UCLA Law receives $2.2 million gift to sustain clinical work in Native communities
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians awarded a $2.2 million grant to support the work of the UCLA School of Law’s Tribal Legal Development Clinic, allowing its students to work directly with tribal leaders, officers and attorneys to provide direct services to tribes.
The grant — presented in a donation ceremony at UCLA on Monday, Oct. 14 — will bolster the law school’s efforts to improve the lives of Native people throughout California and the U.S., officials said in a news release.
It funds full-time clinical work, including various positions and program expenses, for five years. It will also fuel UCLA Law’s research to empower tribal communities, and help produce practitioners who work or are training in Indian law, or whose work intersects with issues involving tribal sovereignty, the release said.
“Our tribe is honored to continue our longstanding partnership with the UCLA School of Law in advancing tribal sovereignty for all Native American communities,” said San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena in the release. “The students of the Tribal Legal Development Clinic have been, and will remain, vital advocates for the rights and sovereignty of tribes and Native communities.”
Mica Llerandi, who has served as director of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Tribal Legal Development Clinic since 2023, helps lead the program to foster future tribal lawyers. Their clinical work supports tribal sovereignty, needed legal development services and infrastructure, officials said.
One example is the students’ collaboration with the Yurok Tribe to develop “Tribal Broadband,” a publication that helps provide resources for deploying broadband service to disproportionately under-connected tribes.
The San Manuel tribe — who are based on the San Manuel Indian Reservation, near Highland — have made past contributions to UCLA Law.
Professor Angela R. Riley — special advisor to UCLA’s chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs, and director of the law school’s Native Nations Law and Policy Center — said the ongoing partnership enables UCLA Law to become “one of the nation’s leading legal institutions in training future lawyers.”
“Our students will have even more opportunities to work diligently on behalf of Indian Country to advance tribal sovereignty and secure a promising future for Indigenous rights.”