Recognizing Biases, Assumptions and Stereotypes

Formerly a deputy public defender in Los Angeles County, Shapiro’s advanced skill set is only matched by his devoted work ethic, one that places his clients in the best position where they often obtain favorable results. Considered one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Los Angeles, Shapiro regularly trains new attorneys in the most effective approaches and methods to handling criminal law matters.

Shapiro is a certified criminal law specialist by the State Bar of California. He concentrates his practice on white and blue collar criminal defense. He serves as a CJA Federal Trial Panel attorney for the Central District of California. He aggressively, creatively, and successfully represents clients in a vast variety of state and federal criminal matters.

Clinical psychologist in private practice. Specialties include childhood trauma, high conflict divorce and infertility

Judge Holly J. Fujie, a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, is a 2011 appointee to the Los Angeles Superior Court with a civil, independent calendar court in the Mosk Courthouse.  Prior to her appointment, Judge Fujie was a shareholder at the Los Angeles-based law firm Buchalter Nemer, and in 2008-2009 she was the third woman and the first Asian American to serve as President of the State Bar of California.  Judge Fujie is the Immediate Past President of the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association, Vice President of the NAPABA Judicial Council and Co-Chair of the MultiCultural Bar Alliance of Southern California.  Besides WLALA, Judge Fujie serves on the Boards of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance and Continuing Education of the Bar. She is a member of the American Law Institute and she serves on Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Judicial Advisory Committee for appointments in the Central District of California and on Governor Newsom’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee for Los Angeles County. She has received a number of awards for service to the legal profession, including WLALA’s Distinguished Service Award and Ernestine Stahlhut Award, California Women Lawyers’ Joan Dempsey Klein Award, the National Association of Women Judges’ Joan Dempsey Klein Award, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Daniel K. Inouye Trailblazer Award and the National Association of Women Lawyers M. Ashley Dickerson Diversity Award.  She lives in West Los Angeles with her husband, attorney Lee Cotugno.  They have two children, Sabrina, who is a Supervising Director for an animated series for Apple+, and Thomas, who is a 3L at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.

Attorney Kendra Thomas is a Certified Family Law Specialist serving clients in the Southern California area at Thomas Law Offices, in Woodland Hills and Newport Beach, CA. Thomas Law Offices is a values-driven law firm, guided by principles of excellence, leadership, and citizenship.

Since founding Thomas Law Offices in 2007, Attorney Kendra Thomas has dedicated her career to helping clients reach their financial and legal goals. She understands that each client has different needs and goals, and she believes each person deserves high quality legal services no matter what size their case is, or their economic status. Some family law cases are best handled through litigation, while others only need compassionate understanding and explanation for everyone involved to come to a satisfactory agreement

Jinna Kang is licensed to practice law in California, D.C., and Texas, and is a California Certified Family Law Specialist, having dedicated the last 11 years of her practice to family law matters. Jinna Kang is one of only two board certified Family Law Specialists in California with Korean language fluency. She is also the first (and at present, the only) Korean speaking fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. Ms. Kang truly cares about her clients, and cares about their quality of life not only during but also after their cases. She will not litigate for the sake of litigating, but rather will listen to each client’s needs and determine the most efficient and effective course of action, whether that be litigation, formal mediation, or out-of-court settlement.