Fellowships

Jimi (he/him) joined Inner City Law Center (ICLC) as a Housing Justice Fellow in September 2024. At law school, Jimi represented clients in a hearing against the United States in front of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, worked with unionized laborers in a variety of industries across Los Angeles as a clinical student for UNITE-HERE Local 11, worked on several unionization campaigns as a legal intern at Bush Gottlieb, and was a founding member and chair for the UCLA chapter of the People’s Parity Project. Jimi was also a legal intern at ICLC during his first summer at law school. Jimi is passionate about client-centered, grassroots lawyering that empowers the working class, and views housing rights as fundamental to the fight for worker power. Jimi holds a J.D. from UCLA School of Law and a B.S. from West Point. Jimi and his wife Ida have a cat, Bobby McGee, and a dwarf lionhead rabbit, Iggy Hop.

Arnold J. Esqueda (he/him) is a recent J.D. graduate from Golden Gate University School of Law, where he earned a Litigation Certification and was an active member of the Moot Court Board. Arnold has a strong commitment to social justice, developed through his work at Centro Legal de la Raza and internships with the San Francisco District Attorney and Public Defender’s offices. His passion for housing justice and tenant advocacy led him to join Inner City Law Center as a Housing Justice Fellow. Arnold is dedicated to using his legal skills to protect the rights of vulnerable communities and combat housing instability in Los Angeles.

Meena Morar joined Inner City Law Center as a Housing Justice Fellow in September 2024 after graduating with their J.D. from UC Davis School of Law. While in law school, Meena served as a co-director for both the Lambda Law Students Association and Gender and Name Change Project with a passion to build queer community and promote radical trans joy. Meena has also interned at Legal Services of Northern California, East Bay Community Law Center, and Alameda County Public Defender’s Office in the Sacramento/Bay Area. At their core, Meena believes that community organizing and holistic care are the only ways to be a good advocate. Prior to law school, Meena received their B.A. in American Studies with a minor in Journalism from Georgetown University in 2021. In their free time, Meena loves to watch the sunset and get over invested in tv characters’ lives.

María joined Inner City Law Center in September 2024 as a Housing Justice fellow. María was inspired to assist underserved communities by pursuing a career in the legal field because their family experienced housing insecurity, immigration services fraud, and navigated the process of obtaining a U-Visa. They obtained a J.D. from Loyola Law School in 2023, and as a Public Interest Fellow formed part of the Genocide Justice Clinic, the Shriver Landlord/Tenant Clinic, and were a founding member of the Homeless Rights Law Society. As a 3L, María was featured in The Seventies: A Breakthrough Decade for LGBT Rights (Thomas F. Coleman ed., 2022), where they wrote a chapter titled “The Emergence of Nonbinary, Transgender, and Students of Color as LGBT Activists.” María also received the G. Clayton Fatheree IV Disability Rights Scholarship in Spring 2023 for their publication in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review titled “Overprotected but Unrepresented: An Argument for Mandatory Appointment of Counsel and Against Automatic General Conservatorships in California.” Prior to law school, María graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 2016 with a B.A. in Gender, Ethnic, and Multicultural Studies.

Emma Quinn joined Inner City Law Center as a Housing Justice Fellow in September 2024. While in law school, Emma deepened her commitment to housing justice and civil rights advocacy through clerkships at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Law Office of Carol A. Sobel, and Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes, LLP. She also participated in Loyola Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Practicum and Homeless Rights Advocacy Practicum. Through the latter, she had the opportunity to collaborate with the ACLU of Southern California’s Dignity for All Project, contributing to a white paper advocating for a constitutional amendment to establish housing as a fundamental human right in California. Additionally, Emma was a production editor on the Entertainment Law Review, and an active member of the Public Interest Law Foundation. Emma earned her J.D. from Loyola Law School, and her B.A. from Framingham State University in Massachusetts.

Emerging from a grass-root student activist praxis, Michala pursued law school as a Public Interest Scholar to organize for the legal empowerment of our most vulnerable communities. Throughout her law school tenure, Michala worked abroad in Japan as in-house counsel for a female-owned startup building infrastructure for Japanese female entrepreneurs and served on California’s Reparation Task Force conducting legal research in collaboration with the California Department of Justice. Michala also participated in her law school’s Youth Justice Education Clinic (YJEC) representing system-involved youth pursuant to the federal IDEA and California Education Code. Michala worked as a constitutional law research assistant critically analyzing the recent affirmative action case law and served as the inaugural Principal Articles Editor for the Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law (LIJPIL). Clerking in the housing department at the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office kindled Michala’s interest in continuing to work on housing policy post-graduation. Michala obtained her BA with a concentration in Black Studies at Soka University of America and her J.D. at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Michala joined Inner City Law Center in September 2024 as a Housing Justice Fellow.

Annie joined Inner City Law Center as a housing Justice fellow in September 2024. After working in environmental justice law, local campaigns and legislative offices in San Francisco during law school, she realized that stable housing is a crucial prerequisite to achieving justice in other spaces. At the legal aid of Sonoma county, Annie worked on a variety of eviction litigation cases that dealt with illegal lockouts, invalid notices, and warranty of habitability breaches. As an undergraduate, she studied sustainable food systems before moving to Basque Country to teach English full time. In her free time, you can find Annie doing her friends’ nails as an uncertified nail technician, or at her local flea market.

Nathan (he/him) joined ICLC as a Housing Justice Fellow in 2024 after graduating from the University of California, Irvine School of Law. While in law school, he worked on environmental justice issues at the California Attorney General’s Office, Earthjustice, and the UCI Environmental Law Clinic. Nathan also worked pro bono, helping refugees with their humanitarian parole applications and working with communities in the fight for cleaner air. In his free time, he enjoys fishing and running with his dog, Zoe.

Zita Zeng joined Inner City Law Center as a Fellow in September 2024. Zita received her B.S. in Applied Math and a B.A. in Audio Music Engineering from University of Rochester, where she graduated in 2019. During her academic pursuits at Suffolk University Law School, she served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Judith G. Dein at the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2022. Additionally, Zita contributed to the Suffolk University Health Law Clinic from 2023 – 2024, where she assisted parents in navigating the complexities of guardianship for their incapacitated adult children.