Len Aslanian
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1L Miami Scholar Leonard Aslanian will return to his adopted home state of California during the summer of 2009 to intern at the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA). HALSA, the only program of its kind in Los Angeles, provides general legal services in such areas as employment, housing, and healthcare rights for individuals living with HIV and AIDS.

A provider of last resort for a population burdened with an abnormally high poverty rate, HALSA will provide Len with the opportunity to work on a range of issues through their discrimination project, which addresses a range of issues from providing legal education on HIV confidentiality and disability law, to bringing legal actions on behalf of individuals who have experienced unfair discrimination. As a small though energetic organization, Len is confident that HALSA will offer him challenging and meaningful opportunities for direct interaction with the legal services department as well as the local community. Len’s advice for his fellow law students, “I definitely had to hustle for this position, sending out a ton of resumes and constantly following up for two months. But getting an out-of-state 1L public interest internship is entirely feasible.”