Delia Parr
Directing Attorney
Delia Parr has been working at CILS since 2003. She graduated from Humboldt State University in 2001 with a B.A. in Political Science. She interned at the Center for Indian Community Development in Arcata as a graduate student, and interned again at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco as a law student. Ms. Parr received her J.D. from the New College of California School of Public Interest Law in 2005. She began at CILS as a law clerk in 2003, and worked as a staff attorney in CILS’ Bishop office before moving to the Eureka office to assume her current position as Directing Attorney. She enjoys gardening, walking and hiking with her dogs, and watching old movies (when scripts were forced to rely on actual storylines and dialogue).
Michael Golden
Staff Attorney
Michael Golden, currently a staff attorney with the Eureka office of CILS, was appointed first Judge of the Tribal Court of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians on October 8, 2007, and continues to serve in that position. His interest in native issues goes back to his work as a Paralegal volunteer with the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee in 1974-1976, while studying law at the University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA.
He has previously served by contract with the respective Tribal Councils as the Judge of the Hoopa Tribal Court in 1988-1994, and the Yurok Tribal Court in 2001-2006. In both of those positions, he served the Court in its period of transition from an administrative court set up by the Department of the Interior to regulate tribal fisheries in the Klamath River Basin, to the Courts handling a wide range of issues that they are today. He also served as the first Judge of the Redding Rancheria Tribal Court from Spring, 2006 to Fall, 2010.
After graduation from law school, Judge Golden was awarded a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship, which allowed him to work with South Dakota Legal Services in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, 1976-1977, and California Indian Legal Services in Eureka, CA, 1977-1978.
Judge Golden has complemented his tribal court work with a legal practice in Humboldt County, CA, since the expiration of the Fellowship. He spent three years as a Staff Attorney with Redwood Legal Assistance (now Legal Services of Northern California) in Eureka, from 1977 to 1981, representing income eligible clients, primarily in the area of landlord-tenant and other housing problems. He also assisted local non-profit corporations in the preparation of articles of incorporation and bylaws, and served as defense counsel for Yurok tribal fishers in some of the first cases tried after the Department of the Interior set up its Administrative Court in 1979.
He began his private practice of law in 1982, representing clients in civil rights and environmental cases, as well as misdemeanor criminal matters, employment law, and injury and disability claims.
Jedd ParrAdvocate
Jedediah Parr has worked at CILS since 2005. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 2002 with a B.S. in Environmental Science. He worked as an environmental scientist with a Bay Area consulting firm for three years before moving to Bishop, California, where he started as a volunteer with CILS. He is now an intake advocate and notary public in the Eureka office. Mr. Parr is currently taking correspondence law school classes and expects to receive his J.D. in early 2012, since California won’t let him finish any sooner. His hobbies include weightlifting, hiking with his dogs, home and car repairs, and an unreasonable obsession with the Chicago Bears.
Laura SvobodaLegal Secretary
Laura Svoboda has been working as a legal secretary at CILS since 2002, when she graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Native American Studies. She worked in CILS’ Oakland office until recently, when she transferred to the Eureka office. Ms. Svoboda has been a legal secretary for nine years, also working with law firms practicing in the areas of sustainable development, family law, and criminal appeals. Her hobbies include organic gardening and horticulture, natural building, and hiking.
