Dorothy Alther was made the Executive Director of CILS in July 2013. Ms. Alther is the recipient of the national 2010 Pierce Hickerson Award which is granted to distinguished Indian legal services attorneys. She also received the “Outstanding Achievement in California Indian Law” award from the California Indian Lawyers Association in 2014. Dorothy has been an attorney with CILS since 1989 and has practiced Indian law since1985. Ms. Alther was in the Bishop CILS Office until she relocated to the Escondido Office in 2003. In addition to her executive and administrative duties, Ms. Alther maintains an active caseload serving as legal counsel for several Tribes and tribal entities. Her current work focuses on impact litigation on matters of federal Indian law as well as working directly with tribes on building tribal governmental infrastructure. Ms. Alther has assisted tribes with tribal court and law enforcement development, working with tribes on establishing or revising tribal governing documents and building tribal program law. Ms. Alther is also active in ensuring CILS is involved in state and federal issues impacting Tribes and tribal communities. This includes providing comments on behalf of the tribal client to pending state and federal rules or legislation, partnering with others and tribal coalitions to advance legislation or regulation to protect and enhance tribal governments and providing community information and awareness on critical issues impacting California tribes. Ms. Alther has been a trainer on Public Law 280, the Indian Child Welfare Act, Housing law,  Tribal Law Enforcement, Building Tribal Courts, Tribal Law and Order Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and Cultural Resource Protection. Dorothy is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and graduated from the University of South Dakota and earned her J.D. from Northeastern University. Ms. Alther served as Managing Attorney at DNA’s People’s Legal Services in Crownpoint, New Mexico before coming to CILS and has acted as Tribal Attorney for the Suquamish Tribe in Washington.

Debra Avenmarg joins CILS as a Staff Attorney in the Eureka office. She received her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2010 and received a B.S. in Business and B.A. in Economics from Humboldt State University in 2005. Debra joins CILS with years of Child Welfare experience from many different roles and perspectives. In 2005, she volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for three foster youth, which inspired her to go to law school and practice Child Welfare Law. Debra has experience supervising visitation and transporting youth while working for a Foster Family Agency (FFA). She has also been a foster parent. She has advocated in the County role, and she has also represented parents, guardians, children, and Non-minor dependents in Child Welfare proceedings. Debra has worked in Lassen County, Marin County, and Humboldt County.  Debra is excited to now have the opportunity to represent tribes.

Denise Bareilles is the Directing Attorney at the Eureka office. Denise was born and raised in the U.S. Territory of Guam and moved to the states to attend law school at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She graduated with a J.D. in 2004. Most of her legal career has been spent in Northern California where she currently resides with her husband and two young children. In her earlier years, she practiced in the areas of general civil litigation, insurance defense, probate, and estate planning. She worked for the Yurok Tribal Court from 2011 to 2017 and gained substantial experience in the areas of tribal court development, intergovernmental negotiations with county and state agencies, development and implementation of direct federal funding to tribal social services agencies under Title IV of the Social Security Act (which included development of the first tribal Title IV-D child support program in California), tribal code development, and the American Indian Probate and Reform Act. She is barred to practice law in the courts of the State of California, the U.S. Territory of Guam, and the Yurok Reservation.

Susan Platt Dalati began her legal career in 1988 as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Honolulu, Hawaii. During some of her time there she worked in the Domestic Violence Unit, Special Prosecution Division. Ms. Dalati has civil and family law experience. She has worked as a Court Liaison Officer for a police department and she has teaching experience. From 2002–2015, she worked at a local social service agency that assists victims/survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. She provided direct legal services, managed a center in north county San Diego for more than three years, and supervised and mentored many advocates, attorneys, interns, support staff, and volunteers. Ms. Dalati has provided trainings on domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to many agencies and organizations. She helped to develop the High-Risk Team meetings for the north county region of San Diego. These meetings are attended by many local agencies and community partners to rapidly help and assist victims/survivors who are deemed to be at high risk of lethality. She currently co-chairs the North County Domestic Violence Coalition.

