Each year, LAAC offers the Dan Bradley Fellowship to fund law students who want to spend their summer working at a LAAC member legal aid organization. The Fellowship is awarded to outstanding students who want to pursue a career in public interest law and who want to spend their summer working in a rural area or on a rural issue. The Dan Bradley Fellowship not only gives law students the opportunity to explore a career in legal services, it offers legal services programs a new source of dedicated and energetic summer staff.
More about the Dan Bradley Fellowship
Armando Valles
California Desert Trial Academy of Law, ’19
California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.
“My experience at the CRLA office this summer included a wide variety of rich and rewarding tasks. Most of my time was spent in the office working directly with clients completing intake Interviews, completing legal research/writing, and helping to manage cases. The office environment was very team orientated and I was eager to provide any effort needed to create successful outcomes for CRLA clients.
“One highlight from my experience was an in-depth memo that I prepared on potential disparate impact litigation related to transportation issues for farmworkers in the eastern Coachella Valley. The questions involved were complex and required a thorough analysis of applicable state and federal law, identifying the leading precedent cases, and an analysis of the local transportation infrastructure including the budgetary process.
“My most significant accomplishment came when I appeared at a hearing before a California Labor Commissioner in the San Bernardino office and helped to negotiate a favorable settlement for one of our clients related to late payment of wages and waiting time penalties.
“My summer fellowship afforded me the opportunity to see first hand how a public interest law firm operates and functions for its clients. The experience that I gained will not only help further my legal education, but it also created a deeper interest in public interest law.”