CLARE PASTORE

A victory in criminal justice reform

Professor Clare Pastore and Access to Justice Practicum play key role in California lawsuit ruling

Professor Clare Pastore was co-counsel on the lawsuit forcing the DMV to stop suspending licenses of drivers who fail to appear in court. Andrés Cantero was one of the Gould students who worked on the the lawsuit filing. By Leslie Ridgeway When the California Court of Appeal ruled in June that the state Department of Motor Vehicles had been improperly suspending licenses of drivers who fail to appear in court, the USC Gould School of Law’s Access to Justice Practicum was among California legal aid and civic rights groups celebrating a victory in criminal justice reform.

Professor Clare Pastore, who teaches the practicum, was co-counsel on Hernandez v. DMV along with attorneys from the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Bay Area Legal Aid and the ACLU of Northern California. For five years, more than a dozen Gould students contributed their time to Hernandez and similar cases, doing data collection, research, observation in traffic court and interviewing potential plaintiffs.

“It’s been really good for the students to learn what it’s like to be a small part of a big team working on systemic reform projects that go on for years, with talented advocates from around the state and advocacy in many fora,” Pastore says.

The Hernandez decision hinges on the DMV’s practice of suspending licenses for a “willful” failure to appear in court. Despite the limitation in the law regarding “willful” failures, the DMV suspended licenses of tens of thousands of drivers who missed the date due to factors beyond their control, such as the notice being mailed to the wrong address, or transportation or work issues, Pastore says. Losing a driver’s license often snowballs into loss of employment, child care, education and housing.

Access to Justice Practicum alum Sierra Villaran (JD 2015), a deputy public defender in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, conducted research, wrote briefs, went to traffic court, and sought out possible plaintiffs whose cases helped demonstrate the burden of a suspended driver’s license.

“You don’t get many opportunities [in law school] to sit down with real people and ask how [the case] affects them on a daily basis,” she says.

Andrés Cantero (JD 2016) worked on drafts accompanying the initial filing of the suit, as well as data collection. As an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in corporate real estate, the lessons he learned from Hernandez instilled a commitment to pro bono work and community advocacy for marginalized populations.

“A structure is in place that people may not connect with the components that perpetuate racial inequality,” he says. “This [traffic court] system disparately impacted people of color, and it was nice to try to affect that structure and make a difference in my community.”