Erin Apte (pronouns: she/her/hers) joined Public Advocates as Legislative Counsel in our Sacramento office in late 2019. As a member of the Education Equity team, Erin’s work focuses on K–12 school funding and accountability to help eliminate disparities in opportunity for low-income students, English learners, and students of color. Erin works in collaboration with grassroots organizations in Sacramento and coalition partners statewide to ensure that all students have equitable access to a quality education. As a social justice attorney, Erin has also advocated on behalf of low-income and communities of color while working as a litigator at the intersections of immigration, criminal, and employment law. Prior to joining Public Advocates, Erin was the Children’s Coordinating Attorney at Kids in Need of Defense where she provided deportation defense and coordinated legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children detained in Washington State. In that role, she focused on improving outcomes for vulnerable and high needs youth including asylum seekers, survivors of human trafficking, and children in foster care and residential treatment facilities. Erin’s diverse experience advocating on behalf of marginalized and historically excluded communities motivates her to help achieve and implement meaningful political change through community-centered legislative and administrative advocacy.

Bar Admissions & Education

Erin is licensed to practice law in California and Washington State. She graduated from the University of Washington School of Law with concentrations in Public Service Law, and International and Comparative Law. Erin served as the Director of Programming and Outreach of her law school’s Center for Human Rights and Justice. In that capacity, she co-founded a pro se asylum application assistance program to serve unrepresented immigrants in deportation proceedings in the Puget Sound. Erin also represented low-income clients through the law school’s Immigration Clinic and successfully won a clemency petition while representing an incarcerated juvenile through the Race and Justice Clinic. Erin holds a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science from Gonzaga University where she graduated magna cum laude.