Law professor emeritus Gary Blasi is one of four winners of the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award in the public interest category. He was part of a team of lawyers who won the first significant reform in decades of Los Angeles County’s General Relief program, which provides assistance to more than 100,000 homeless and indigent people.
The CLAY award recognizes an attorney’s work of significant impact from the previous year across 17 fields of practice. He has received numerous awards for distinction in the field of public interest law and for providing legal services to the poor. In 2007, he was named one of the top 100 lawyers in California, cited as the “go-to lawyer for community groups in need of advice.”
Upon joining UCLA Law’s faculty in 1991, he helped found the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. He specializes in advocacy for children in substandard schools, homeless families and individuals, low income tenants, low wage workers and victims of discrimination.