Jessica Levinson '05

Update: Jessica Levinson began a new role as of the fall 2011 semester as a visiting associate clinical professor of law at Loyola Law School.

When the economy sours, the office bustles for Jessica Levinson. As director of political reform for the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies (CGS), Levinson helps shape state policy decisions and inform voters. And with the California economy buckling under the weight of the current budget crisis, Levinson finds that her services are in greater demand.

“The good and bad of what we do in terms of trying to shape reform is that it’s needed now more than ever,” she said. “Particularly, politics and the economy are intertwined. When the economy is bad, is it because we don’t have good public officials? And then, how do we elect public officials?”

Through a circuitous path, Levinson ended up at her dream destination: the intersection of law and politics. As director of political reform at the CGS, Levinson is charged with helping better inform the public on the political process. She does that in a number of ways.

From an office located steps from an old vault in a converted bank, Levinson spends a good deal of her time answering questions about the influence of money on politics. In her role at the CGS, which uses the tagline “solutions for democracy,” Levinson recently co-authored the law review article, “Ballot Box Budgeting in California: The Bane of the Golden State or an Overstated Problem?” She concluded that there is a link between the California initiative process and the state’s budget woes. Levinson paid particular attention to Proposition 26 on the November 2010 ballot. The initiative called for a two-thirds supermajority vote for state levies and charges—a move Levinson thinks could exacerbate California’s chronic problem of passing budgets on time. She also weighs in on the effects of money on elections, including assisting the city of West Hollywood craft a campaign finance ordinance.

Levinson contributes to the public discourse on state politics in many other ways. She provides commentary to national news outlets like National Public Radio and NBC News, and she posts pieces on The Huffington Post. Her organization creates educational “Voter Minute” online video reports on California ballot propositions, and she writes newspaper
op-eds and law reviews. In addition, she was a panelist at Loyola’s “Rebooting California: Initiatives, Conventions & Government Reform” symposium, where she discussed the constitutionality of open primaries.

Putting her stamp on legislation, Levinson has helped craft measures on everything from campaign-finance reform to term limits. “A lot of what we do is analyze current proposals and laws, and suggest how to make them more effective,” she said.

Levinson has been especially active in bills involving redistricting—the means by which the boundaries of electoral districts are changed. She was instrumental in the crafting of California’s Proposition 11, known as the Voters First Act, which authorized the creation of a Citizens Redistricting Commission to oversee the redrawing of electoral districts, taking it out of the hands of legislators. “It’s not the fox guarding the henhouse, as it was with legislators in charge,” she said.

When Levinson first enrolled at Loyola, she envisioned law as a natural pathway into politics. “I thought that if I wanted to go into politics, what more important education is there than knowing how to write the laws and what’s permissible?” she said. The CGS offered her an internship after her first year, but she instead accepted an offer to be a research assistant for Professor Allan Ides, holder of the Christopher N. May Chair. She followed that with a summer associate position at Winston & Strawn LLP.

Levinson received her BA in English with a minor in economics magna cum laude from Loyola Marymount University. As a law student, Levinson was senior articles editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles International & Comparative Law Review, secretary of the International Law Society and an officer in the St. Thomas More Law Honor Society. She also participated in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, helping the elderly and indigent file their taxes.

After graduation, she secured a coveted clerkship with Hon. James V. Selna, U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Later, she accepted a position as a litigation associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where her clients included AIDS Project Los Angeles. She also provided pro bono representation to homebuyers in a case against subprime mortgage lenders.

In 2009, Levinson returned to Loyola to teach the Campaign Finance Seminar and Money, Politics and the Supreme Court. She points to Ides as a major inspiration. “I had him for Civil Procedure; he was my second class on my first day of law school. I was just wowed by his knowledge, expertise and manner in the classroom,” she said. “He really showed me how you could use a law degree in so many important and interesting ways.”