Dudovitz Finds “Work for the People” Is Fine

Dudovitz Finds ‘Work for the People’ Is Fine By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter At the time it seemed like an omen, said Neal Dudovitz, of the Northridge earthquake that nearly destroyed his Pacoima office in January 1994. In the end, the damage was slight and the office was back in working order within days. But he had a challenge ahead of him. “I couldn’t really worry about it. We had to go out into the community and make sure people that needed help got it,” said Dudovitz, executive director of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. Dudovitz wasn’t just writing court motions or filing briefs on behalf of his mostly immigrant clients. He was out in the streets, doing what he called “work for the people.” “I’d only been there six months when, boom, the quake hit and it changed everything,” he recalled. Neighborhood Legal Services became a focal point for the Valley’s recovery efforts as its staff scrambled to find shelter, food and clothing for many who had lost their homes to the quake. It didn’t matter to Dudovitz that his legal skills were not needed as much as his leadership and expertise in reaching the right people to provide help to residents and businesses. This was right where Dudovitz wanted to be. “Working in the community was something that was probably instilled in me by my parents, and that was part of what people were expected to do back then,” said Dudovitz, who grew up in the middle of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. “My goal was to go to law school, become a public interest lawyer and work with the community,” he said. Veteran Woodland Hills-based attorney Lyle Greenberg said Dudovitz’ dedication to the community is unique among attorneys. “His focus is clearly not on his personal and financial status,” Dudovitz said. “He sees it as his responsibility to the community to provide legal services to those who can’t afford it.” After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1973, Dudovitz joined the advocacy group National Senior Citizens Law Center in Michigan. Two years later, Dudovitz headed to Los Angeles to lead that group’s efforts here. He spent 17 years filing briefs and litigating on behalf of senior citizens before he decided it was time for a change. “After spending my time writing briefs and arguing in court, I found a program where you could work in different forms to protect people’s rights,” he said of Neighborhood Legal Services. Upon his arrival, Dudovitz found an office with plenty of work to do, but few resources. With a $2.2 million budget, mostly federal grants, the organization was at the mercy of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who could and occasionally did cut funding with little notice. So, Dudovitz began developing new programs with funding from a more diverse range of private-sector and non-profit institutions. Today the organization’s budget is closer to $7.5 million. But the real catalyst was the 1994 Northridge quake, which proved to Dudovitz that the organization could do a lot more than just provide legal aid. In the earthquake’s wake, he founded the Health Consumer Center, helping the disadvantaged obtain health care, and the Self-Help Legal Access Centers, a partnership with Los Angeles Superior Court and the San Fernando Valley Bar Association to assist low-income residents who need legal assistance. Other programs include the Domestic Violence Clinics to provide legal assistance to domestic abuse victims, and more recently, the VIDA program, to help primarily low-income Latinos get health care. “When I started in 1993, there were 10 or 12 lawyers. Now we have 30, but by the end of the year we hope to have 40,” Dudovitz said. Lee Alpert, a partner in the law firm of Alpert & Barr in Encino, said Dudovitz is well suited to lead the organization. “He’s a unique guy because he’s a community activist, a non-profit guy, a businessman and a lawyer all rolled into one,” he said. “He constantly thinks out of the box and always tries to figure out ways to solve problems and always manages to do something positive.” Five years ago he received a call from a resident of Astoria Gardens, a crime-ridden, dilapidated apartment complex in Sylmar. “They were having all kinds of problems getting the landlord to fix things, and it was a terrible situation for those families,” Dudovitz said. Gangs roamed the complex, often breaking into dwellings and terrorizing families and their children, said Pablo Partida, a longtime resident there. Dudovitz and his staff came up with a solution. They helped residents create a non-profit corporation to acquire the complex and turn it into a co-op with tenants sharing ownership. With a volunteer board that manages the rents and finances of the complex, Astoria Gardens was cleaned up, repaired and made secure. “It’s really a great success story,” said Dudovitz, who credited his staff and Astoria Gardens residents for making the project possible. But most projects involve just one family, such as the time Dong Guo and his wife Yu Zhou discovered their month-old daughter Esther needed surgery and had no insurance to cover the costs. The family was unable to get any help from county or state agencies until Neighborhood Legal Services became involved. “Our staff contacted all the appropriate agencies and worked with them to get them assistance,” Dudovitz said. “It took a lot of doing but we got them help.” Other times, the agency must sue public agencies to aid the needy, such as the 2000 case involving Gina Mosley, who was denied help from CalWorks, the state welfare-to-work program. “She needed money to repair her car so she could go to work and it was denied, so we just helped to get the county to do what they’re supposed to do,” Dudovitz said. Last year, Mosley received the $1,700 she requested to fix her car and is now a medical assistant at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, he said. “But we mostly try to make changes and improve the quality of life in the community in ways other than through the court system,” he said.