Events, Press Releases & Announcements

Youth Law Center to Mark First 45 Years of Legal Advocacy Work with Special Event Honoring Angela Vigil of Baker McKenzie

For Release: May 10, 2024
Contact: Natalie Reynolds, nreynolds@ylc.org, (408) 504-7611

Youth Law Center to Mark First 45 Years of Legal Advocacy Work with Special Event Honoring Angela Vigil of Baker McKenzie

On Thursday, September 12, to mark its first 45 years of legal advocacy, YLC is hosting a special event in San Francisco that will honor Angela Vigil, Partner and Executive Director of the Global Pro Bono Practice at global law firm Baker McKenzie, and a tireless crusader for children’s rights. The event will take place at The Pearl in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.

Since 1978, Youth Law Center (YLC) in San Francisco has been using the law as a tool to fight for the rights of children and youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. YLC has won important victories protecting and advancing their rights, including ending incarceration of children and youth in adult jails, and stopping illegal and inhumane practices in juvenile justice and foster care facilities.

In selecting an honoree for this special event, Advocacy, Justice, and Hope: Celebrating the First 45 Years of the Youth Law Center, Vigil was an obvious and unanimous choice. She began her career working in public interest law in Chicago, even before she passed the bar, by representing families in low-income neighborhoods. Since then, in her words, “the outrage I felt at the abuse, neglect, disempowerment of children – and the satisfaction of doing something about it has never left me.”

Under her leadership, Baker McKenzie’s Pro Bono work has been honored by a number of local and national civil rights and advocacy organizations for its commitment, innovation, and impact. Youth Law Center is thrilled to shine the spotlight on Vigil for the passion and energy she infuses into her work inspiring her in-house attorneys and corporations “to tackle a social justice challenge – and do our best to solve it.”

Over the past decade, Vigil and her team have galvanized the talent, expertise, and time of dynamic Baker attorneys to partner with YLC in service of youth who most need advocates. Highlights of the partnership include:

• Youth Experiential Learning Simulation (YExLS) experiences across the world to drive change- trainings co-developed with youth and children’s rights lawyers that put participants “in the shoes” of a young person navigating life and engaging with public sector systems;
• The annual Children’s Rights Summit, hosted by Baker McKenzie with YLC staff attorneys as content and session curators and panelists;
• Litigation against Sacramento County on behalf of our client, Youth Forward, and against Fresno County on behalf our client the Center for Leadership, Equity, and Research (CLEAR) to protect and strengthen the rights of youth and families to participate in local juvenile justice policy making;
• Two co-sonspored Equal Justice Works fellowships at YLC;
• A Homeless Youth Handbook to provide homeless youth with information about their rights, responsibilities, and resources;
• Efforts to strengthen the YLC’s capacity to engage in advocacy that stops harm and advances positive, developmentally informed solutions.

“Angela is the force of nature that our children and youth deserve! She invests her giant heart, endless energy, undiluted optimism, persistent determination and shrewd legal analysis to our advocacy efforts for children and youth. She not only believes that what happens in the daily lives of children in foster care and juvenile justice deeply matters, she listens to youth and makes every effort to amplify their experiences, ideas, and brilliance. Angela’s belief that justice for every child must be a responsibility shared by every member of our legal community, and her uncanny ability to rally corporate, tax, and intellectual property lawyers alike to devote their talents to protect the childhoods and positively impact the futures of systems-impacted children has created a new standard for excellence in pro bono legal advocacy for children,” said Jennifer Rodriguez, YLC’s Executive Director.

The event will conclude with a musical performance by world famous drummer and percussionist Sheila E. and her band! A Grammy-Nominated Recording Artist and Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, Escovedo has a passion for helping children heal and thrive through music and is a co-founder of nonprofit Elevate Oakland that works to give Oakland youth equitable access to arts and music education. In 2023, she launched the new initiative “Follow the Music” with NFL Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Lott in partnership with Elevate Oakland.

Rounding out this stellar program is MC and auctioneer Liam Mayclem, Emmy Award winning radio & TV personality and host of the Culinary Stage at BottleRock Napa Valley. As someone who grew up in foster care in England and Ireland, Mayclem has a personal connection to YLC’s work and looks forward to inspiring numerous acts of generosity during the event’s Fund-A-Need.

Event sponsorships and individual ticket sales are available. For more information, please visit https://www.ylc.org/advocacy-justice-and-hope-event/.

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