2020 WINTER NEWSLETTER
A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear friends and supporters, I am excited to introduce to you the group of dedicated professionals who recently joined our Board of Directors and our Leadership Council.

Both groups met in recent weeks to set their 2020 goals. Their efforts are critical to keeping our organization a reliable nonprofit law firm for people with low incomes, including for those with complex situations and unique vulnerabilities who struggle to get the legal help they need.

We are also happy to introduce the newest member of the LevittQuinn team, staff attorney Samuel Martinez, who joined us last month.

Working together, we  can  make a difference.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW BOARD MEMBERS!
AMI FIELDS-MEYER
Ami Fields-Meyer is a public servant, writer, and aide to the Mayor of Los Angeles. He leads Mayor Eric Garcetti’s community affairs and civic engagement operations for more than 500,000 residents on the city’s Westside, and works on policy issues related to housing, civil rights, climate change, transportation, and education. Ami also co-leads the Mayor's citywide interfaith organizing. Ami’s writing on issues of policy and culture has appeared in The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, The Forward, The Jewish Journal, the Huffington Post, and other publications. He was previously Communications Director to California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel and served in senior roles on Gabriel’s successful campaigns. Ami is also the co-founder of the nationwide organization TableTalk and an alumnus of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs. He is a graduate of Emory University.

HON. SCOTT M. GORDON (RET.)
Hon. Scott Gordon (Ret.) serves as a neutral with Signature Resolution. He was a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge for seventeen years, serving in both the Criminal and the Family Law Division as Assistant Supervising Judge and Supervising Judge. T he Chief Justice of California selected Judge Gordon to serve on the Judicial Council of California in 2016 and as a member of the special working group on Bail and Pretrial Detention Reform in 2017.

Prior to joining the bench, Judge Gordon served with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for sixteen years and as a police officer and detective for the Santa Monica Police Department. 

A graduate of California State University Dominguez Hills and Southwestern Law School, Judge Gordon has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Southwestern for thirty years and has also taught law internationally. He served as a Legal Expert for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands and has served as an advisor to other judges on Hague Convention matters.

CHET KRONENBERG
Chet Kronenberg is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Chet grew up in Rockford, Illinois and earned his B.A. from Tufts University in 1990 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1993. After starting his legal career in New York, he and his wife moved to Los Angeles in 2001 where together they've raised three children. In addition to serving on the LevittQuinn Board, Chet is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern California Tennis Association. Having long admired LevittQuinn’s work, he is honored to join its Board of Directors.

PARIMA PANDKHOU
Parima Pandkhou is a partner of Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles, PC. She has been practicing family law since 2004 undertaking a broad range of family law matters such as dissolution of marriage, separation, support, child custody and visitation, division of property, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, as well as handling cases involving international jurisdictional issues and complex asset structures. Ms. Pandkhou has also successfully handled a number of family law appeals. Prior to practicing family law, Ms. Pandkhou gained considerable business litigation experience. Ms. Pandkhou is a certified mediator and volunteered for years as a mediator at the Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles. She is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and Beverly Hills Bar Association family law sections. 

BOARD PLANS FOR 2020
The LevittQuinn board held their annual retreat in January to plan for the coming year.
We are so grateful to Marty Dutch , Vice President of Philanthropy Services at First Foundation, who helped the board members identify their strengths and strategically set their 2020 objectives. We thank our friends at Feinberg, Mindel, Brandt & Klein, LLP who generously allowed our board to meet in their beautiful office space!
OUR LEADERSHIP COUNCIL IS GROWING
LevittQuinn's Leadership Council is growing! Last year, Amanda Fleming, former LQ staff attorney, took over as chair of the LC and has been hard at work developing the Council . Joining Amanda on the LC leadership team for 2020 is Ashlee Hamilton, who moved into the vice-chair position and Michael Petty who became the secretary. We are excited these two former LQ law clerks continue to develop their leadership roles.
Amanda Fleming, Chair
Attorney at Law
Ashlee Hamilton, Vice Chair
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Michael Petty, Secretary
Los Angeles Depedency Lawyers
The LC also added four new members within the last year. We are happy to have them on board!
Ann Marie DeSimone
Klopert & Ravden, LLP
Nancy Martinez
The Reape-Rickett Law Firm
Ronita Khakshoor
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP
James T. Whiggam
Children's Law Center California
Facilitated by former LQ board member Tiffany Tran , President of Find Focus, the LC kicked off the new year with a retreat at the LevittQuinn office to set their 2020 goals.
NEW STAFF ATTORNEY, SAMUEL MARTINEZ
In January, we welcomed new staff attorney Samuel Martinez to the LevittQuinn team.
Sam is the son of Guatemalan immigrants. Raised in the Long Beach/Compton area, he earned his JD from Southwestern Law School and his BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from UCSB. While in law school, Sam interned with nonprofit and government organizations, actively participated in the Street Law, Immigration, and Community Lawyering clinics, and served in leadership roles with several volunteer associations. Sam’s life experiences influenced his recognition of the importance of quality legal advocacy for low-income communities. He is excited to join the LevittQuinn team and looks forward to helping advance our mission.
SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT - RMO, LLP
WE ARE PROUD SUPPORTERS OF LEVITTQUINN IN ITS SUPPORT OF FAMILY AND OUR COMMUNITIES.
RMO LLP   is your partner when trust, estate, and probate issues arise. We partner with you and your clients to navigate these issues efficiently and cost-effectively, protecting what matters. With offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego, we are uniquely positioned to serve your needs in Southern California.

LEVITTQUINN'S BEULAH FUND
We started the Beulah Fund in 2018 with an initial gift from Sharon Hulse, LevittQuinn’s Director of Operations, to honor her recently deceased mother, Beulah. The Beulah Fund targets free family law services to two populations of low-income, underserved adults:

  • Those over the age of 55
  • Those who have an intellectual, mental, or physical disability

Our goal with the Beulah Fund is to be accessible for those who are especially vulnerable, and to give them the services they need to achieve the stability and peace they deserve. One such client is a woman we served in 2019. Eighty years-old and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, she was facing homelessness when she came to us desperate for help. We represented her in family court and got her the spousal support order she needed to stabilize her finances and stay in her home.
LEARN MORE ABOUT US
LevittQuinn is a recipient of the GuideStar Platinum rating for our commitment to transparency.
Our Founders (L - R)
Grace Quinn (1915-2006)
Ethel Levitt (1911-1995)
Ziva Sirkis Naumann

1557 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
www.levittquinn.org