ACLU to Honor Partners and Legal Heroes at 2024 Advocates for Justice Event

Thursday, July 18 at Los Angeles Center Studios in DTLA

LOS ANGELES – The ACLU Foundation of Southern California will honor individuals, law firms, and community groups who have worked to defend civil rights and liberties in the southland, at its Advocates for Justice reception on Thursday, July 18 at 5:00 p.m. at Los Angeles Center Studios.

Honorees include individuals and law firms who have fought for closure of detention centers, challenged inhumane conditions in Orange County shelters and LA jails, and enacted large scale narrative change through filmmaking.

“We are grateful to the attorneys and support staff at honoree firms, who donate thousands of hours of work to defend the rights of incarcerated and unhoused people,” said Victor Leung, chief legal and advocacy officer at ACLU SoCal.

The full list of honorees is below:

• Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández for her extraordinary scholarship and activism challenging the ideology behind our incarceration and immigration detention practices.

• Activist Bonnie Abaunza for her lifelong dedication to humanitarian work, restorative justice storytelling, and social impact in entertainment.

• O'Melveny & Meyers LLP for advancing an important and precedent-setting argument that San Bernardino City's encampment removals and property destruction violate disability laws.

• Kirkland & Ellis LLP for challenging the unlawful and inhumane conditions in shelters in Orange County.

• Paul Hastings LLP for tireless advocacy for people incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Jails.

• The Shut Down Adelanto! Coalition for working towards the goal of achieving the closure of the Adelanto ICE Detention Center.

The Advocates for Justice reception is a ticketed event open to the public. For tickets and more information visit: aclusocal.org/advocatesforjustice