LOS ANGELES, CA (November 12, 2019) – Hollywood producer and Valhalla Entertainment CEO, Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, The Terminator, Aliens), announces that she is funding a public service legal Fellowship for the California-based nonprofit, Legal Aid at Work.
The Hurd Fellowship, which will fund five fellows over the next ten years, will be available to new attorneys who have just completed law school or a judicial clerkship. It will provide them with a special opportunity to advocate for the civil rights of low income women and girls, both on the job and in the larger community. The Hurd Fellows will represent disadvantaged women who are the victims of sexual harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and sex discrimination on the job as part of the broader #MeToo movement. They will also assert the Title IX rights of girls from low income families of color to obtain equal access to athletic opportunities in public schools and parks-and-recreation programs.
“Gale has been an inspiration to us all in shattering barriers and records in the male-dominated entertainment industry while mentoring many talented women along the way,” says Legal Aid at Work President, Joan Graff. “We are honored by her generous donation, and thrilled to be partnering with her to fight for justice for low-wage working women and girls.”
“Legal Aid at Work is at the forefront of fighting for the rights of girls and women, and others who have suffered from workplace injustices,” states Hurd. “I am honored to support them in their important mission.”
Nora Cassidy, a graduate of The University of California, Irvine School of Law, has been selected as the inaugural Fellow. Growing up in Modesto, Cassidy became intimately familiar with the abuses suffered by working class women in the Central Valley at an early age. Throughout college and law school, she carried with her a singular purpose of securing justice on the job for women at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
Cassidy recently clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, who sits on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. Prior to that, she completed a clerkship with federal Magistrate Judge Bruce McGiverin in Puerto Rico, which began just days before the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Instead of returning to the mainland after the hurricane hit, she stayed, becoming indispensable to the Judge during her year there, and participating in humanitarian relief efforts in her free time. Cassidy has also interned with the ACLU, The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). She will begin her Fellowship with Legal Aid at Work on November 12, 2019.
“I am humbled to be selected as the inaugural Fellow and to begin my career as a workers’ rights attorney with such a well-regarded and effective organization,” said Cassidy. “I would also like to express my admiration and gratitude to Gale Anne Hurd for funding this important work and for being such an outspoken voice in the #MeToo movement.”
About Legal Aid at Work:
Legal Aid at Work protects and expands the workplace and related rights of low-wage workers, their families, and communities, using legal representation, education, and policy advocacy to defend, advance, clarify, and explain applicable laws. It is the oldest legal aid organization in the West, having served low-income Californians continuously since 1916.
Each year, Legal Aid at Work directly assists more than 3,000 clients through its seven core program areas: (1) Gender Equity & LGBT Rights; (2) Work & Family; (3) Disability Rights (4) Racial Economic Justice; (5) National Origin and Immigrants’ Rights; (6) Wage Protection, and (7) Community Legal Services. Legal Aid at Work is a close partner of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which provides essential funding to support many of Legal Aid at Work’s sex harassment cases.
Website: https://legalaidatwork.org/
Twitter: @LegalAidAtWork (https://twitter.com/LegalAidAtWork)
Facebook: @LegalAidatWork (https://www.facebook.com/LegalAidatWork/)
About Gale Anne Hurd and Valhalla Entertainment:
Valhalla Entertainment’s CEO, Gale Anne Hurd, is one of the entertainment industry’s most respected film and television producers. In 1984, after working in various capacities for legendary producer Roger Corman, Hurd produced and co-wrote her first feature film, The Terminator. This success was quickly followed by Aliens, which received seven nominations and two Academy Awards®, and the Academy Award®-winning films The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Ghost and the Darkness. Some of her additional credits include Armageddon, The Incredible Hulk, The Waterdance, which won Sundance’s Audience and Screenplay Awards, and MANKILLER, the award-winning Native American PBS documentary.
Hurd also serves as an Executive Producer on the hit drama, The Walking Dead, and the show’s companion series, Fear the Walking Dead. She is also a Consulting Producer of AMC’s top-rated talk show, Talking Dead. The third ‘Walking Dead’ series is currently in production with Hurd as an Executive Producer, and will premiere on AMC in Spring 2020. Three ‘Walking Dead’ feature films were also announced and will premiere theatrically via Universal Pictures, with Hurd serving as a Producer.
Website: https://www.valhallamotionpictures.com/
Twitter: @ValhallaPics (https://twitter.com/valhallapics),
@GunnerGale (https://twitter.com/GunnerGale)
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Press Contact:
Kyle Duvall
Communications, Valhalla Entertainment
(323) 850-3034
PR@valhallaent.com