Cooper, Harvey B.

Menaka Fernando joined the firm as an associate in July 2011. Her practice is in the area of employment and civil rights litigation, including excessive force and discrimination based on disability, race, and sexual orientation, among other protected classes. Ms. Fernando also has experience in the firm’s international human rights practice. Prior to joining SDSHHH, Ms. Fernando practiced environmental law at the environmental justice non-profit organization The City Project in downtown Los Angeles.

Ms. Fernando received her Juris Doctorate from UC Hastings College of the Law with a concentration in International Law in 2010, and her bachelor's degree from UCLA in 2005, At UC Hastings, Ms. Fernando was an editor of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and coordinated a symposium on "Health As A Human Right." Ms. Fernando also interned at the Los Angeles and San Francisco Public Defender's Offices, worked at the Hastings Refugee Human Rights Clinic and volunteered at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.

Prior to law school, Ms. Fernando worked as a paralegal at SDSHHH after spending some time working in Sri Lanka at a grassroots peace and justice non-governmental organization.