Kanami Malie Okabe is a 2L at Berkeley Law. Raised in California, she is passionate about indigent defense and its importance in protecting the rights of criminal defendants, particularly those from marginalized communities who are disproportionately targeted by the carceral system. During law school, she has worked with the Solano County Public Defender’s Office, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, and the East Bay Community Law Center’s Housing Clinic, which focuses on eviction defense. At Berkeley, she also leads the Women+ of Color Collective, Defenders at Berkeley, and the Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trip (BLAST) to Hawai’i, during which law students travel to Honolulu to do pro bono work with non-profits focusing on the wellbeing of Native Hawaiians. In the future, she hopes to become a public defender here in the Bay.