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Meet the staff of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, working across more than ten program areas to bridge the gap in legal education, research, advice, and advocacy to transition from destructive economic systems to innovative and cooperative solutions.

Looking to connect with us? Try looking below at each staff member's program areas or come to one of our upcoming events.

We're proud to be a worker self-directed nonprofit (a cross between a worker cooperative and a 501c3 nonprofit!) Read more about our structure here. 

The economy is people powered!

Meet the team that is working to create innovative and cooperative solutions to our destructive economic systems. Check out our staff, former staff, interns, board of directors, legal fellows, and supporters below! 

We're proud to be a worker self-directed nonprofit (a cross between a worker cooperative and a 501c3 nonprofit!) Read more about our structure here. 

Click here for board member bios and here for advisory board member bios.

Click here for legal fellow bios.

Click here to read about our supporters.

That's right! We're looking for a Bay Area resident interested in a full-time position (which we define as 30 hours per week), to join our dynamic, democratic, and delightful organization. 

Cooperative economies aren't created in a vacuum, nor do they take root without the participation of broader community involvement. Every year during the month of May, we ask our friends, families, and allies to become monthly contributing members of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and support the cultivation of the legal roots of just and resilient economies.

After our month-long #PeoplePoweredEconomies campaign, the results are in: you rock! We continue to be motivated by a sense of both urgency and opportunity to create people powered economies everywhere, and YOU give us the inspiration and support we need to make that happen. This is what a People Powered SELC looks like:

• Over 150 donors during the month of May
• 50 new Community Members
• Over $20,000 pledged
• Hundreds of dollars raised for our allies Richmond Grows Seed Library (Richmond, CA), Cooperation Jackson (Jackson, MS), and Phat Beets Produce (Oakland, CA)
• Oh yeah, and this…

Contact Ricardo at [email protected]

Ricardo Samir Nuñez is a worker cooperative ecosystem development specialist supporting cultural practices, policies, organizations, and systemic changes that allow communities to build beyond the interlocking systems of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. He is currently the Director of Economic Democracy at the Sustainable Economies Law Center where he co-coordinates educational programs, legal services, policy advocacy, and regional and national ecosystem development to restore human labor to right relationship with people and the planet. He is board president of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and at-large board member at the California Center for Cooperative Development and the Southern California Focus on Cooperation. He is also becoming a lawyer without going to law school through California’s Law Office Study Program (likelincoln.org). Check out Ricardo's Favorite Cooperative Resources here! 

Current Law Center Work (2020)

• A National Legal Landscape to Support Worker Cooperatives (Co-coordinator) 

• Co-opLaw.org (Developer & Coordinator)

• Legal Course for Economic Democracy (Developer & Coordinator)

• California Cooperative Landscape Analysis Report (Researcher & Co-Author)

• Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives’ Conflict Engagement Team (Mediator)

• Worker-Owned Recovery California Coalition (Policy Campaign Support Staff)

• Grassroots Finance (Trainer)

• Repaired Nations - Black Co-op Development (Advisor)

Past Law Center Work (2013 - 2020)

• Resilient Communities Legal Cafe (Director)

• Legal Education Coordinator

• Think Outside the Boss (Facilitator & Coordinator)

• California Worker Cooperative Act, AB 816  (Campaign Co-Coordinator)

• Oakland City Advocacy Campaign Supporting Worker Cooperatives (Campaign Staff)

• Berkeley City Advocacy Campaign Supporting Worker Cooperatives (Campaign Staff)

• Worker Co-op Academy (Facilitator & Coordinator)

• Communications Circle (Co-Coordinator)

• Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit (Workshop Facilitator)

• Conflict Engagement Team

• Bay Area Cooperative Ecosystem Coalition (Coordinator)

• Lots of other stuff. You get the picture. 

Education & Training

Law & Social Change Jam (2019)
Democracy at Work Institute Cooperative Development Fellow (2015)
California State University Long Beach:  BA in Political Science (International Relations) and International Studies (Western Europe), minor in Anthropology (Cultural). 
St. John Bosco High School (Bellflower, CA)

Presentations, Publications, & Interviews

• Cooperators without Borders by Genç İşi Kooperatif (Istanbul, Turkey)  

• THE DIRTIEST WORD (documentary)

• Webinar: Coop Entity Formation for Entrepreneurs

• The Economics of Sustainability by Praxis Peace Institute 

• 'Workplaces are commons': Q&A with Sustainable Economies Law Center's Ricardo Nuñez and Chris Tittle

