Eastside Legal Assistance Program

ELAP Volunteers Rima Alaily, Stephanie Lee and Judy Jennison were recently nominated for a “Take Action” award by the King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence for their representation of an ELAP client in her dissolution case. The Coalition presents the award to several individuals each year to recognize their efforts to end domestic violence in our communities. The final awards were presented on October 21.

Left to right, Stephanie, Rima, and Judy are all members of Microsoft’s Antitrust Compliance Group and they worked on the case as a team. Though Rima had previous experience handling DV cases, this was the first DV case for Stephanie and Judy. “The representation wouldn’t have been possible without the support of ELAP and its network of family law experts," said recipient Judy Jennison. "Even though this was a new area of law for me, I felt confident taking the case on because I knew we had experienced attorneys we could rely on for guidance."

Rima, Stephanie and Judy were part of an ELAP pilot program to recruit and train volunteers who are not experienced family law attorneys to handle pro bono DV cases. A similar team at Perkins Coie is handling a case as is a second team at Microsoft.

For more information on representing domestic violence survivors through ELAP, please contact Brandy Andersson (brandy@elap.org).

Congratulations Rima, Stephanie and Judy!