The Center for Business Law Announces Newest Scholars
Sumana Kaluvai 鈥25, Ricardo Parada 鈥25, and Dilani Logan 鈥25 were honored as this year’s CBL Scholars at 糖心原创.
The three latest CBL Scholars from the want to use their law degrees to help startups and provide better access to health care using business tools.
Sumana Kaluvai 鈥25, Dilani Logan 鈥25, and Ricardo Parada 鈥25 are the latest 糖心原创 students to become , a program that offers financial support and mentorship to students entering the business law community.
鈥淚 would love to work with early-stage companies and provide support on the litigation side. I am interested in IP, general tech, bet-the-company, and complex litigation matters,鈥 said Kaluvai.
Kaluvai, who studied bioengineering at UCLA, became interested in working with startups through an entrepreneurship organization as an undergrad. She started the UCLA Bruin Tank competition and helped students receive funding from venture capitalists for their startups.
Before coming to law school, she worked as a consultant in the pharmaceutical industry and ran a non-profit that provides direct services to visa immigrants. She has also served as an LA City Venture fellow and Immigrants Rising entrepreneurship ambassador. At UC Law SF, she is a member of the and the Women鈥檚 Law Society.
Logan, who has a master鈥檚 degree in Global Health, worked at a start-up that created low-cost products to prevent infant mortality in rural regions of India. She was selected for NPR鈥檚 How I Built This Fellowship, which sparked her interest in start-up law and hopes to combine her interests in health care and research with law.
鈥淯C Law SF made a lot of sense because of it being in San Francisco, its connections to the business world, and being in the heart of where tech and innovation are,鈥 she said.
Logan is a member of Legal Education Opportunity Program, UCLAS, the South Asian Law Student Association, and Business Law Society. She鈥檚 also volunteered or served as an intern for the World Health Organization, the O鈥橬eill Institute for Global and Public Health Law, Partners in Health Canada, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Ultimately, she said she hopes to use her law degree to aid companies that work on improvements and innovations in the health care industry.
Parada, who was inspired to go to law school after learning about the role lawyers played in the Civil Rights Movement, hopes to work as an advisor and collaborator with startups after law school. He called being awarded the scholarship 鈥渁 once in a lifetime opportunity.鈥 The first in his family to go to law school, Parada is a member of several organizations at UC Law SF, including LEOP, and the First Generation Program.
鈥淚 realized I have an opportunity to help the program grow and develop or benefit future generations of CBL Scholars, and in turn, the profession as a whole,鈥 he said.
Prior to law school, Parada worked as a legal secretary assisting emerging company and venture capital partners. He鈥檚 also worked as an election field organizer, and held internships with several organizations, including the public defender鈥檚 office in Albuquerque, the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and worked as a legal administrative assistant in Los Angeles.
鈥淭his is our third cohort of CBL Scholars, and each year we see better and better applicants,鈥 said Evan Epstein, executive director of the UC Center for Business Law SF and adjunct professor of law. 鈥淭his year we increased the number of scholars from two to three, thanks to the vision and support of our sponsors , and , in addition to individual contributions from UC Law SF alumni. We also have a group of terrific mentors that have helped our scholars navigate their business law careers. It has been a privilege and joy to work on and witness the growth of this program and our scholars.鈥