• Episode 7: The Plague of Worker Expendability with Sabiha Basrai and Ricardo Nuñez from The Plague

• “Co-ops Transforming Rural Communities” Theme Explored at 2018 Montana Cooperative Summit

• The Search for a Business Model – Three Stone Hearth, Co-ops and Holacracy

• Worker-Owner Co-op Model Thrives at Alvarado Street Bakery

• NEW BILL COULD SPUR GROWTH OF WORKER COOPERATIVES IN CALIFORNIA 

• A Legal Overview of Business Ownership for Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts 

• TACKLING THE LAW, TOGETHER: A Legal Guide to Worker Cooperatives Generally and in Massachusetts

• Cooperative Education and Cooperative/Solidarity Economics

Life Before the Law Center

Ricardo is from Long Beach, California, and he doesn't mind if you know it. #StrongBeach! 

Ricardo began working domestically with cooperatives at the Los Angeles Eco-Village with the Los Angeles Worker Ownership Resources and Cooperative Services (LAWORCS) Committee. LAWORCS was an initiative to start a worker cooperative incubator and resource center for the greater L.A. area. Prior to LAWORCS, Ricardo was a Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Case Manager working with low-income families to stop pending evictions and re-house homeless neighbors in southern LA County, primarily in Bellflower and Paramount. 

Prior to his housing work, Ricardo was a Rural Education Development (RED) Specialist in Zambia with the U.S. Peace Corps. Ricardo led efforts in capacity building with 15 rural, up-country schools. His focus as a RED Specialist was teacher training, teacher monitoring, and strengthening administrative management systems. His heart, though, belonged to the two village based Women’s Cooperatives that he supported and helped co-found. Working with the Women's Cooperatives displayed the transformative power of the cooperative model in action. Ricardo also worked in concert with multiple Farmer’s Cooperatives providing training on sustainable farming practices and connections to resources. 

Ricardo was voted Orange County Weekly's 2007 Best Bartender of the Year. 

Other Interesting Tidbits

Ricardo enjoys bodyboarding, cycling, traveling, and the ocean breeze. He is deeply committed to family, friends, and community. 

“Worker cooperatives are my jam.”

Updated July 2020

We want to live in a society where reliable and affordable legal support is available to all those creating the transition to localized, resilient economies.

The primary way that the Sustainable Economies Law Center provides legal advice is through our Resilient Communities Legal Cafe.

The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides direct legal advice, workshops, teach-ins, discussions, and legal services to businesses and organizations that are trying to make their communities a better place to live. Legal advice is provided on a first-come, first-serve basis, so no appointment is necessary. Find our where the next Legal Cafe is and sign up here!

At the Legal Cafes, our staff and volunteers specialize in serving cooperatives, nonprofits, cottage food businesses, social enterprises, urban farms, complimentary currencies, time banks, and small businesses. We provide advice and legal consultations around the following legal areas: 

• Legal formation for small businesses 

• Legal entity choice 

• Employment law 

• Securities law 

• Tax law 

• Contracts 

• Liability issues 

• IP agreements and licensing  

• Environmental Law 

• Food Safety Laws 

Seeking ongoing legal representation?

Due to limited staff capacity, the Sustainable Economies Law Center very rarely provides ongoing legal representation. Nearly all of our past clients have come through the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe first, so why not start there?!  

We are only able to provide low- or no-cost legal advice because of the generous support of people like you! Support our capacity to provide legal services for a people powered economy here and see why others support our work here!

A message from our Executive Director, Janelle Orsi:

Lately, this big word has been stuck in my head:

Three things are happening right NOW that are creating a sense of urgency at the Sustainable Economies Law Center. Sometimes, it's hard to see that they are happening, so we thought some visuals might help... 

Board of Directors

PRESIDENT

YASSI ESKANDARI is Attorney & Policy Director at the Sustainable Economies Law Center and elected by Law Center staff to serve as its staff representative on the board (learn more about worker self-directed nonprofits). Yassi uses worker-owned cooperatives as a strategy to build a more fulfilling, equitable, and ecologically resilient economic system. She led the campaign that established groundbreaking worker cooperative development policies in the City of Berkeley and has advised countless other city governments and community advocates on how to establish similar programs. Yassi also convened and coordinates the Worker Owned Recovery California policy coalition and is Co-Chair of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives Policy & Advocacy Council and legal counsel to our incubated renewable energy projects. Yassi has also co-authored several influential publications, including Regulating Short-Term Rentals: A Guidebook for Equitable Policy, and Policies for Shareable Cities, a playbook for cities seeking to embrace grassroots sharing economies in the areas of transportation, food, housing, and work. Yassi became an attorney by independently reading the law and passing the California bar exam, and also earned a B.S. in Conservation & Resource Studies from UC Berkeley. While a Cal student, she helped start Berkeley’s first student-run food collective. 

