Understanding The New State Bar of California Pro Bono Reporting Requirements

Alla Policastro is the Director of Education and Professional Development at the Beverly Hills Bar Association. A former litigator for 14 years, Alla has turned her skills and invaluable insights to her long-time passion of legal education and providing legal professionals the foundations they need to reach their goals. Alla assists BHBA’s 45 Sections with CLE creation. She and her team also design and plan standalone CLEs, and professional development programs as well as trainings, including for pro bono projects. Alla also assists BHBA members in identifying pro bono opportunities that are a match for their skills and passions.

Salena Copeland is the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Association of California. She joined LAAC in 2009 and became the Executive Director in 2013. She spends much of her time coordinating statewide legislative and administrative advocacy, while also supervising a small staff who work to support the entire IOLTA legal aid community through trainings, online coordination, resource-sharing, and member discounts. Her biggest recent successes are as a major organizer in efforts to increase the Equal Access Fund, a fund that supports 100 California legal nonprofits. EAF started as a one-time allocation of $10 million in 1999 and is now $40 million a year. She has also worked with legislators to make critical changes to improve the way that legal aid organizations can meet the needs of their clients.

Salena, a Texan by birth, but Californian by choice, is a 2007 graduate of Stanford Law School, the 2016 recipient of the Miles L. Rubin Public Interest Award, and the 2010 recipient of the Bench Bar Coalition Legal Services Provider of the Year Award. Because of her family’s roots in rural Texas and Arkansas, Salena is committed to working towards geographic equity for Californians, and was the co-chair of the California Access to Justice Commission Rural Access Committee for several years. She also previously served on the State Bar of California Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services. She is an active member of the Bench Bar Coalition, as well as other statewide committees dedicated to improving access to justice for Californians.

Salena also serves on the board of the Herd & Flock Animal Sanctuary, a farmed animal sanctuary in Northern California started by a public interest attorney and her wife, and fosters rescue dogs with her family.

Elizabeth A. Hom is the Director of the Office of Access and Inclusion at the State Bar of California, where she supports access, fairness, diversity efforts across the State Bar, and oversees access to justice activities, including grants administration and policy work to improve access to justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession. 

Prior to joining the State Bar, from 2015-2017, Elizabeth served as Pro Bono Counsel at Bay Area Legal Aid, where she managed the firm’s pro bono projects portfolio, which reached across a seven county region. From 2004-2015, Elizabeth served in various roles at the Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA,) including as Director of Access Programs, where she oversaw both the pro bono program and the lawyer referral service. Elizabeth has worked extensively on board relations, board development, and strategic planning, and is a graduate of the OneJustice Executive Fellowship Program for Nonprofit Management. She has served on the board of directors for Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA), and on the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Standards Review Team.

Elizabeth holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Legal Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Juris Doctor and a Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago.