Panel Attorney Mary Catherine Wiederhold recently had a sobering moment in court while representing an ALRP client in an eviction case. When the issue came up about my client being HIV+, the judge seemed to downplay the impact of HIV. said Mary Catherine. ALRP Staff Attorney John Fasesky was with me, and he told her about the discrimination that people with HIV face every day.

Until recently, Danielle Barnes was volunteering seven days a week for HIV causes, splitting her time between ALRP and an HIV counseling position and somehow managing to get in some time at a retail job to pay the rent. Danielle arrived in San Francisco in 2011 immediately after graduating from Whitman College with a bachelor’s degree in gender studies and a minor in anthropology.

For me, one of the best things about practicing law is that I get to solve problems for people, said attorney Brian Trowbridge. Brian, a former ALRP law clerk, is now a Panel attorney. When I clerked for ALRP I was amazed by how many problems I could help solve without turning to the court.

While he was earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia in Athens, ALRP Board member and Panel Attorney Adam Podowitz-Thomas worked as an HIV counselor, and it was the plight of one of his clients that pushed him towards a career in law. My client was dropped by his insurance company after being diagnosed HIV+, Adam said. I was so horrified by it. I became dedicated to making sure this didnt happen to anyone else in the future.