Honoring Our Volunteers: The 2003 June Black Pro Bono Award Is Awarded to Ophelia H. Zeff
By Vicki Jacobs, VLSP Managing Attorney

The volunteers of the Voluntary Legal Services Program are the heart and soul of our pro bono program. We wish we had more time to recognize the valuable work of the hundreds of volunteers, attorneys, paralegals, student interns, secretaries, interpreters, expert witnesses, investigators and notaries, that make VLSP’s success a reality. Without their assistance, we could not provide free legal services to the thousands of indigent clients we assist each year.

Each year, VLSP recognizes one of our volunteers who has made an extraordinary contribution of time and effort to the low income clients of our program. The June Black Pro Bono Award is named in honor of VLSP’s founding Pro Bono Program Coordinator who spent 17 years developing the provision of free legal services to indigent clients. During her years of service at VLSP, many members of the Sacramento legal community came to know and admire June Black for her commitment to seeking justice for indigent clients.

VLSP is honored to give Ophelia H. (Fifi) Zeff the June Black Pro Bono Award for 2003. Ms. Zeff has been a stalwart VLSP volunteer for the past three years. She can be found twice a month at VLSP’s Thursday night Employment Law Clinic, dispensing advice to VLSP’s clients on a variety of employmentrelated matters. Alysa Meyer, VLSP’s Staff Attorney in charge of the Employment Law Clinic, praises Ms. Zeff’s commitment to the clients and her mentoring relationship with the law students who provide assistance at the Clinic.

Ms. Zeff graduated from the McGeorge School of Law, where she was an editor of the Pacific Law Journal. She also holds a BA from Sacramento State College and worked as a newspaper reporter and in public relations prior to attending law school. Ms. Zeff is of counsel to the firm of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, where she represents public sector clients, including school districts, public utility districts, state agencies and water districts in all areas of labor and employment law. Prior to her present position, Ms. Zeff served for many years as a partner representing public and private sector clients at Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff, Tichy & Mathiason.

Ms. Zeff is very popular with the UC Davis School of Law students who serve as interns at the Employment Law Clinic. The students assist by interviewing the clients and gathering information that is evaluated by the volunteer attorneys, such as Ms. Zeff, at the clinic. “I like watching the students grow and develop and come up with their own ideas,” says Ms. Zeff. The assistance by the students allows VLSP to leverage resources in such a way as to maximize the number of clients who are helped.

At the clinic, Ms. Zeff is known for her ability to get to the bottom line of a client’s situation very quickly. She enjoys the opportunity the Employment Clinic affords her to use her skills and background in employment law. She says that as she is now semi-retired, she has more time to devote to participating in the clinic. Participating in the clinic is also interesting, she says, because she has the opportunity to look at a case from the other side than the management side she represents in her private practice.

VLSP is very grateful to Ms. Zeff for her tireless dedication to serving VLSP’s clients at the Employment Law Clinic and is honored to present her with the 2003 June Black Pro Bono Award.