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Access to Justice Gala

For our 95th year, our Access to Justice Gala honored community leaders who go above and beyond to provide justice and hope for those who are less fortunate. Thank you for joining us!

HONORING

Access to Justice Award

Shane Goldsmith

President and CEO, Liberty Hill Foundation

Shane Murphy Goldsmith is the President and CEO of Liberty Hill Foundation, one of the nation’s most admired social change foundations. Ms. Goldsmith served previously as Liberty Hill’s Vice President and Chief Program Officer. She was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of Liberty Hill’s programs including their training, grantmaking and campaigns as well as Liberty Hill’s operations and finance departments.

Carol Sobel

Maynard Toll Award For Distinguished Public Service

Carol Sobel

Law Office of Carol A. Sobel

Carol Sobel is a civil rights lawyer and advocate; she has repeatedly sued the City of Los Angeles for violating the rights of the homeless population. Carol graduated from Douglass College in 1968 and the People’s College of Law in 1978. She was subsequently admitted to the state bar of California, and spent twenty years working for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, most recently as Senior Staff Counsel. In 1997, she left the ACLU to start her own law practice.

Pro Bono SERVICE Award

O'Melveny

&

David Lash

Managing Counsel for Pro Bono and Public Interest Services

David Lash is the Managing Counsel for Pro Bono and Public Interest Services, overseeing O’Melveny’s national and international pro bono program. His background and skills include complex business litigation including trial and appellate representation, real estate matters, corporate governance, board relations, labor and employment, and all areas of public policy and community relations. He has a lengthy history of representing clients in real estate litigation matters, including environmental and CEQA litigation on behalf of regional real estate developers.

Emcee

David Ono

Co-Anchor, ABC7 Eyewitness News​

David Ono is the co-anchor for ABC7 Eyewitness News at 4pm and 6pm, the top rated newscasts in all of Los Angeles. 

David joined ABC7 in 1996 and during that time has witnessed history worldwide, covering Hurricane Katrina, Haiti’s earthquake and Japan’s tsunami. He traveled across Europe and Asia chronicling brave acts of the Nisei soldier from World War II. 

Ono has attended two Royal Weddings, Prince William’s in London in 2011 and Prince Harry’s in Windsor in 2018.  He’s tracked drug runners through Central America and reported live from Boston after the tragic marathon bombing.  He’s covered terrorism from Paris not only in 2015 as the historic city was crippled with fear, but also in 2002 after a plot was foiled to bring down the Eiffel Tower.

Thank You to Our 2024 Sponsors

- CHAMPION -

- GUARDIAN CHAMPION -

- GUARDIAN -

- ADVOCATE -

- PATRON -

Debra Fischer & Sherwin Frey

- PARTNER -

Dahlia & Art Bilger
Jim Hornstein & Victoria Diamantidis
Marc M. Seltzer
Martin & Karen Tachiki
Wolfen Family Foundation

Look Back at Past Events

Shane is a former Vice President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners and LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Commission, and has served on the Commission for the Housing Authority of the City of LA. She is the Co-Chair of the Southern California Grantmakers Board of Directors, California Funders for Boys and Men of Color (CFBMoC) SoCal Region, and People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Shane was a Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow focusing on youth justice issues, particularly on ending youth incarceration as we know it in Los Angeles. Shane won the 2014 Congressional Hunger Center Alumni Leadership Award for leadership in programs or policies that promote social justice, reduce poverty and oppression and improve food security. 

Prior to joining Liberty Hill, Shane was the Executive Director of PATH Ventures, an affordable housing development agency. She also served as a senior advisor to then-City Council President Eric Garcetti, overseeing housing, economic development, the city budget, public safety and LGBTQ issues. Shane has also worked as a community organizer focusing on economic justice in low income communities of color in LA.

A graduate of Kenyon College, Shane spent a year as a National Hunger Fellow managing a homeless shelter in Indiana and then conducting federal policy research on welfare reform in Washington, D.C. She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration.

Shane lives in Los Angeles with her wife Monica Granados and their two children.

Carol Sobel has served as the lead attorney on several cases representing the homeless against the City of Los Angeles. In these cases, “quality of life” ordinances” criminalizing conduct such as sleeping in a vehicle or leaving property unattended were found to be unconstitutional, protecting the rights of the homeless population. For example, she litigated the landmark 2006 case Jones v. City of Los Angeles, in which the Ninth Circuit ruled that it was illegal to arrest people sleeping on the street when there were no available shelter beds. More recently, Carol was LAFLA’s co-counsel in Mitchell v. City of Los Angeles, upholding unhoused people’s constitutional rights against the destruction of their property. Carol has also tackled similar issues in Orange County; the settlement in a recent lawsuit required county officials to adopt a less punitive approach towards residents of a homeless encampment in the Santa Ana riverbed.

Carol serves on the board of directors for several organizations that advocate for proactive approaches to similar issues, including the National Police Accountability Project and Elder Law & Disability Rights Center, where she chairs the board. She regularly gives talks on her work and is currently an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, where she teaches a civil rights practicum. Carol was recognized as a highly accomplished Super Lawyer for civil rights from 2004-2020.

David manages O’Melveny’s national and international pro bono program. He helped initiate a formal launch of the firm’s long-time pro bono program by drafting policies and procedures and creating a firm-wide infrastructure from which has grown a world-renowned pro bono program. Under David’s leadership, O’Melveny’s pro bono program has received the American Bar Association’s prestigious Pro Bono Publico Award and consistently has been recognized as one of the top 10 pro bono programs in the United States.

Prior to joining O’Melveny, David was executive director of Bet Tzedek, one of the largest and most successful non-profit legal services agencies in the United States. He has been named by the California Lawyer as an Attorney of the Year, as one of the country’s top 500 lawyers by LawDragon, and he is a recipient of the prestigious Rose L. Schiff Commitment to Justice Award from Bet Tzedek Legal Services. He is a frequent contributor to publications around the country and a frequent guest speaker on issues related to access to justice, legal aid, combating poverty, and more.

Ono has trained with the FBI, the elite Los Angeles Sheriff’s SWAT team, ICE and the Los Angeles Port Police. Three times President Obama has invited him to the White House. Twice for exclusive one on one interviews, and once to make a speech about inclusion in America. David has extensively covered the Pope. He witnessed white smoke at the Vatican twice – in 2005 for the selection of Pope Benedict the 16th and 2013 for the selection of Pope Francis. He also covered Francis’s historic visit to the United States in 2015 and his visit to Mexico in 2016.

David has produced multiple award-winning documentaries, two of which have made their way to the Smithsonian Institution.

David has won 10 Edward R. Murrow awards, 31 Emmys, 2 RTDNA National Unity Awards, 6 AAJA National Journalism Awards, and was honored with the Distinguished Journalist Award by the Society of Professional Journalists. He has also received both the journalist of the year as well as the lifetime achievement award by the LA Press Club.

IMPORTANT / IMPORTANTE

All LAFLA offices will be closed from
Tuesday, December 24, 2024 through Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
We will reopen on Thursday, January 2, 2025.

Click here to learn more.

Todas las oficinas de LAFLA estarán cerradas
del martes 23 de diciembre de 2024 al miércoles 1 de enero de 2025.
Todos los servicios reabrirán el jueves 2 de enero de 2025.

Haga clic aquí para obtener más información.