Yvonne Mariajimenez

Yvonne Mariajimenez is a Los Angeles native, born and raised in East Los Angeles.  She holds a B.S. from USC in Business Administration and a J.D. from Loyola Law School.  She has dedicated her entire professional career as a lawyer to advocating with and on behalf of the poor.  Her work is very personal to her having been born into and raised in poverty.

Yvonne is the Deputy Director for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (NLSLA), a private, nonprofit law firm funded to provide free legal services and advocacy to poor and low income families and individuals residing in Los Angeles County.  She helps to oversee a budget of $13 million, a staff of 100, including 40 lawyers.  In 2013, NLSLA served over 80,000 individuals.

Yvonne works closely with immigrant communities and addresses issues that most often impact these families. She began her legal services career in 1978 at San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services where she specialized in federal subsidized housing and equity fraud cases.  She currently focuses on policy advocacy projects related to housing/foreclosures, health care, domestic violence, workforce development and immigration.

For several years, Yvonne has lead a team of lawyers and worked with One L.A. member institutions comprised of faith based organizations and non-profits in pursuing principal reduction foreclosure prevention strategies. Yvonne presented such a plan to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan and the U.S. Treasury which vetted and supported it.  A pilot project has been funded with $10 million in TARP funds to implement the strategy in the hardest hit communities of the City of Los Angeles.

Yvonne was a nominee for Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Bar Association. Yvonne is a former member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, an advisory group to former President Vicente Fox, Republic of Mexico.  She is past Vice-President for the Los Angeles County Commission for Women and member of Comision Femenil, Yvonne was named Loyola Law School Public Interest Attorney of the Year, honored as a Pioneer Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles City Council and a recipient of the 2013 Opening Doors to Justice Award in recognition for her work on behalf of Californians in need.