Legal Aid of Marin

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Our Team

Attorneys

Paul Cohen, Executive Director

Oversees all agency programs and administration

Expertise in Landlord/Tenant law

Bilingual: English / Spanish

Paul S. Cohen has been working for social justice most of his adult life. In the 10 years prior to joining Legal Aid of Marin, he fought primarily for the rights of poor and disenfranchised Latino immigrants. He brought his energy and vision to Legal Aid of Marin when he became Executive Director in early 2006 and immediately set out to form alliances with other legal and social service providers. One of his most successful collaborations has been the development of the Medical Legal Partnership with the Marin Community Clinics, the Coastal Health Alliance and the Marin City Health & Wellness Clinic. By offering free legal advice and advocacy in the clinical setting, an underserved portion of the County's low-income residents can get their health problems and legal dilemmas resolved. Another successful collaboration was the creation of the Marin Opportunity Centers including MarinHelpers.com along with Canal Alliance and Ritter Center. The creation of a matching system between residential employers and temporary workers has led to tremendous job skills building opportunities and a reduction in wage claim complaints from the enrolled workers.

Success at Legal Aid of Marin is a client that has achieved satisfaction by avoiding the barriers to justice in the legal system or an individual that feels the advice they received better prepared them for their particular crisis. We help individuals and families in a myriad of ways and we are an instrument in the search for social justice.

Paul is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He has been an attorney for 20 years. The greatest part of my job is knowing that I have been able to help improve a client's life.

Karen Carrera, Senior Staff Attorney

Expertise in Employment Law

Bilingual: English / Spanish

Karen mentors and provides assistance to Legal Aid of Marin attorneys and legal assistants, and primarily assists clients in the areas of labor/employment and landlord/tenant law. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law, teaching Negotiation. Formerly, she was a partner at Talamantes/Villegas/Carrera, LLP (TVC), a San Francisco employment law firm representing plaintiffs in labor and employment class actions and lawsuits. She continues to serve as "of counsel" with TVC. From 1996 through 2003, Karen served as a Deputy City Attorney and litigator with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, Code Enforcement Division, and prior to that was a supervising attorney at La Raza Centro Legal specializing in employment, landlord tenant, immigration and elder law. Karen currently serves on the board of Equal Rights Advocates, a civil rights organization in San Francisco. Karen is a member of the California State Bar, Labor and Employment Law Section, and the California Employment Lawyer's Association. Ms. Carrera is 1992 graduate of Hastings. Karen is married, has two kids and lives in Marin County.

Mariko Nakanishi, Dependency Attorney

Mariko Nakanishi is a Staff Attorney at Legal Aid of Marin and represents parents and children in juvenile dependency matters. Ms. Nakanishi has been with Legal Aid of Marin since 2007. Prior to joining Legal Aid of Marin, she worked as a juvenile dependency attorney in Santa Clara County and as a Deputy Public Defender for the Santa Clara County Office of the Public Defender. Ms. Nakanishi has also served as a Law Clerk for the Office of the Public Defender in San Francisco and Contra Costa counties. In addition, she has worked in various areas of civil litigation as a judicial extern for the San Francisco County Superior Court, Law and Motion Department. In 2004, Ms. Nakanishi assisted in the representation of California's prisoners regarding conditions of confinement at the Prison Law Office in San Quentin. In 2002, she assisted in the representation of indigent death row inmates in post-conviction proceedings at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco, and as a National Lawyers Guild Haywood Burns Memorial Fellow at the Georgia Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Nakanishi received her J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law in 2004 and her B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Maura Prendiville, Staff Attorney

Provides homeless outreach in San Rafael

Working on tenant organizing

Trilingual: English / Spanish / Portuguese

Maura Prendiville is a staff attorney at Legal Aid of Marin focusing on housing, employment, and issues surrounding homelessness. Maura studied at U.C. Santa Cruz with a major in Community Studies. While in college, she interned with an indigenous rights lawyer in Nicaragua, who inspired her to go on to law school at U.C. Berkeley. During law school, Maura was active in the Berkeley Law Foundation, the East Bay Community Law Center, and the International Human Rights Clinic. She interned with a labor union and a nonprofit during her summers. After graduating, she worked at a human rights organization in Brazil for one year, prior to coming to Legal Aid. Maura's interests include reading, triathlons, and the outdoors. She is active in the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and grew up in San Rafael.

Joanna Shalleck-Klein, Staff Attorney

Represents workers in employement matters

Joanna Shalleck-Klein, an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Fenwick & West LLP, is a Staff Attorney at Legal Aid of Marin, representing workers in various employment matters, including wage theft and working conditions. Prior to joining Legal Aid of Marin in 2011, Joanna clerked for the Honorable Nancy Gertner of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In 2010, Joanna graduated from Stanford Law School, where she was a Public Interest Fellow. During law school, Joanna spent two years in the Stanford Community Law Clinic, where she focused on wage claims, eviction defense, and affordable housing issues in East Palo Alto. Joanna also interned at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and the New York Civil Liberties Union. Before law school, Joanna worked at the Urban Justice Center in New York City as a legal advocate for low-income New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities in the welfare and SSI/SSD systems. In that capacity, she represented clients at fair hearings, challenged inappropriate welfare-to-work requirements, and fought for clients to receive the public benefits to which they were entitled. Joanna received her B.A. in 2004 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

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Araceli Ontiveros-Venegas, Staff Attorney

Focus on Family Law matters

Bilingual: English / Spanish / Conversational French

Araceli Ontiveros-Venegas is a staff attorney focusing on Family Law matters. Araceli received a BA in Political Science and Philosophy, and a Minor in French, from UC Santa Barbara. During the summer of 2007, she interned at Marin Mediation Services, which solidified her interest in becoming a public interest lawyer. Araceli graduated from the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in May 2011. During law school, she served as Managing Editor and Staff Writer for the Pacific McGeorge Business and Development Law Journal. She was also an active member of the Latino Law Students Association and served as Vice-President of the organization. As a law student, Araceli interned with the California Attorney General’s Office – Appeals, Writs, and Trials, Criminal Division – where she drafted briefs in felony appeals on behalf of the People of California. She also participated in the Pacific McGeorge Immigration Law Clinic as a Certified Law student, where she assisted clients with adjustment of status, U-Visas, and family petitions. Prior to joining Legal Aid of Marin, Araceli volunteered her time at the office as a law clerk and assisted with unlawful detainers, employment cases, and family law cases.