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Pro Bono Spotlight ~ Lawyers Going the Extra Mile
Kyra Kazantzis
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT
2008 Pro Bono Services Award: Kyra Kazantzis |
 Kyra Kazantzis is the Directing Attorney at the Public
Interest Law Firm (PILF), a program of the Law Foundation of
Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization that provides free
legal services to those in need in Silicon Valley. Ms.
Kazantzis has had a long and distinguished career at the Law
Foundation for the past 16 years. She has been directing
attorney for the Mental Health Advocacy Project (MHAP), Fair
Housing Law Project (FHLP) and the Public Interest Law Firm.
Ms. Kazantzis has had significant influence in her role as a
legal services attorney and her accomplishments as such are
many. Ms. Kazantzis was selected to receive the 2008 Pro
Bono Services Award for her contributions to pro bono work
beyond the daily expectations of her advocacy as a legal
services attorney. Ms. Kazantzis has gone above and beyond
in a number of notable ways: while at MHAP, she was a much
sought-after speaker state-wide on issues of involuntary
mental health commitment, peace officer interaction with
individuals with disabilities, quality of care in
psychiatric institutions and jails, and minors’ rights in
residential care. In her role as FHLP’s first director, she
oversaw the implementation of her brainchild, a
continuum-of-services approach involving a consortium of
fair housing agencies that has become a model nation-wide.
She served on the SCCBA Pro Bono Implementation Committee in
2006, which helped put in place the successful SCCBA Pro
Bono Initiative: Helping Lawyers Help Others. Her
professional activities have included serving on the Board
of Trustees of the Santa Clara County Bar Association
(SCCBA) for four years as well as on the SCCBA’s Education,
Lawyer Referral Service, Professionalism, Executive, and
Legal Services Committees. As the chair of the Legal
Services Committee, she helped launch SCCBA’s very
successful first annual Legal Services Retreat, which brings
together the staff of all free legal services programs in
Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Past recipients of this
award include: Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel; Gary Baum, Palo
Alto City Attorney; and, Fenwick & West.
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