AALS Names Three USD School of Law Members to 2025 Pro Bono Honor Roll

SAN DIEGO (January 6, 2026) – Three members of the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law community have been named to the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) 2025 Pro Bono Honor Roll. 

The Honor Roll highlights faculty, staff, and students who advance their law school’s delivery of free legal services. For AALS, “pro bono” means work that is legal in nature, performed without pay or academic credit, supervised by a licensed attorney, and provided to underserved communities facing barriers to justice.

Congratulations to:

• Rosario Galindo, Administrative Support Specialist, Staff Award

• Logan Quessenberry, 3L, Student Award

• Maria Tapia-Hernandez, Adjunct Professor of Law, Faculty Award

Galindo has worked with the USD Legal Clinics for seven years, advancing from a part-time temporary role to a full-time administrative support specialist. She manages day-to-day operations, including office processes, event coordination, cross-campus communication, while providing direct assistance to the Federal Tax Clinic and the Women’s Legal Clinic. As the first point of contact, she intakes callers and community members through and connects them with appropriate resources.

“Receiving this pro bono award is deeply meaningful to me, and I’m very grateful for the recognition,” Galindo remarked. “I’m fortunate to work alongside dedicated attorneys, paralegals, staff, and law students who serve some of the most vulnerable members of our community with care and commitment. The effort behind every case reflects genuine dedication, and the opportunity to support this work and contribute to meaningful progress for our clients is what makes it so rewarding. On the best days, we see life-changing results, such as securing long-term protection from an abusive ex-partner, recovering long-denied benefits, or seeing the IRS concede a Tax Court case.”

Quessenberry, a 3L law student and the USD Law Student Bar Association president, has completed two semesters in USD’s Immigration Legal Clinic, where he prepared adjustment-of-status filings and handled U visa matters for crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement. He also contributed to a successful asylum defense and will return next semester. The Immigration Legal Clinic provides free services to clients and their families, including work authorization, naturalization, derivative citizenship, U visas, and relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). 

Quessenberry noted, “The ability to provide services that help people while learning how to interact with clients and work with real humans with real problems is one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as a person, let alone as a law student. Working with Professor Tammy Lin at the Immigration Legal Clinic and the work we have accomplished is what I am most proud of in my two and a half years at USD Law.”

Tapia-Hernandez, an adjunct professor of law, supervises USD School of Law’s Workers’ Rights Clinic in partnership with Legal Aid at Work (LAAW). Through the clinic and LAAW’s Community Legal Services Program, law students assist low-wage workers with employment law issues, including unpaid wages, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, medical leave, and unemployment benefits. She previously served as a fellow with LAAW’s Project SURVIVE, which advocates for the workplace rights of survivors of violence, and she has extensive immigration experience aiding immigrants seeking relief from removal and release from ICE custody.

“Watching students grow from classroom learning to confidently advocating for real clients is incredibly rewarding. Their dedication is a powerful reminder that clinical education is not only about developing skilled lawyers, but also about instilling a lifelong commitment to equity, service, and access to justice. The students and clinic staff are truly the backbone of the clinic’s success, and this work would not be possible without the invaluable support of Sarah Jaimes, Analisa Hernandez, Rosario Galindo, and Eric Austin,” Tapia-Hernandez stated.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 88 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 34th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 35th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.