The Public Law Center (PLC) will recognize CHOC Children’s as PLC’s Community Partner of the Year during the 2014 Volunteers for Justice Dinner. CHOC Children’s and PLC’s medical-legal partnership provides legal assistance in guardianships, conservatorships and wills to families in need.

“To be the best advocate for children and their families in Orange County, we have to partner with the best, so we are fortunate to work side-by-side with CHOC Children’s in serving our community,” said Darren O. Aitken, 2014 Dinner Committee Co-Chair.

Added PLC Senior Lead Attorney Leslie Lindgren, “this partnership came about through the leadership of the CHOC Children’s Legal Department, most notably Chief Legal Officer Jay Gabriel and Associate Counsel Sheniece Smith, supported by Vice-President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Maria Miñon and the CHOC Children’s Social Work Department.”

For more than 45 years, CHOC Children’s has been steadfastly committed to providing the highest quality medical care to children. Affiliated with the University of California, Irvine, their regional pediatric healthcare network includes a state-of-the-art 279-bed main hospital facility in the City of Orange, and a hospital-within-a-hospital in Mission Viejo. CHOC Children’s also offers many primary and specialty care clinics, more than 100 additional programs and services, a pediatric residency program, and four centers of excellence – The CHOC Children’s Heart, Neuroscience, Orthopedic and Hyundai Cancer Institutes.

PLC attorneys meet with families at CHOC Children’s Hospital twice monthly after families are pre-screened by their medical providers and by the Social Work department of CHOC Children’s.

“PLC shares a common goal with CHOC Children’s to cooperatively work ‘to nurture, advance and protect the health and well-being of children,’ regardless of their family’s ability to pay” said Michele D. Johnson, 2014 Dinner Committee Co-Chair.

Named one of the best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, CHOC Children’s earned the Gold Level CAPE Award from the California Council of Excellence, the only children’s hospital in California to ever earn this distinction, and was awarded Magnet designation, the highest honor bestowed to hospitals for nursing excellence. Recognized for extraordinary commitment to high-quality critical care standards, CHOC Children’s is the first children’s hospital in the United States to earn the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence.

The 2014 Volunteers for Justice Dinner will be held on Monday, June 16 at Hotel Irvine (formerly Hyatt Regency Irvine).

PLC will also honor Grace E. Emery (posthumously) as the Attorney of the Year and the Orange County office of Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips, LLP as the Law Firm of the Year. To see pictures from the 2013 Dinner, which drew 1,000 attendees and raised over $700,000, please click here.