Neesa Sethi

Neesa manages and supports LAFLA’s pro bono housing-related efforts.  She is the Project Manager for a collaborative citywide program known as the Mayor’s Fund We Are LA Homelessness Prevention Project, of which LAFLA is the lead legal services provider.  The project trains and engages pro bono volunteers to help more tenants avoid eviction and homelessness.  In addition, the project works to build a robust law student-to-attorney pipeline of housing advocates for years to come.  Neesa coordinates collaboration among project partners, develops and strengthens external partnerships with law firms and law schools, and manages project operations. 

Prior to moving to California, Neesa was a Senior Project Attorney at Legal Aid DC, where she helped build and manage the Housing Right to Counsel Project – a collaborative citywide initiative designed to dramatically increase legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in Washington, DC.  This project focused both on leveraging the resources of the private bar and expanding resources at legal services organizations to better meet the overwhelming need for tenant assistance.  Neesa also engaged in other pro bono related efforts to increase access to justice for people living in poverty. 

Neesa also has experience working in private practice at boutique litigation firms, where she mostly represented businesses in contractual disputes and worked on pro bono cases.  Immediately after law school, Neesa completed a judicial clerkship on the Supreme Court of Texas.

Neesa received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and J.D. from Stanford Law School.