Public & Community Service

Our experiences and friendships – as former prosecutors, as a public defender, as judicial law clerks and as leaders in non-profit organizations serving the community – are more than personally rewarding. These experiences and relationships have also proven to be valuable assets in serving our clients. We often find the perfect person to help our clients solve problems quickly and directly. Our varied backgrounds, experience and interests simplify our mission: to work every day with the lawyers we enjoy and respect the most, in giving our valued clients the most effective and efficient results.

From 1966 to 1981,Mark Overland was a deputy with the Los Angeles County Office of the Public Defender, where he was a member of the Special Trials Unit, and supervised the office training program for approximately 400 attorneys and became Chief, Central Superior and Municipal Court Trials, supervising approximately 80 trial attorneys. Mr. Overland is a past Chair of the State Bar of California Criminal Law section, and has been an advisor to the Law Reform Commission, a member of the California Bail Reform Evaluation Advisory Commission, the Obledo Committee that implemented California's determinate sentence legislation, and a member of the California Senate Advisory Commission on Criminal Procedure. Mr. Overland has also represented individuals on various matters on behalf of Public Counsel and served as an arbitrator for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Mark Borenstein served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Irving Hill in the United States District Court for the Central District of California from 1976-77. Since 1997, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Western Law Center for Disability Rights at Loyola University Law School, and for several years has served as the organization's vice president.  Mr. Borenstein was actively involved with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, serving as Vice Chair of its Desegregation Committee and Chair of its Budget Advisory Committee.

From 1987 to 1999,David Scheper served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles and was Chief of the Criminal Division from 1997 to 1999.  Mr. Scheper served as associate general counsel for the Rampart Independent Review Team in 2000 following allegations of corruption at the Los Angeles Police Department. Today, he serves on the board of directors of the Notre Dame Law Association and Shelter Partnership, Inc.. a nonprofit organization for the homeless in Los Angeles County.

Following law school,Diann Kim clerked for the Honorable A. David Mazzone in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1983-84. From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Kim served as an arbitrator in the Los Angeles County Superior and Municipal Courts.  She was deputy general counsel to the special advisor for the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Police Commissioners following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.  Currently, Ms. Kim is Chair of the board of directors ofCentury Housing, a nonprofit organization supporting low-income and affordable housing in Los Angeles County. She is the immediate past Chair of the board of directors of Shelter Partnership, Inc., a nonprofit organization for the homeless in Los Angeles County.

From 1995 to 1996,Wendy Clendening served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Clendening was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

From 1998-1999,Annah Kim was a Special Assistant U. S. Attorney-Adjunct in the Border Crimes Division of the United States Attorney's Office in San Diego.

Following law school, Gregory Ellis served as a law clerk for the Honorable Manuel L. Real in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. While in law school, Mr. Ellis served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Following law school, Alexander Cote served as a law clerk for the Honorable Gary A. Feess in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Earlier during law school, Mr. Cote served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Thomas P. Smith in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Following law school,Kelley Poleynard served as a law clerk for the Honorable Audrey B. Collins in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. 

From 2000 to 2003, Courtney Overland worked at Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles, and was the Project Coordinator for the Homelessness Prevention Law Project from 2002-2003. In 2004 she was a summer clerk in the Civil Rights Litigation Project for the Western Law Center for Disability Rights.