Invitation Only
10:00-11:30am (First Session) Identifying and Corroborating Successful Gender-Related Asylum Claims
12:00-1:00pm (Second Session) Eliminating Bias in the Representation of Vulnerable Clients

The program will be conducted by an attorney with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies-California (CGRS-CA) of UC Hastings. (http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/)

Session 1: 10:00-11:30am (1.5 hours MCLE credit)
Identifying and Corroborating Successful Gender-Related Asylum Claims

This advanced asylum training will be directed at staff attorneys and volunteer attorneys who are already familiar with asylum law and will focus on nuanced ways of litigating complex gender-based asylum applications, especially those related to domestic violence. Specifically, it will address:
· Crafting successful particular social groups and developing the record after M-E-V-G-, W-G-R-, and A-R-C-G-
· Crafting successful political opinions that are not explicitly related to politics, such as opposition to domestic violence, social gender norms, and social oppression.
· The intersection of membership in a particular social group and political opinion.
· The nexus element as underdeveloped in recent case law
· Developing the record to establish the inability or unwillingness of the state to provide protection from persecution
· Identifying when a family member who is not an intimate partner may qualify as a persecutor
· Addressing previously denied cases after A-R-C-G-
· Other common issues in DV cases

Session 2: 12:00-1:00pm (1.0 MCLE credit, including 1.0 hours of Elimination of Bias credit)
Eliminating Bias in the Representation of Vulnerable Clients

This practical training is for all individuals who are assisting in the representation of vulnerable clients, including victims of domestic violence and children. Specifically, it will address:
· Emphasizing the challenges in working with vulnerable clients in a cross-cultural context
· Identifying common indicators of trauma and special needs of vulnerable clients from differing cultural, socio-economic and educational backgrounds
· Interviewing vulnerable clients regarding harm suffered to maximize information shared, while minimizing re-traumatization