June 10, 2021

YLC welcomes two new team members!

YLC is thrilled to welcome two new team members! Jenny Pokempner joins YLC as our new Policy Director and Marisa Lopez-Scott joins YLC as our new Staff Attorney. Get to know them below!
Jenny Pokempner joined YLC in the spring of 2021 as the Policy Director. In this new role, Jenny will work on child welfare and juvenile justice issues. Prior to joining YLC, Jenny worked at the Juvenile Law Center as a senior attorney and has played a large role in state and national reform work related to older youth in foster care, with areas of focus on: older youth permanency, extended foster care, eliminated group care, and improving educational and employment outcomes and opportunities. Jenny values using legal strategies that are informed by and done in partnership with young people with experience in foster care.
Marisa Lopez-Scott is a staff attorney at YLC. Her work focuses on providing advocacy support for civil legal aid attorneys across California with an emphasis on transforming the lives of youth impacted by the dependency system. Before joining YLC, Marisa was a dependency attorney at Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (a component of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley) representing children ages 0-21 in their child welfare proceedings. Prior to LACY, she was a staff attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid’s Youth Justice Project, representing youth impacted by the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and youth experiencing homelessness through the provision of comprehensive civil legal services.