignments within the next week," she said, "but our work will range from researching housing titles to help individuals reclaim their homes to interviewing prison inmates whose records were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes."
The students are primarily first-year law students, but there are a few second- and third-year students, as well. All of them hope to make a difference in the community by contributing their spring break toward helping the hurricane victims.
According to Sadasivam, the trip should cost around $9,000.
"As of today, we have raised almost 70 percent of [the budget] through the generous contributions by the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost and UC Davis, UC Davis School of Law, the Law Student Association and the law office of Weintraub Genshlea Chediak in Sacramento, bake sales at the Law School and membership dues," she said.
Since December 2005, SHN has helped send almost 2,000 law students from over 90 schools to the Gulf Coast.
HALO is a newer organization, founded this past fall. Despite being newly founded, the organization has big plans for its future.
"This trip to New Orleans will be our first legal alternative spring break trip, but we hope that this inaugural trip will lay the foundation for us to have yearly volunteer trips that provide pro bono legal aid to those in need," Sadasivam said.
For updated reporting on their trip, visit their blog.
California Aggie/February 22, 2007
RICHARD PROCTER can be reached at [email protected].
Still hurting from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents will receive some measure of relief this spring when 11 UC Davis law students spend their spring break providing free legal aid.
The UC Davis School of Law students, representatives of the Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization, will be working with the Student Hurricane Network, a student-run organization that coordinates law-student trips to the Gulf Coast. Once the students reach the area, SHN pairs them with local legal agencies and law firms to provide free legal aid to residents.
The students do not know yet what exactly they will be doing, said Ramaah Sadasivam '09, co-chair of HALO.
"We should know our exact assignments within the next week," she said, "but our work will range from researching housing titles to help individuals reclaim their homes to interviewing prison inmates whose records were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes."
The students are primarily first-year law students, but there are a few second- and third-year students, as well. All of them hope to make a difference in the community by contributing their spring break toward helping the hurricane victims.
According to Sadasivam, the trip should cost around $9,000.
"As of today, we have raised almost 70 percent of [the budget] through the generous contributions by the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost and UC Davis, UC Davis School of Law, the Law Student Association and the law office of Weintraub Genshlea Chediak in Sacramento, bake sales at the Law School and membership dues," she said.
Since December 2005, SHN has helped send almost 2,000 law students from over 90 schools to the Gulf Coast.
HALO is a newer organization, founded this past fall. Despite being newly founded, the organization has big plans for its future.
"This trip to New Orleans will be our first legal alternative spring break trip, but we hope that this inaugural trip will lay the foundation for us to have yearly volunteer trips that provide pro bono legal aid to those in need," Sadasivam said.
For updated reporting on their trip, visit their blog.
California Aggie/February 22, 2007
RICHARD PROCTER can be reached at [email protected].