Rami Djemal is a part-time staff attorney in the Escondido office. Rami graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in New York in 2007. He began his legal career at JASA-Legal Services for the Elderly in Queens providing legal services to seniors who were victims of abuse. In 2013, Rami relocated to San Diego, California and began volunteering with several non-profit legal service agencies serving domestic violence survivors. At the same time, Rami started his own law practice, including providing lo bono and pro bono services to help domestic violence survivors to obtain restraining order, and with family law and other civil legal matters. In 2018, Rami started working with San Diego County Adult Protective Services managing a new pilot program serving seniors and dependent adults who were victims of a crime.

Michael Godbe returned to CILS’ Bishop office in 2019 after clerking at the office five years earlier during law school. He currently serves as the Bishop Office’s Directing Attorney, overseeing the Eastern Sierra Legal Assistance Program, the Inyo-Mono Senior Legal Program, and all the Office’s Homelessness Prevention / Eviction Defense work – in addition to the Office’s core federal Indian law work. Prior to joining CILS, he practiced law in Wisconsin, protecting employees from discrimination and wrongful termination, and representing consumers experiencing abusive debt collection and false advertising. He received his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and his B.A. in History from Vassar College. Attorney Godbe is a member of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest progressive bar association and the first to integrate its ranks. In 2021, Mike joined the boards of the Eastern Sierra Continuum of Care (https://www.easternsierracoc.org/) and the Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) (https://www.laaconline.org/). When not working, he enjoys hiking, gardening, spending time with his wife, dog, and two large cats, turning wooden bowls on his lathe, and making laser-cut wooden jewelry.

Michelle Krieger joins CILS as a staff attorney in the Eureka Office. She first moved to Humboldt County to attend Humboldt State and fell in love with the area. She graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland in 2000 and 2004 moved back to Humboldt County and took a job as a law clerk with the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court. Michelle worked with tribal courts for more than 18 years and was appointed an associate judge with the Hoopa Court in 2010, then a pro tem judge for the Karuk Tribe in 2011. Her experience as a tribal court judge, which includes hearing cases for the Yurok and Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation Tribal Courts, focused her on the needs of the people who use the courts. The heavy toll of domestic violence on tribal families became all too clear over the years of working in Tribal Courts. This led Michelle to shift her focus to victim services work beginning in 2020. Prior to working with tribal courts, Michelle gained experience in consumer law and criminal law. She loves the Humboldt area and enjoys spending time with her first grandchild.

Rachel Leiterman joined the Bishop office as a housing attorney in early 2022. Rachel graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law and was admitted to the California Bar in 1999. Rachel spent 19 years in private practice as an Intellectual Property attorney specializing in the prosecution of patents on III-V semiconductors. Rachel wound down her Intellectual Property practice in 2018 and went to work for the Inyo National Forest as a wilderness ranger. Rachel joined CILS in early 2022 with a desire to return to practicing law, this time with a focus on helping historically underserved people.

Kia Murdoch was promoted to Sacramento Directing Attorney in August of 2022. She is a rising star who has a proven commitment to CILS through the many changes in Sacramento. She is a high performing attorney and carrying a large case load. Kia graduated from Willamette University College of Law in 2017 and earned her B.A. degree from the University of Wyoming in 2014. During law school, she clerked with the Oregon Department of Justice in the Child Dependency Section. She also worked for SOAR Immigration Legal Services, a legal aid organization in Portland, Oregon. Kia moved to California in 2017 and worked at a corporate immigration firm prior to passing the California Bar. Kia is an active volunteer in environmental advocacy, particularly regarding the preservation of California’s forests.

Laura has been practicing law in California for more than 20 years. Laura brings a wealth of experience relevant to CILS’ work, including but not limited to: juvenile dependency, legal aid, appellate, and Judicial Council of California experience. She continues to work as an adjunct instructor for Santa Rosa Junior College, where she has taught Legal Professions, Legal Writing, Contracts, Torts and other classes in the paralegal program since 2017.  During law school, Laura was a law clerk for CILS when the Sacramento office was based in Oakland, overlapping with our own Jay Petersen’s tenure as Directing Attorney. Laura never forgot her time as a law clerk with CILS, and is excited to be joining us full time at this point in her career.

