Karin Alm

I am currently employed as the bilingual Sargent Shriver Assisted Self-Help attorney at the Justice and Diversity Center (JDC). I work out of the ACCESS center on custody and visitation cases and in my role, I prepare a variety of pleadings related to custody. I love my current job both because I am able to assist a high volume of unrepresented litigants and because I am able to work with truly outstanding attorneys and staff at the JDC and the ACCESS center. I have experience conducting a wide variety of family law and domestic violence seminars including the 40-hour domestic violence training. I also assisted with the 2020 California Family Law Basics course at the Practising Law Institute, where I was a speaker on Child Custody and Visitation Procedure. Two years ago, I moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, where I worked as a supervising attorney and program manager of a domestic violence program at the Institute for Multicultural Counseling and Education Services (IMCES), a non-profit in Los Angeles. Along with a caseload of 15-30 clients, I was also responsible for an eleven-person interdisciplinary team of attorneys, licensed therapists and case managers, who carried a combined caseload of approximately 100 survivors of domestic violence. Prior to joining IMCES, I worked on domestic violence cases at a private family law firm in Santa Monica. I enjoy working in a diverse workplace and with diverse clients. For the past fifteen years, I have been committed to public interest work both in the United States and abroad. I have worked in Guatemala with at-risk youth, which has enabled me to learn Spanish. I believe that this experience has allowed me to build rapport with monolingual Spanish speakers. I have also worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. Domestically, I have worked with underserved populations for the majority of my career and this work continues to inspire me to be a better and more humble person.