Who We Are

Our Faculty

For faculty biographies and contact information, please follow links to faculty pages.

Cyn Yamashiro
CJLP Kaplan Feldman Executive Director
Clinical Professor

JD, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles 
BA, University of California Los Angeles

Maureen Pacheco
Assistant Director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy
‌Clinical Co-Director, Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic

JD, Georgetown Law School, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif
Associate Editor, Georgetown Law Review
Summer Associate, Cravath, Swaine and Moore
BA, University of Michigan, magna cum laude

‌Christopher Hawthorne
Clinical Co-Director, Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic

BA, Columbia University 
JD, magna cum laude, Loyola Law School, Order of the Coif 

Michael Smith
Director, Youth Justice Education Clinic

BA, (Hons.) University of Sussex, United Kingdom
JD, University of Southern California School of Law

Jojo Liu
Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic

AB, Harvard College, magna cum laude
JD, Columbia Law School

Samantha Buckingham
Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic

BA, University of Virginia
JD, Stanford Law School

Our Staff

Roxanne Hill
Assistant to the Director, Program Administrator

MA, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest
BA, Loyola Marymount University

Roxanne Hill manages the day-to-day administrative, academic and executive needs of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. After graduating from theological seminary, Hill worked as an HIV/AIDS chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital, and later on, as Family Services Coordinator at a pediatric HIV/AIDS organization in Los Angeles. She also worked in Loyola Law School's Human Resources department for seven years prior to joining the staff at the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy.

Dr. Leilani Riehle
Manager of Operations

PhD, MA, University of California, Los Angeles
BA, Drew University, summa cum laude

Leilani Riehle is the Manager of Operations for the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a University Fellow for three years, a Chancellor's Fellow, a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award, and a recipient of the George Eliot Award for her dissertation. As an adjunct professor, she has taught courses and seminars on Romantic literature, Victorian literature, Jane Austen, and popular culture.

Matthew Rosenbaum, LCSW
Social Worker

MSW, California State University, Long Beach
MA, Claremont University
BA, University of California, Santa Cruz 

Before coming to the CJLP, Matthew Rosenbaum worked for over six years in and around downtown Los Angeles in the fields of child welfare and domestic violence for Pico Union Family Preservation Network. He also worked as a Mental Health Officer for Doctors Without Borders in Eastern Chad for nearly nine months. During his time in Chad, he created and ran a mental health/psychosocial clinic for victims of violence and displacement at an Internally Displaced Persons camp. In Guatemala, where he became fluent in Spanish, he worked with domestic violence survivors and their children at the only Domestic Violence shelter in the country, as well as helped abandoned Guatemalan children living on the streets and received a grant to create a shelter for boys. Prior to working as a Social Worker, he worked as an economist for the U.S. federal government and a public electric company.  

Efty Sharony
Social Worker
Investigator, Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic

MSW, Columbia University
BA, University of California, Santa Cruz

Efty Sharony is a social worker for the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. She has dedicated her career to working with incarcerated youth and adults since 1998. She was a key player in the expansion and success of The Beat Within publication and program. The Beat Within is a weekly publication of writing and art for and by incarcerated youth in the Bay Area. Sharony recently started conducting workshops in LA’s Central Juvenile Hall. She most recently worked as a forensic social worker in the Juvenile Rights Division of Legal Aid in Brooklyn. During her Master's program she interned at a domestic violence shelter and also with the Office of the Appellate Defender, working with clients serving lengthy sentences.

Elisa Gonzales
Program Coordinator, Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic

BA, Loyola Marymount University

Elisa has worked at Loyola Law School for twelve-and-a-half years.  She graduated from LMU with a degree in Film Production and a minor in Business.

Patricia Soung
Post-Graduate Fellow 

BA, Stanford University
JD, Northwestern University of Law 

Previous to working with the CJLP, Patricia Soung was a staff attorney at the National Center for Youth Law working in multiple states to reduce over-incarceration of youth through litigation, and administrative and policy advocacy. Prior to that, Patricia was a Soros Justice Fellow at the Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern University of Law where she worked to challenge juvenile life without parole sentences and wrongful convictions of youth through litigation, public education and community organizing. She has also represented juvenile and criminal clients as a panel attorney for the First District Appellate Project and California Appellate Project. Prior to becoming an attorney, Patricia worked to increase the capacity and support of youth social justice efforts across the country while at the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing in New York and the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.