May 24, 2013

Impact Fund celebrates 20 years of legal support for civil rights

The Impact Fund, a Berkeley-based organization that provides funding and legal support for civil rights, environmental justice and poverty-related litigation, saluted its founder, Brad Seligman, and several other honorees at its 20th anniversary gala on May 16. Seligman, who donated $1.25 million to start the fund in 1993, was recognized for his leadership, generosity and recent appointment to the Alameda County Superior Court. The organization also hailed Shauna Marshall's upcoming retirement from UC Hastings College of the Law, where she was academic dean, and recognized her for being a founding member of the fund's advisory board. Columbia Legal Services received recognition for its successful lawsuit on behalf of immigrant residents of a mobile home park who were victims of illegal rent increases. The crowd erupted into applause and tears when advocacy director John Midgley revealed that the fund had just heard community worker Anastacia Sanchez speak English for the first time in public. Sanchez speaks Spanish and Mixteco, an indigenous language from Mexico, and primarily works with communities that only speak that language, helping them understand their rights. - Joshua Sebold