Bird Marella associate Julian Burns was honored last night at the Western Center on Law & Poverty‘s “Fair Shake” fundraiser. She was one of two attorneys selected to receive the annual “Fair Shake” award for her work fighting housing discrimination in the Costa Mesa Motor Inn case where she won a permanent writ of mandate blocking a motel owner’s proposed Costa Mesa luxury housing project.
“It’s been a really great honor to work on this case and a rewarding opportunity to support a pro bono organization that does great work every day. This case also exemplifies something really special about the Western Center in particular. The statutes we litigated this case under are statutes that the Western Center actually helped write; and their lobbying arm up in Sacramento helped create substantive rights that we were able to enforce on behalf of our client when the City of Costa Mesa didn’t abide by them. It’s been a privilege working with them.”
Western Center Director of Litigation Stephanie Haffner and Bird Marella Principal Jeremy Matz presented Julian with the award.
Please read more on the Costa Mesa Motor Inn case…