SECRETARY

HASMIK GEGHAMYAN is a community lawyer committed to social and economic justice whose solo practice primarily focuses on formation and labor compliance for nonprofits and cooperatives. Hasmik believes that a cross-functional model of activism, policy, organizing, and law can be effectively used to bring about social and ecological transformation. Hasmik also teaches Political Science at the College of Alameda.

TREASURER

EUNICE KWON is the Director of Asian Pacific American Student Development at UC Berkeley. Previously, she was the Director of Community Engagement at the Sustainable Economies Law Center and a Coro Fellow in San Francisco, where she worked with a range of organizations that included the Haas Sr. Foundation and the Bay Area Community College Consortium. She started her career as a communications consultant for several congressional and local political campaigns and for labor organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the United Food and Commercial Workers. She currently serves on the board of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Asian Women United, a nonprofit that spotlights the diverse experiences of Asian American Pacific Islander women through publications, digital productions, and educational materials. She received her Masters in City Planning at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design.

AT-LARGE MEMBERS

FARZANA SERANG is the Great Communities Collaborative Initiative Officer at The San Francisco Foundation, and former Executive Director of CoFED, the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive. Prior to CoFED, she worked at PolicyLink, one of the primary national advocacy organizations shaping a social and economic justice agenda for the country. She received her Masters in City Planning from MIT with a focus on community and economic development. During her studies she also worked with the Democracy Collaborative, Milk & Honey, and National Congress of American Indians.

ADRIEN SALAZAR is an environmental advocate, political ecologist, and poet receiving his Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Adrien is committed to supporting communities in shaping policy and managing their resources to achieve community resilience, empowerment, and self-determination. His work focuses on land and resource rights, and engagement of frontline and marginalized communities in resource management and policy. He has supported campaigns in the San Francisco Bay Area with the Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity and the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter. He has also supported conservation of traditional agricultural practices among indigenous farmers in the Philippines. He hails from San Jose, California and Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines. He enjoys running, yoga, mindfulness meditation, and growing heirloom vegetables.

DESEREE FONTENOT is a black organizer, farmer, and ecology nerd. She is a collective member of Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project (MG). MG inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture. Deseree grew up between Southwest Louisiana and the Los Angeles area and has been based in the Bay Area for the last decade. Before joining MG, Deseree worked as both a farmer and educator focused on land & liberation with the People of Color Sustainable Housing Network and the Queer EcoJustice Project. As a descendant of three generations of rural Louisiana sharecroppers, Deseree is committed to strengthening movements for black land, healing and liberation. She loves to nerd out on queer botany, creole/cajun food and history, and regenerative design practices.

Advisory Board

GREG JACKSON is an Oakland native and second-year law student at Golden Gate University. He believes that the most effective way to affect the future is through supporting our youth. In addition to interning for the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Greg also serves on the National Lawyer's Guild Board and is on the board at his school's National Black Law Students Association. In his free time, Greg makes music and produces radio shows on KPFA and KPFB. 

STACEY SULLIVAN has been Sustainable Conservation’s Policy Director since 2009, during which time he has led successful legislative campaigns to enact state statutes to improve water quality (SB 346) and expedite riparian habitat restoration (AB 2193), and guided the organization’s policy initiatives in water supply and management, greenhouse gas reduction, and air and water quality. Prior to joining Sustainable Conservation, Stacey spent 12 years as a committee consultant to the California State Assembly, including eight years as Chief Consultant to the Local Government Committee. His work while with the Assembly included in-depth involvement in significant legislation and policy initiatives concerning the California Environmental Quality Act, water policy, sustainable agriculture, housing, and land use planning. Stacey has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and the Steering Committee of the Central Coast Rangeland Coalition. He was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Oxford, and King Hall School of Law at the University of California, Davis, from which he received his J.D. in 1995.

