Graduate Spotlight: Hillary Liljedahl '23 Will Become a Public Defender

Hillary Liljedahl ’23 will represent defendants who cannot afford legal counsel as an attorney with the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office.

This story is part of a series of profiles featuring some of this year’s outstanding law school graduates from UC Law San Francisco.

Inspired by her experiences growing up in a rural area of the Sierra Nevada foothills, and her commitment to social justice, new law school graduate Hillary Liljedahl ’23 will begin her professional legal career as an attorney with the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office.

She said growing up, she saw firsthand how poverty, drug addiction, and a lack of government resources can affect a community, including her own. She had friends and family members who got caught up in the criminal justice system, resulting in the stigma of having criminal records and the trauma of serving time in prison.

“No matter what a person does, they deserve to have someone on their side that ensures the state does not ride roughshod over their constitutional rights,” she said. “We all deserve that at minimum.”

During law school, Liljedahl showed her commitment to social justice work. She interned with two immigration advocacy groups, where she helped clients facing deportation, researched asylum laws, and wrote legal memos and briefs. She also spent a summer interning at the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office, where she will work after passing the bar.

Additionally, she served as a board member of Hastings Prisoner Outreach, a student organization that advocates for the rights of incarcerated people and provides support, including legal services.

She said her participation in the Mediation Clinic at UC Law SF helped her develop crucial lawyering skills, including “how to properly and professionally convey to clients that I empathize with them, while also maintaining a neutral, less biased position.”

Before law school, Liljedahl worked in multiple service-oriented jobs, including as a certified nursing aide and behavioral counselor for autistic children, “As my prior jobs show, I am drawn to doing work that helps people.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Berkeley, she said she chose to go to law school to obtain the knowledge and skills to make a difference in the world.

Associate Dean Gail Silverstein presented Hillary Liljedahl ’23 with a stole for graduates who concentrated in social justice lawyering.

She said she was attracted to UC Law San Francisco because of its robust clinical education programs and prime location close to state and federal courthouses. She was also drawn to the law school’s Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) and First Generation Program, which support students from diverse backgrounds and those who have faced barriers to higher education. She was a member of both programs.

“LEOP offered not only a community early on, but also gave me real resources that were invaluable at particularly tough times during law school,” she said.

Liljedahl is one of 17 UC Law SF students who graduated this year with a concentration in social justice lawyering. She said the concentration helped her connect with like-minded people who shared her values.

Looking to the future, Liljadehl said she plans to use her legal education to help uplift people from underserved communities, like Sonora, California, where she grew up, “If I can divert even just a few young people away from the prison pipeline and into community programs, I will consider my career a success. Hopefully I can do much more than that.”