3L Receives Pearl Castro Mendez Scholarship Award
3L Lisethmarie Lopez studied English at UC Santa Barbara and always knew she would pursue a career in Law. During her 2L year at LLS, she was a clinical student in the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution (LCCR) and participated in the Collaborative Family Law Clinic. There she received collaborative law training and learned from several leaders in the Collaborative Law and Mediation Field and was able to help real parties going through divorce - from the initial intake process through the drafting of their settlement agreement. She then transitioned into the Dependency Court Mediation Assistance clinic and used her innate skills and training to help mostly Spanish speaking parties, fulfilling her goal of applying the knowledge and training she was fortunate to receive while in law school to directly impact and benefit the Hispanic community. When COVID-19 caused a shutdown in the courts, she continued assisting parties at the LCCR in the Conciliation and Mediation Assistance Clinic. Liseth says, “This experience was particularly rewarding because I was able to provide assistance to people experiencing conflict on top of the unprecedented turmoil brought on by a global pandemic.”
During her 3L year, Lisethmarie received the Pearl Castro Mendez Scholarship Award for her work with the Spanish speaking community while at the LCCR. She is currently the President of Loyola’s Child and Family Law Society and together with her executive board has hosted virtual panels for students to learn about all the facets of family law from private practice through the judge’s chamber. In her final semester, Lisethmarie will be returning to work as a clinical student at the Dependency Court Mediation clinic and hopes to continue contributing to the LLS community.