Senior Staff

Leslie Starr Heimov, Executive Director
Ms. Heimov, a Certified Child Welfare Law Specialist, has been with Children's Law Center of Los Angeles since 1992. She served as a staff attorney and later moved to a supervising attorney position, providing oversight and training to 30 plus case carrying attorneys while continuing to handle complex and high profile cases as needed. Immediately prior to assuming her present duties, Ms. Heimov, as Policy Director, was responsible for handling CLC's legislative and policy agenda, including drafting legislation and working closely with elected officials, their staff, and other advocates to support important legislative reforms. In addition to serving as CLC Policy Director, she was Project Director of the Home At Last Initiative funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Ms. Heimov chaired a countywide Task Force on Pregnant and Parenting Teens and is a founding member of the Task Force to End Homophobia in Foster Care. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Counsel for Children and on the National Advisory Board of the Children's Law Office Project. Ms. Heimov is a trials skills instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and regularly presents to the bench, attorneys, social workers, caregivers and law students on a multitude of topics related to the representation of abused and neglected children.

David Estep, Firm Director of CLC 1
Mr. Estep joined the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles in 1994, serving first as a staff attorney representing both children and parents in juvenile dependency cases and subsequently working as writ attorney and attorney supervisor. In his current position, Mr. Estep supervises the work of more than 40 attorneys, along with investigators, paralegals, and support staff. He is also active in a variety of community partnerships and outreach within the greater Los Angeles child welfare community. Mr. Estep currently serves on committees addressing services for "cross-over" children caught between dependency and delinquency courts, community service agencies, and tort representation for juvenile dependents.

Marc Leftwich, Firm Director of CLC 2
Mr. Leftwich joined CLC in 2000, following nine years in private practice and fifteen years representing parents and children as a dependency court panel attorney. A member of the Trial Advocacy Group, Mr. Leftwich is an instructor in Trial Techniques and Tactics. He has special expertise in the area of special needs children and attends numerous IEP, Regional Center, and CCS meetings. Mr. Leftwich engages in extensive community outreach, making presentations to community organizations, faith-based groups, and current and prospective foster/adoptive parents about the workings of the dependency court.

Ivy Lewis Carey, Firm Director of CLC 3
Ms. Carey began her career at CLC in 1995. She had previously worked both in private practice firms, specializing in workers' compensation and insurance defense litigation, and in dependency court representing parents. Ms. Carey was promoted to a management position in 2000, supervising approximately 30 attorneys. Ms. Carey has expertise in the mental health and delinquency aspects of juvenile practice and has participated extensively in delinquency court proceedings involving dependency children. She served as a founding member of the Los Angeles Foster Care Awareness Campaign Committee and was appointed a CLC Unit Head in June, 2005.

John Moll, Director of Operations
Mr. Moll serves as the Children's Law Center's Director of Operations. In this capacity, he oversees the finance, human resources, and information technology departments; reviews and negotiates all contracts; and works to ensure the smooth running of all aspects of the organization's administrative functions. Prior to joining CLC, he served for almost 10 years as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Steven Spielberg to videotape and disseminate testimonies of witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust. Previously in private practice as a litigator, Mr. Moll represented individuals with HIV/AIDS in employment law, benefits, and insurance related areas. Mr. Moll received both his undergraduate and law degrees from USC.

Princess V.F. Ramey, Community Outreach Coordinator
Ms. Ramey joined CLC in 1993, after working briefly in family law and mediation. Ms. Ramey has served on a number of committees and boards, been featured on the Discovery Channel, and was honored as a "Foster Care Hero" by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2003. In addition to supervising other trial attorneys, Ms. Ramey serves as the CLC Community Outreach Coordinator. In that capacity she manages donor-related programs and oversees the CLC intern program and recruitment of interns.

Child Welfare Law Specialists

The designation Child Welfare Law Specialist is awarded by the National Association of Counsel for Children to attorneys representing children, parents, and agencies in child abuse, neglect, and dependency cases who have demonstrated an enhanced level of knowledge, skill, and experience in juvenile law. Child Welfare Law Specialty certification is designed to improve outcomes for children and families by encouraging specialization in this practice arena and improving the quality of legal services delivered to children nationwide.

Child Welfare Law Specialist certification requires that attorneys satisfy rigorous requirements including a minimum three years of experience in the practice of child welfare law, completion of continuing legal education, competency affirmed by other attorneys and judges, and passage of national and state child welfare law examinations. The following Children's Law Center attorneys have satisfied these requirements and have been designated Child Welfare Law Specialists: