Legal Link Staff

Lauren Lofton (they/them)
Senior Staff Attorney

Lauren Lofton is a Senior Staff Attorney at Legal Link. Lauren has dedicated their career to social justice nonprofits, and higher education. Lauren specializes in competency/wellness, and implicit bias in the legal profession. Lauren has trained advocates, community organizers, court staff, judges, lawyers, and social workers nationally on providing intersectional and impactful services. Lauren is the primary author of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Racial Justice Toolkit for Civil Legal Aid. They are a recipient of the National Association of Law School Professionals DEI award. They were named by the LGBT Bar Association as a “top 40 under the age of 40 lawyer.” Lauren received their J.D. and their B.A. in psychology, sociology and human development from University of California, Davis. They are a Black (biracial/mixed), out and proud LGBT+, non-binary person and member of the State Bar of California.

Wendy Lopez (she/her/ella)
Program Manager

Wendy Lopez is the Program Manager at Legal Link. Prior to Legal Link, Wendy spent four years working with vulnerable populations in the Bay Area. Wendy was a fellow at Immigrants Rising and a Client Advocate at the Justice & Diversity Center. Additionally, she worked as a Case Manager at Compass Family Services, one of Legal Link’s long-time partners, where she went through Legal Link’s 2018 Legal First Aid Training Program. Wendy is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied Media Studies and Human Rights. Wendy is interested in attending Law School and becoming an attorney providing holistic services.

Kate Crowley Richardson (she/her)
Co-Executive Director

Kate Crowley Richardson is the Co-Executive Director of Legal Link. Kate is the former Legal Director at Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that provides holistic, wraparound services to homeless and low-income veterans. She previously worked at Namati, the leading global legal empowerment organization. Prior to law school, Kate spent three years working as an advocate for medical and mental health care for people incarcerated in California state prisons. She has dedicated her legal career to supporting innovative models that work to close the access to justice gap for communities experiencing poverty. Kate received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the State Bar of California.

Sacha Steinberger (she/her)
Founder + Co-Executive Director

Sacha Steinberger is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of Legal Link. Prior to Legal Link, Sacha litigated worker’s rights and civil rights cases for seven years at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C. in Oakland, and clerked for Federal District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins. Prior to law school, Sacha spent four years doing community, labor, and electoral organizing, and uses her community organizing background to employ the law as a tool to help clients move out of poverty. Sacha received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and her B.A. from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She is a member of the State Bar of California.

Legal Interns

Anna Holt (she/her)
Legal Intern

Anna Holt currently attends UC Davis School of Law, where she is focused on access to justice solutions in both criminal and civil contexts. She is particularly interested in the intersection between housing insecurity and access to justice, as well as the intersection between the criminal and civil legal spheres. Anna worked as an extern to the Honorable Judge Allison Williams in the summer of 2022, and as a legal intern at the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office throughout 2023. Prior to law school, Anna spent three years working as a City Coordinator for Greenpeace in Seattle, WA, where she managed campaigns centered around environmental justice. Anna received her B.A. in Sociology from Colorado College and will complete her J.D. in the spring of 2024.

Kevin Navi (he/him)
Legal Intern

Kevin Navi is a second-year law student at UC Berkeley School of Law. Kevin is originally from Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Economics. Before law school, Kevin co-founded Her Lawyer, an online service that connects women with attorneys. Kevin aims to work as an attorney for mission-driven startups, and he is passionate about exploring innovative ways to deliver legal services.

Board of Directors

Desiree Almendral, Board Chair
Meta, Lead Commercial Counsel

Desiree Almendral is Lead Commercial Counsel, Ads at Meta. She was previously Senior Commercial Counsel at Yohana, Corporate Counsel at Google, LLC, in-house counsel at Mozilla Corporation, and an associate at Greenberg Traurig LLP. Desiree grew up and raised her daughter in San Francisco’s Mission District where, before attending law school, she worked for nonprofits, including Instituto Familiar de la Raza and Jamestown Community Center. She served on the Jamestown Community Center board from 2008 – 2016. She received her law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley after attending City College of San Francisco.

John Beem
Consultant

John Beem was the Chief Financial Officer of Swords to Plowshares from 2005 to 2018. Retired now, John consults for non-profits in the areas of finance and governance. After studying Economics and Business at Macalester College, John worked for 15 years for a commercial business systems company. In 1990, he returned to school and received a Master’s Degree in Social/Clinical Psychology from New College of California. It was through that course of study and the practical applications of it that he began working with social service non-profits. He eventually moved from direct services to administration. John and his wife, Laurie, have lived in San Francisco for the last 35 years.

The Honorable Charles S. Crompton
San Francisco County Superior Court

Judge Charles Crompton sits on the San Francisco Superior Court, where he handles the Behavioral Health and Mental Health Diversion programs. He was appointed by former Governor Jerry Brown on December 12, 2014. Judge Crompton earned a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Hon. Jane R. Roth of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. He then practiced intellectual property and antitrust litigation for 25 years, first at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, then at Latham & Watkins. Judge Crompton left private practice in 2013 to establish and run a free legal clinic for underserved clients at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, a job he held until his appointment to the bench. He continues to serve on the Board of the GLIDE Legacy Fund. From 2009-2014, Judge Crompton served on the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area. In 2011-12, he served on the Pro Bono Task Force of the Legal Service Corporation, an independent nonprofit established by Congress to provide financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans. Currently, he serves on LSC’s Housing Task Force. He was awarded the State Bar of California’s President’s Pro Bono Service Award in 2014.

Shashi Deb
Adjunct Faculty Member, UC College of the Law, San Francisco

Shashi Deb is an adjunct faculty member at UC College of the Law, San Francisco, where she teaches Legal Writing and Research, Moot Court and Critical Studies. Prior to teaching, Shashi practiced intellectual property litigation at Cooley Godward and McCutchen Doyle (now Morgan Lewis) in their Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices. Shashi received her J.D. from UC College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of the Law) in 1994 and her B.A. in Political Economy from UC Berkeley in 1991. Aside from her interest in legal education, Shashi is passionate about supporting access to higher education, building resources for mental health care, and reducing poverty in the Bay Area Area. She serves on the boards of the UC Berkeley Foundation, Tipping Point Community and Project Heal.

Margaret Hagan
Stanford Institute of Design, Director of the Legal Design Lab and Lecturer

Margaret Hagan is the Executive Director of the Legal Design Lab at Stanford University, as well as lecturer at the Law School and d.school. She is a lawyer, and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a DPhil from Queen’s University Belfast, an MA from Central European University, and an AB from University of Chicago. She specializes in the application of human-centered design to the legal system, including the development of new public interest technology, legal visuals, and policy design. Her research and teaching focuses on the development and evaluation of new interventions to make the legal system more accessible. Her blog is Open Law Lab.

Advisory Board

Sandra Ambrozy
Urban Institute / The Full Frame Initiative

Malea Chavez
Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Delia Cleveland
Formerly with City College of San Francisco

Salena Copeland
Legal Aid Association of California

Barbara Mitchell
Formerly of Community Legal Services and Counseling Center

Kiran Sidhu
Golden 1 Credit Union

Evonne Silva
Code for America

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