Impact at CLIPI
Following her graduation from Harvard Law School, Foster joined CLIPI as a fellow and later as a staff attorney, where she focused on civil rights and social justice issues. She worked on several environmental cases, including the Coalition case successfully challenging the LA County General Plan. She also worked on the Pershing Square litigation, which sought to preserve LA's historic buildings through proper implementation of the redevelopment agency’s density transfer provision.
After CLIPI, she joined the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and later served as the Executive Director of California Common Cause. As an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, Foster also taught courses on sex discrimination, federal courts, and election law. She became a California Superior Court Judge in San Diego, and later served as the Director of the Office for Access to Justice in the U.S. Department of Justice. Foster co-founded and currently serves as senior advisor of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, an organization that seeks to reduce or end abusive criminal and civil monetary based penalties.
