Longtime judge Martin Jenkins address Orange County law center event

The Public Law Center in Orange County raised approximately $752,000 at its Volunteers for Justice Dinner earlier this month.

The annual fundraiser, held June 3, also honored Latham & Watkins LLP as Law Firm of the Year after Latham attorneys performed approximately 4,100 hours of pro bono service for PLC clients in 2018. The firm’s pro bono committee is led by longtime PLC board member Michele D. Johnson and includes Marc T. Campopiano and Barbara A. Leonard.

The firm’s work in 2018 included advising a nonprofit organization that provides services to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, helping a boy and his grandmother with a guardianship and special immigrant juvenile status filing, working with low-income veterans to upgrade their discharge and volunteering with the PLC’s guardianship and federal pro se clinics.

Also at the dinner, Sean M. Sherlock of Snell & Wilmer LLP was named Attorney of the Year “for his dedication to PLC pro bono clients, for developing his pro bono portfolio beyond his day-to-day practice of law, and for the extraordinary results he achieves for PLC clients,” according to the organization. UC Irvine School of Law was named Community Partner of the Year.

The program included a keynote speech by Martin J. Jenkins, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s judicial appointments secretary and a former federal and state appeals court judge.

The PLC said it provides $8 in free legal services for every $1 raised.

— Meghann M. Cuniff