Sanctuary for Families’ PBC is excited to announce that, as of January 1^st, Louisa Irving, managing associate at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, is serving as Co-Chair along with Mia White, Associate General Counsel at McKinsey & Company, Co-Chair since 2016, who has generously offered to stay on for a third one-year term.

About the PBC

The PBC was formed in 2003 as the Associate’s Committee, later changed to the Pro Bono Council and currently known as the PBC, with the goal of bringing together young professionals committed to supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary through active community engagement, pro bono projects and client-centered events.  The recent decision to refer to the group as simply the “PBC”  is a reflection of its expanding and dynamic base of volunteers including and beyond the legal profession. The PBC currently has approximately 25 active members and a network of approximately 150 professionals. Each fall, the PBC hosts the Above and Beyond benefit, an event that supports the Legal Center by honoring the pro bono lawyers and other volunteers who have worked on behalf of Sanctuary’s clients during the past year. Last year’s Above & Beyond event raised over $183,000 in support of the Legal Center.

Introducing Louisa

Louisa succeeds Ben Schatz of the Center for Appellate Litigation, who served as Co-Chair of the PBC with Mia from 2016 to December 2017 with great dedication and creativity. Together, Ben and Mia brought the PBC to another level as a cohesive group of ambassadors for Sanctuary, creating a PBC online presence, and encouraging its members to share success stories and leverage their professional networks to enhance new initiatives. Ben deserves a big round of applause for his services over the past two years.

Louisa brings with her many years of public service, as well as seasoned litigation skills and a close relationship with Sanctuary. After graduating from Middlebury College with a BA in East Asian Studies and Dance, serving as a Teaching Fellow in Hangzhou, China and teaching Mandarin in this country, Louisa worked for two years at Sanctuary, demonstrating great dedication and persistence in her work with Sanctuary’s clients. She helped them resolve challenging housing and public benefits issues, obtain scholarship assistance and access to other economic empowerment services. In addition, she was responsible for coordinating Sanctuary’s Courtroom Advocate’s Project.

While at UC Berkeley School of Law, Louisa continued her work on behalf of domestic violence victims and their children, interning at the Family Violence Law Center in Oakland and the Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco. As a managing associate in the litigation group at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe since 2014, Louisa returned to volunteer at Sanctuary, becoming a member of the PBC in 2016 and taking on the planning for several important events.

As of the first of the year, she and Mia have been consulting regularly on PBC’s priorities for the coming year. They are excited to focus on expanding the PBC’s thought leadership, increasing membership opportunities across all young (and young-at-heart) professionals, and breaking the PBC’s $200K fundraising goal in support of Sanctuary this year!

Please join us in welcoming Louisa as PBC Co-Chair!

Get Involved

The PBC welcomes all professionals committed to helping victims of gender-based violence who are interested in supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary. The PBC hosts full membership meetings every other month at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe at 7:00 PM.

Anyone interested in getting involved with Sanctuary and its pro bono work should attend a meeting to see this dynamic group of professionals in action – and to get involved themselves!

Please contact PBC co-chairs Louisa Irving (irving.louisa@gmail.com) and Mia White (mia.marie.white@gmail.com) to learn more about joining the PBC.

Nicole Fidler is the Pro Bono Supervising Attorney at Sanctuary for Families. Learn more about our Pro Bono Program.