This webinar will provide background on how the Board of Immigration Appeals and courts have defined "particular social groups" in the context of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gang-based claims. The panel will address how advocates can frame particular social groups to meet the current requirements of the law and address intersectional particular social groups.

Presenters:
Dan Torres, ILRC Staff Attorney
Dan's work includes combating immigration provider fraud, conducting know your rights presentations, providing technical assistance to pro bono attorneys who are handling cases in the federal courts of appeals, and serving as the ILRC's Attorney of the Day. He is also the co-author of ILRC's publications, Asylum and Related Immigration Protections and Motions to Suppress. Before joining the ILRC, Dan represented clients as a staff attorney at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in Sacramento, worked as a clinical instructor at the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic, and served as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Lisa Frydman, Managing Attorney at Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, UC Hastings College of the Law
Lisa has extensive experience in asylum law. Both as a staff attorney at Legal Services for Children in San Francisco, and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) in Miami, Lisa represented immigrant children seeking asylum, protection as victims of human trafficking, Special Immigrant Juvenile status, and other types of relief. Many of Lisa's asylum cases involved representing young women fleeing gender persecution, such as forced marriage, female genital cutting, and sexual abuse. Lisa has significant appellate experience practicing before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and has represented several clients in federal district court. She has played an integral role in local and national efforts aimed at improving policies and practices for immigrant children. Through her participation in legislative, administrative, and media advocacy, as well as public education campaigns, Lisa has fought for immigrant children's rights. Lisa has given numerous presentations to judges, attorneys, law students, and community members on a broad range of topics, including children's asylum claims, representing trafficked children, and more. Lisa graduated with honors from Boalt Hall School of Law.

Helen Lawrence, Kaufman/Fine Law Fellow, ILRC
Helen joined the ILRC in September of 2009. Her work will focus on immigration relief for youth particularly those with the juvenile justice and gang-related issues. She will be updating and developing materials and technical assistance to assist immigrant youth and their families as well as attorneys and other service-providers and working on broader advocacy strategies to help these youth. Helen is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School (HLS) where she investigated and documented gang and police violence in El Salvador for the report No Place to Hide. Also while at HLS, she worked on asylum and other relief cases at Greater Boston Legal Services and was very involved with Harvard's Human Rights Program, focusing on projects in Latin America. She has also worked as a legal intern for the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project in San Francisco and as a law clerk at the law office of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano, & Nightingale. Before law school, she worked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on women's rights and edited the publication Violence Against Women in the International Context: Challenges and Responses.

Deadline to register: 5/11/10

For more information and to register: www.ilrc.org/trainings_seminars/detail.php
To register for all three Asylum webinars at a discounted rate, click here.