Jay Petersen is a career legal services Attorney who started practice on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota where he worked as Reginald Heber Smith Community Law Fellow. Over his 20 year career with CILS, he has worked in the Bishop and Oakland offices. In Oakland, he worked as Directing Attorney. His caseloads have covered a wide range of issues that include non-profit representation, Native religious practices, legislative political restoration, un-termination litigation, access to trust land issues, habeas corpus, federal recognition, ICWA, and public benefits. He is active in the volunteer community and has worked on non-profit housing, domestic violence prevention, and recovery program boards. Jay recently earned a master’s degree in political science.

Sheila Quinlan joined CILS in 2021. She clerked for CILS’s Oakland office in 2003 as a law student and sat on the CILS Board of Directors from 2013-2019. In 2003, she graduated with a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law. In 1996, she earned her BA from UC Berkeley in Anthropology and Women’s Studies. Sheila worked for five years as a public defender in Riverside County, handling various cases and representing clients at dozens of jury trials. She spent nine years as an appellate attorney, representing state-appointed criminal defendants in the state courts. She enjoys getting outside to hike, camp, and backpack with her family in her spare time.

Hannah Reed joined California Indian Legal Services as a Staff Attorney in 2022. Hannah is originally from Indiana, where she attended Purdue University (B.A., 2015) and Indiana University McKinney School of Law (J.D., 2018). While in law school, Hannah served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Indiana Health Law Review and was a Pro Bono Gold Level Volunteer (contributor of over 200 pro bono hours). She moved to California and passed the California Bar Exam in 2018. Prior to joining CILS, Hannah worked as an associate attorney at Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani’s Oakland office, where she practiced toxic tort litigation. Hannah also worked as an Associate County Counsel at the Alameda County Counsel’s Office where she gained experience in juvenile dependency, guardianship, and landlord-tenant law. In her spare time, Hannah enjoys reading, going to the beach, and exploring San Diego County with her dog and fiancé.

Lauren Ryerson joined the Bishop field office from Mammoth Lakes, where she maintains a criminal defense practice.  Prior to moving to Mammoth, Lauren was a public defender in San Francisco where she tried over 25 cases to verdict and developed a client centered practice.  Lauren graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Science dual degree in Environmental Science and International Affairs, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law. During law school, Lauren interned at the Santa Barbara Public Defender’s Office and the California Supreme Court for Justice Ming Chin. She went to Geneva, Switzerland to the United Nations to lobby for higher international standards for juveniles involved in the criminal justice system.

Tristan Stidham joined the Bishop office in the Summer of 2022 from Sonoma County, where he had been doing his post-bar at the District Attorney’s Office. Prior to relocating to Sonoma County, Tristan was a law student at the University of San Diego, where he was a member of the Mock Trial team and volunteered at San Diego Legal Aid’s Domestic Violence Clinic and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Tristan graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a concentration in History. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law with concentrations in Public Interest and Criminal Law. Tristan received his license to practice law in California in May of 2022. He is a member of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe and has spent much of his life in the Owens Valley.

Mark Vezzola joined California Indian Legal Services as a Staff Attorney in 2009. Originally from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Mark graduated from UMass-Amherst in 2000 and moved to California in 2001 to study Indian law at UCLA where he earned his J.D. and M.A. in American Indian Studies. While in law school, Mark clerked for the Hopi Appellate Court in Keams Canyon, Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C., and CILS during the summer of 2004. Upon passing the California bar exam, Mark worked as a litigator with Callahan, McCune & Willis, APLC, in downtown San Diego before returning to CILS. Aside from practicing law, Mark is an adjunct professor of history at San Diego Mesa College and American Indian Studies at Palomar College in San Marcos. He has published several articles and book chapters on the constitutional rights of incarcerated Native Americans to practice their religion as well as the issue of same-sex marriage in Native communities. Mark has served on the Board of Directors of the California Indian Law Association and the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program.