Members of three UCLA School of Law clinics are part of a coalition including people who are incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails, lawyers and activists that has sued the county and county sheriff’s department seeking the release of medically vulnerable people and the implementation of heightened health and safety standards in jails during the coronavirus pandemic.

Professor Sameer Ashar, UCLA School of Law’s vice dean of experiential education, has been honored with the inaugural Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award from the Association of American Law Schools’ clinical section.

The award is presented to “scholars and teachers who have dedicated their careers to clinical and experiential teaching, whose written body of work evinces a concern for justice and a commitment to healing the world, and whose body of work emanates from [their] clinical commitments.” Ashar will be celebrated during an online ceremony on May 27.