California Western School of Law‘s Office of Alumni Engagement is excited to announce the launch of the California Western Women’s Community, a program dedicated to mentoring, supporting, and advancing women in the law.

Please join us for our inaugural event, which will focus on social justice:

Thursday, October 22, 2020
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Program Format: ZOOM
(Instructions will be sent to registered participants)

Event Speakers and Topics

Patricia Zlaket ’09, Moderator

Hannah Brenner Johnson, Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Associate Professor of Law, California Western School of Law
Shortlisted: A Preview

Nine women were considered for the U.S. Supreme Court before Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female justice, yet their individual and collective stories have gone untold. Drawing on excerpts from her forthcoming book, Dean Brenner Johnson will share highlights from the lives of these highly credentialed and exceedingly qualified women. She will also discuss the harms that derive from being shortlisted and offer strategies for moving from shortlisted to selected.

The Honorable Tilisha T. Martin ’02, MSW, JD, MJM, CWLS
Transforming Dreams into Reality

This presentation will reference words of wisdom from successful women to motivate and inspire others to accomplish their dreams. Judge Martin will reference her personal journey as well as opportunities that assisted in transforming her dream into reality. She will also briefly discuss how her current position intersects with the principles of social justice.

Alissa Bjerkhoel ’08, Litigation Coordinator, California Innocence Project, and Kimberly Long, Exoneree
Where Justice Goes Wrong: The California Innocence Project and the Story of Kimberly Long

This presentation will discuss the California Innocence Project, its mission, its work, and its cases. Attorney Alissa Bjerkhoel will highlight the case of exoneree Kimberly Long who served more than seven years for a crime someone else committed.

About the Speakers

Patricia Zlaket

Patricia Zlaket is co-founder of Zlaket Law Offices, APC and represents those who are dealing with matters of personal injury caused by the negligence of another. She graduated cum laude from California Western, after which she spent five years at the prestigious Casey Gerry handling cases in products liability, medical malpractice, auto accidents, and premises liability. Ms. Zlaket has been named one of Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars for the years 2015–2019 and was the recipient of the California Western Alumni Association’s 2019 Erica N. Brown Gardner ’01 Outstanding Alumni Engagement Award. She is a past president of the California Western School of Law’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Hannah Brenner Johnson

Hannah Brenner Johnson is the vice dean for academic and student affairs and associate professor of law at California Western School of Law. Her research interests focus generally on intersections of law and gender, and specifically on sexual violence that occurs in closed institutional systems, and gender equality in the legal profession. Dean Brenner Johnson is the author of numerous articles and book chapters as well as the casebook Gender, Power, Law & Leadership. Her book, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, will be published by NYU Press in May.

The Honorable Tilisha T. Martin

The Honorable Tilisha T. Martin is a San Diego Superior Court Judge. She currently sits in a juvenile justice assignment involving cases of youth accused of violating the law. In addition, she handles several specialty calendars such as dependency drug court, mental competency of juveniles, and non-minor dependent youth. Judge Martin previously sat as the lead judge in a family law assignment at the San Diego Superior Court, East County Branch, and also handled a misdemeanor arraignment calendar. She served as the supervisor for minor’s counsel in San Diego and as a deputy public defender in juvenile dependency and criminal divisions. She was also the coordinator for the first collaborative community court in downtown San Diego.

Prior to becoming a judge, Judge Martin served as adjunct faculty at California Western and as a lecturer at San Diego State University. She also served for six years on the California Western School of Law’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Alissa Bjerkhoel

Alissa Bjerkhoel has been an attorney with the California Innocence Project since 2008. She coordinates all active case litigation, manages the case intake process, serves as the in-house DNA expert, drafts and files all post-conviction DNA motions, authors petitions filed on behalf of clients, directs and supervises clinical student casework, teaches courses on wrongful convictions, helps draft new laws, and participates as co-counsel in hearings and trial proceedings. She is one of the five members of the National Innocence Network’s Complex DNA Working Group. Ms. Bjerkhoel has been instrumental in a number of the Project’s exonerations and has been featured on local and national television shows and podcasts. She has been recognized by the San Diego Daily Transcript as “Young Attorney of the Year,” and by the Board of Directors of the Criminal Defense Bar Association of San Diego as “Post-conviction Lawyer of the Year.” California Lawyer Magazine also recognized her with the “Attorney of the Year” award.

Kimberly Long

Kimberly Long spent more than seven years wrongfully incarcerated for a murder she did not commit. She was forced to leave behind her nursing career, her parents, and her two young children. While incarcerated she earned a paralegal certificate and fought along with her lawyers at the California Innocence Project to gain her freedom. At the California Institution for Women near Chino, she ended up in an honors dorm, and she became a mentor to other women and a physical fitness trainer for women chosen for the state’s inmate firefighter camps. On June 10, 2016, Ms. Long walked out of prison and into a life she did not recognize. She went back to school and started her own pet-grooming business, but most importantly, she reconnected with her children. She advocates for other wrongfully convicted people in California by speaking about her experiences, volunteers her time, and is a sponsor for people in AA.

For additional event information, please contact Lori Boyle, Associate Director, Alumni Engagement, at lboyle@cwsl.edu or 619-515-1543.