GOPAL DAYANENI has been involved in fighting for social, economic, environmental and racial justice through organizing & campaigning, teaching, writing, speaking and direct action since the late 1980’s. Gopal is an active trainer with and serves on the boards of The Ruckus Society and the Center for Story-based Strategy (formerly smartMeme). He also serves on the advisory boards of the International Accountability Project, and Catalyst Project. Gopal works at the intersection of ecology, economy and empire. Gopal has been a campaigner for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition on human rights and environmental justice in the high-tech industry and the Oil Campaigner for Project Underground, a human rights and environmental rights organization which supported communities resisting oil and mining exploitation around the world. Gopal has been active in many people powered direct action movements, including the Global Justice/Anti-Globalization Movement, Direct Action to Stop the War, Mobilization for Climate Justice, Take Back the Land, and Occupy. Gopal is the father of two young direct action junkies, Ila Sophia and Kavi Samaka Orion, and lives in an intentional community with 9 adults, 8 kids and a bunch of chickens.

JENNY KASSAN has almost two decades of experience as an attorney for and creator of mission-driven enterprises. Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. She worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents. Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities. She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center.

LINDA SHEEHAN is the Executive Director of the Earth Law Center and has over 20 years of environmental law and policy experience. Linda holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a Concentration in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; an M.P.P. from the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, where she was named a Berkeley Policy Fellow; and a J.D. from the University of California's Boalt Hall School of Law. She is a Research Affiliate with the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and is a member of the Commission on Environmental Law in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Linda is also Summer Faculty at Vermont Law School and Adjunct Faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she teaches Earth Law. She is a contributing author toExploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence (Wakefield Press 2011), Rule of Law for Nature (Cambridge University Press 2013), and Wild Law in Practice (Routledge 2014).

JOHN FARRELL is the Director of Democratic Energy at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and widely known as the guru of distributed energy. He is best known for his vivid illustrations of the economic and environmental benefits of local ownership of decentralized renewable energy. John’s work appears most regularly on Energy Self-Reliant States, a blog with timely and compelling analysis of current energy discussions and policy. The posts are frequently enriched by charts, translating the complex economics of energy into tools for advancing local energy ownership and they are regularly syndicated at Grist, CleanTechnica, and Renewable Energy World. He’s also written extensively on the economic advantages of Democratizing the Electricity System, published a rich interactive map on solar grid parity, and polished the policies (like Minnesota’s solar energy standard) necessary to support locally owned renewable energy development.

MICHAEL SHUMAN is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur. He’s also an adjunct instructor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and at the Post-Carbon Institute, and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He has authored, coauthored, or edited nine books. His most recent book, which will be published by Chelsea Green in May 2015, is The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity. One of his previous books, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. A prolific speaker, Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week, mostly to local governments and universities, for the past 30 years. He has lectured in 47 U.S. states and eight countries. He blogs regularly at www.michaelhshuman.com.

DAVID BOLLIER is an American activist, writer, and policy strategist. He is co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, and writes technology-related reports for the Aspen Institute. Bollier’s recent work has focused on developing a new vocabulary for reclaiming “the commons.” The commons refers to the diverse array of publicly owned assets, gift-economies and natural systems that are available to everyone as a civic or human right. Bollier's new book, co-edited with with Silke Helfrich, is The Wealth of the Commons, a new collection of 73 essays that investigate the rich potential of the commons in conceptualizing and building a better future. The book details how millions of people have organized to defend natural resources, re-invigorate local food systems, build useful online communities, reclaim public spaces, and even re-define the very meaning of "progress." Bollier co-founded the public interest group Public Knowledge in 2002 and served as a board member until 2010. He was awarded the 2012 Bosch Berlin Prize in Public Policy at the American Academy in Berlin.

HANK HERRERA in memoriam is President & CEO of the Center for Popular Research, Education & Policy (C-PREP), a non-profit community based organization. C-PREP serves vulnerable communities with participatory action research, training, technical assistance and policy. His work specifically focuses on food justice and building community resilience. He recently formed New Hope Farms, a network of small farms linked to a network of small corner stores selling only healthy food, using a cooperative model of ownership. The purpose of this project is to grow and sell healthy, affordable local food; to create sustainable, living wage jobs for community residents; and to develop the social, community and economic benefits of a local food enterprise network. He is co-founder and Director of the Sacred Community Land Trust, a non-profit organization devoted to conserving farmland for farming by low-income farmers and ranchers. Together these organizations provide the foundation for building equitable local food systems owned by and serving communities lacking access to fresh, healthy food. Hank has focused his work on food justice for over twenty years. Hank is a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and a Kellogg National Fellow. He practiced psychiatry long enough. He plays the alto saxophone; writes poetry and makes photographs. He lives in Pinole, California.