Who We Are

Cyn Yamashiro
Clinical Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy

JD, Loyola Law School Los Angeles
BA, University of California Los Angeles

Cyn Yamashiro is the director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. Before joining the Loyola Law School faculty in 2004, he served as deputy public defender III with the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. During his 10 years with the Office, Yamashiro was a long cause felony trial attorney in the Los Angeles Criminal Division; deputy-in-charge with the Juvenile Division in Compton; and felony trial attorney at the LAX Courthouse in Los Angeles. Earlier in his legal career, Yamashiro worked with the San Diego County Public Defender's Office and with Minami, Lew & Tamaki in San Francisco. While in law school, he clerked for the International Labor Rights and Education Fund in Guatemala City and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Michael Shultz
Clinical Professor, Clinical Director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy

JD, Loyola Law School Los Angeles
BA, University of California Santa Barbara

After graduating from Loyola Law School in 1991, Michael Shultz joined the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office. During his 13 year tenure there, he tried over 75 cases to jury.  Between 1998 and 2000, Shultz served as the assistant training coordinator for the Public Defender's office. In that capacity, he was responsible for training and supervising all newly hired public defenders. Beginning in 2001, Shultz worked as a deputy public defender IV, responsible for representing clients charged with capital murder (including individuals who faced the death penalty). During his career, Shultz was a frequent lecturer for the public defender bar on issues surrounding discovery and police misconduct.

Jojo Liu
Associate Clinical Professor

AB, Harvard College, magna cum laude
JD, Columbia Law School

Prior to joining Loyola, Jojo Liu was a litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster, where she had a broad commercial litigation, white collar defense and compliance counseling practice.  Previous to that, she was a Skadden Fellow at Legal Services for Children, representing indigent, disabled school children in suits against the New York City Board of Education.

Samantha Buckingham
Associate Clinical Professor

BA, University of Virginia
JD, Stanford Law School

Before joining Loyola's Center on Juvenile Law and Policy, Samantha Buckingham advocated on behalf of indigent clients for five years as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.  At PDS, she represented children charged as adults in criminal court with serious felonies including homicides and children facing delinquency in family court.  As a law student, Buckingham clerked for Legal Services for Children and the Federal Public Defender, both located in San Francisco.  Prior to that, she taught high school at the Maya Angelou School, a Washington D.C. charter high school for adjudicated and at-risk youth. 

Susan Harbert
Special Legislative Counsel

JD, Loyola Law School Los Angeles
BA, University of California San Diego

While at Law School, Susan Harbert focused her studies on the juvenile justice system. She has a wide range of experience in both national and local politics. In 1992, she organized delegate caucuses in all California 's 52 congressional districts for President Clinton's campaign and in 1996 was a board member of the Finance committee for President Clinton's re-election. As board president of P.S. Arts, an organization committed to returning arts education to public schools, she worked closely with LAUSD Superintendent Roy Rohmer and School Board President Marlene Canter. Governor Schwarzenegger asked her to sit on the board of Arnold 's All Stars, which funds middle school after school programs in at risk communities. She has also sat on the board of the Los Angeles Free Clinic and the Hollywood Women's Political Committee.

Karen Tamis
Skadden Fellow and Education Advocacy Attorney

JD, University of California Los Angeles
BA, Cornell University

As a Skadden Fellow, Tamis is an attorney in the Education Advocacy Project of the Disability Rights Legal Center, working in collaboration with the Center for Juvenile Law & Policy at Loyola Law School.  She represents youth with special education needs in the juvenile delinquency system to ensure that they receive appropriate education and related services. Tamis clerked for the Honorable Justice Norman Epstein on the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles.  Prior to law school, Tamis started a literacy tutoring program in Bay Area public elementary schools.

Alison King
Licensed Clinical Social Worker

MSW, University of California Los Angeles
BA, University of California San Diego

Alison King is the clinical social worker for the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. She has worked with children and families in a variety of capacities since graduating from the UCLA School of Public Affairs in 1998. Most recently, she provided treatment and assisted in the development of a clinical program for adolescents at risk of developing a thought disorder through UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. Previously, she helped to develop and coordinated an ADHD clinic at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, where she also provided both clinic and school-based treatment for children and families. She is bilingual in Spanish, and has also served high-risk and pregnant youth and seniors during her career.

Efty Sharony
Social Worker

MSW, Columbia University
BA, University of California Santa Cruz

Efty Sharony is a social worker for the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy.  She has dedicated her career to working with incarcerated youth and adults since 1998.  She was a key player in the expansion and success of The Beat Within publication and program.  The Beat Within is a weekly publication of writing and art for and by incarcerated youth in the Bay Area.  Sharony recently started conducting workshops in LA’s Central Juvenile Hall.  She most recently worked as a forensic social worker in the Juvenile Rights Division of Legal Aid in Brooklyn.  During her Master's program she interned at a domestic violence shelter and also with the Office of the Appellate Defender, working with clients serving lengthy sentences.

Roxanne Hill
Assistant to the Director
Program Administrator

MA, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest
BA, Loyola Marymount University

Roxanne Hill manages the day-to-day operations of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy.  After graduating from theological seminary, Hill worked as an HIV/AIDS chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital, and later on, as Family Services Coordinator at a pediatric HIV/AIDS organization in Los Angeles.  She also worked in Loyola Law School's Human Resources department for seven years prior to joining the staff at the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy.

Leilani Riehle
Program Coordinator

PhD, MA, University of California, Los Angeles

Leilani Riehle is the Center's program coordinator.  She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught literature courses as adjunct faculty before joining the CJLP.

Center for Juvenile Law and Policy Faculty Committee

Aprill, Ellen P., Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Professor of Law     and John E. Anderson Chair in Tax Law
Sam Pillsbury, Professor of Law and J. Howard Ziemann Fellow
Christopher May, Professor of Law
Murray, Yxta M., Professor of Law
Alexandra Natapoff, Chair and Associate Professor of Law
Shultz, Michael, Associate Clinical Professor and Clinical Director
Cyn Yamashiro, Clinical Professor and Executive Director