GAAP currently operates with one full time paid staff person and one part time attorney, as well as the support of more than 50 volunteers from the community and nine Bay Area colleges and law schools, including two Bonner Leader/AmeriCorps placements from St. Mary’s College of California.

Whitney Huston

President

Whitney Huston is an associate attorney with The Sturdevant Law Firm. She represents clients in consumer protection and discrimination matters. She has experience representing plaintiffs in disputes involving unfair and unlawful business practices, fraud and discrimination. Prior to joining The Sturdevant Law Firm, Ms. Huston litigated fair housing and predatory lending cases at the Fair Housing Law Project. Ms. Huston received her B.A. from Vassar College in 1998 and her J.D. degree from UC Hastings College of the Law in 2004.

Sarah Beard

Treasurer

Sarah Beard is a 2005 graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law. She volunteered with GAAP as a 1L, and in her second year at Hastings served as a Student Co-President. Since graduating from Hastings, Ms. Beard has practiced plaintiff-side employment law with Siegel & LeWitter, a labor and employment firm in Oakland, California. In addition to serving as Treasurer on GAAP's Board of Directors, Ms. Beard also volunteers as a supervising attorney with the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center's Workers Rights Clinic.

Leah Spero

Secretary

Leah Spero is a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Previously, she was a litigation and employment law associate at Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe. Ms. Spero also served as a legal intern with Clifford Chance, the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and the Honorable Janice Rogers Brown at the California Supreme Court. She attended UC Hastings College of the Law for law school and Duke University as an undergraduate.

Richard Boswell

Professor at Law

Professor Boswell has been teaching law at UC Hastings College of the Law since 1990. He received his B.A. in Urban Economics from Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and his J.D. from the George Washington University National Law Center. He was in private practice and later joined the faculty of the George Washington University National Law Center where he directed the Trial Practice Program and Immigration Law Clinic and taught immigration law. Working his way west, he joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1986. Professor Boswell is a frequent lecturer on immigration law and has taught regularly in programs for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy since 1986. He was most recently the co-editor-in-chief of the Clinical Law Review which is a joint publication of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), the New York University Law School and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). In addition to his work in clinical legal education, Professor Boswell has been involved in rule of law/justice projects in Central Asia, Columbia, Guatemala, Palestine and Venezuela. He currently teaches immigration law, and directs the Immigrants' Rights Clinic.

Bob Capistrano

Bob Capistrano is a dedicated and long standing gaap board member who has served on its board for more than 20 years. He is currently the litigation director at bay area legal aid.

James Conger

James Conger graduated from Duke University in 1998 with a B.A. in History, and earned his Juris Doctorate from UC Hastings College of the Law in 2004. Mr. Conger volunteered at GAAP during the three years he was at law school. Since then, Mr. Conger has worked for the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, representing indigent clients in criminal defense matters. Mr. Conger owns all four Lethal Weapon movies and once ate a fried grasshopper.

Helen Doherty

Ms. Doherty serves as a community volunteer at GAAP and has been on GAAP’s board for four years. Her forcus at GAAP is to lend a helping hand and help empower the unemployed, the homeless and the less fortunate, in the struggles they endure on a daily basis. Ms. Doherty was a former owner of a corporate headhunting firm specializing in Asian Banking. She has resided in San Francisco for over twenty years.

Cathy Mosbrucker

Cathy Mosbrucker is a UC Hastings College of the Law alumna. She has served on the GAAP Board since 1985. She is a partner in the law firm of Mosbrucker and Foran where she specializes in landlord-tenant law. Ms. Mosbrucker also volunteers for the Homeless Advocacy Project, the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the San Francisco Bar Association and the Aids Legal Referral Panel. She serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the San Francisco Superior Court and as a Homeless Shelter Arbitrator for the San Francisco Department of Human Services. She was appointed as a San Francisco Residential Rent Board Commissioner in 2003.

Aaron Rappaport

Aaron Rappaport currently teaches criminal law and related courses at UC Hastings College of the Law. He attended Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in engineering, and Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Law & Policy Review. After graduating from law school, Professor Rappaport held several positions within the federal government, ultimately working in each of its branches. He first clerked for the Honorable Stephen Breyer, then Chief Judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Entering the political fray, he served for three years as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, and then, during the budget battle of 1996, joined the Clinton Administration to serve as an Assistant Director of the National Economic Council. From 1996 to 1998, Professor Rappaport was a member of the General Counsel's staff of the Federal Communications Commission, where he represented the FCC in litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals. In addition to his government work, Professor Rappaport has been co-editor of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, a criminal sentencing journal, since 1996.

Christina Terplan

Christina Terplan is a 2003 graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law and an associate attorney with Clyde & Company. She first became involved with GAAP when she began volunteering during her first year at law school, and subsequently served as a student co-president during her second and third years at Hastings.

Craig Tiballi

Craig Tiballi graduated from Brown University in 1998 with a B.S. in Geology-Biology and earned his M.S. degree in Geology from the University of London in 2001. Mr. Tiballi has been practicing environmental geology in the Bay Area for the past 9 years and currently works as a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Technical Assistance and Response Team (START) for Region 9.

Joseph Urbanski

Joseph Urbanski is a graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law and Stanford University. He volunteered with GAAP for two years in law school, worked as a member of Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation, and was part of the Hastings Civil Justice Clinic. Mr. Urbanski now works as an associate at Bradshaw & Associates, a San Francisco-based law firm specializing in real estate litigation, business litigation, and landlord-tenant disputes.

Joanne Yee

Ms. Yee volunteers full time at GAAP as a community volunteer. She has been a GAAP board member for three years. Ms. Yee is also on the board of directors at the Northeast Community Federal Credit Union.

Join us at GAAP’s annual raffle at the Temple Bar & Bistro in April 2010. There will be hundreds of great prizes, including tickets to sporting events, gift certificates to local restaurants and other surprise items.

Raffle tickets are only $1 each and help support GAAP’s mission. Because the average cost of helping each one of our clients is $4, purchasing just four tickets means one additional GAAP client receives supportive services and advocacy. Contact Bill Hart to purchase tickets or donate prizes.