About Us

How We Work

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Direct Services

Public Counsel provides free direct legal services and support or matches clients with pro bono advocates, ensuring they have a partner standing with them, their families, and our communities as they pursue justice.

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Policy Advocacy

Public Counsel addresses the root causes of inequities in our society by advocating for inclusive policy solutions in collaboration with grassroots coalitions and the communities most impacted by systemic oppression.

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Impact Litigation

Public Counsel files strategic impact litigation so entire communities get the justice they deserve. By setting legal precedents and challenging unjust laws, our cases spark large-scale change in our society.

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Pro Bono Partnerships

Since its inception, Public Counsel has relied upon pro bono attorneys, law students, paralegals, and other legal professionals to partner with us to support clients, take on high-impact cases, and strengthen our advocacy efforts.

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Social Work Integration

Public Counsel values an interdisciplinary approach to law and social work that strengthens trauma-informed legal advocacy and advances effective outcomes across its work. 

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Resource Library

Popular Resources

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Guide

02/17/26

What is the Meeting of Creditors?

Once you file your bankruptcy, a Bankruptcy Trustee will be assigned to your case and a Meeting of Creditors will be scheduled. This guide will provide general information to help...

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FAQsGuide

02/10/26

Know Your Rights as a Child Care Business

This Know Your Rights guide explains California child care providers’ legal authority to control access to their facilities, including who may enter, when recording is prohibited, and how to respond...

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Report

01/28/26

Who Has The Power: Chronicling Los Angeles County’s Systemic Failures to Educate Incarcerated Youth

Los Angeles County officials often dismiss concerns raised by and on behalf of young people, claiming that the education-related issues for detained youth are not systemic. This report seeks to...

Learn More

How We Work

See All

Direct Services

Public Counsel provides free direct legal services and support or matches clients with pro bono advocates, ensuring they have a partner standing with them, their families, and our communities as they pursue justice.

Learn More

Policy Advocacy

Public Counsel addresses the root causes of inequities in our society by advocating for inclusive policy solutions in collaboration with grassroots coalitions and the communities most impacted by systemic oppression.

Learn More

Impact Litigation

Public Counsel files strategic impact litigation so entire communities get the justice they deserve. By setting legal precedents and challenging unjust laws, our cases spark large-scale change in our society.

Learn More

Pro Bono Partnerships

Since its inception, Public Counsel has relied upon pro bono attorneys, law students, paralegals, and other legal professionals to partner with us to support clients, take on high-impact cases, and strengthen our advocacy efforts.

Learn More

Social Work Integration

Public Counsel values an interdisciplinary approach to law and social work that strengthens trauma-informed legal advocacy and advances effective outcomes across its work. 

Learn More

Popular Resources

See All

Guide

02/17/26

What is the Meeting of Creditors?

Once you file your bankruptcy, a Bankruptcy Trustee will be assigned to your case and a Meeting of Creditors will be scheduled. This guide will provide general information to help...

Learn More

FAQsGuide

02/10/26

Know Your Rights as a Child Care Business

This Know Your Rights guide explains California child care providers’ legal authority to control access to their facilities, including who may enter, when recording is prohibited, and how to respond...

Learn More

Report

01/28/26

Who Has The Power: Chronicling Los Angeles County’s Systemic Failures to Educate Incarcerated Youth

Los Angeles County officials often dismiss concerns raised by and on behalf of young people, claiming that the education-related issues for detained youth are not systemic. This report seeks to...

Learn More

Immigrants' Rights

08/05/22

Introducing Our New Directing Attorney of the Immigrants’ Rights Project

Gina Amato Lough

Public Counsel elevates one of its senior attorneys to the leadership role.

We are thrilled to announce the selection of Gina Amato Lough as Public Counsel’s new Directing Attorney of our Immigrants’ Rights Project. Gina is a leader in the immigrants’ rights community, and has been a leader within Public Counsel for many years, bringing tremendous experience, dedication, and passion to this new leadership role.

Gina joined Public Counsel as a Staff Attorney in 2008 and became the Supervising Attorney for the Immigrants’ Rights Project’s Survivor Team approximately four years ago. The Survivor Team provides holistic services to immigrant survivors from a trauma-informed, client-centered perspective. In addition, Gina has engaged in widespread policy advocacy to protect the rights of immigrant survivors, and has worked in partnership with governmental and non-profit organizations to launch a campaign to combat notario fraud – a type of legal services fraud that is devastating to immigrant communities.

For the past six years, Gina has served as an adjunct professor and supervising attorney at the Loyola Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic. Prior to joining Public Counsel, Gina represented tenants in eviction matters and plaintiffs in civil rights, human rights, and employment lawsuits. She was also an associate director of admissions at UC Berkeley Law, where she worked to create more equitable and inclusive admissions policies and practices.

Gina holds her daughter while speaking at a press conference in 2018 to demand an end to the federal government’s inhumane family seperation policy.

As the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, Gina’s work is deeply personal to her, and she demonstrates an enduring commitment to uplifting the rights of immigrants, mentoring the next generation of public interest attorneys, and building more sustainability in the practice of humanitarian immigration law. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a dual Juris Doctor and Master’s Degree in Public Policy.

Gina will begin her new role on September 6, leading a 30-member team of attorneys, paralegals, administrative staff, and social workers who serve asylum seekers, immigrants in detention, survivors of violent crime, and unaccompanied children. Please join me in congratulating Gina on this well-deserved promotion. 

Congratulations, Gina! If you would like to support the Immigrants’ Rights Project’s work, click here to volunteer or consider donating to Public Counsel.

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