Elizabeth Kemper, a legal rights advocate for UCLA students, is retiring after 40 years.

Kemper, director of UCLA Student Legal Services, will retire at the end of the 2023-2024 academic school year, leaving behind a legacy of decades-long advocacy and efficiently meeting the legal challenges students face.

After graduating from Dartmouth College in its first undergraduate class of women, and earning her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, Kemper worked in corporate litigation for a large firm. As she did pro bono work and helped run the firm’s summer associate program for second-year law students, she discovered she enjoyed working with students and took a job with Student Legal Services in 1983, she added.

“I love helping students. I help educate them, but I also help them in many cases in some very challenging times of their lives,” Kemper.

Kemper said her main priority was to protect students’ rights. Her job as director included meeting student clients, supervising the attorneys in the office and working on the office’s outreach efforts.

In the early 1990s, members of UCLA’s Student Affairs leadership tried to close the Student Legal Services office, arguing that the office was an unnecessary luxury and students could find lawyers off campus, but Kemper fought hard to keep the resource for UCLA students after receiving over 100 typewritten letters from clients to support her efforts in saving the office, she said.

Kemper decided to retire after working on between 25,000 and 50,000 cases, she said. Kemper added that she feels ready to travel and spend time with her family, who all live in the West Los Angeles area.

“I know I’m leaving the office in good hands,” Kemper said.

Allison Aquino-Silva, the immigration counseling attorney at Student Legal Services, said she worked under Kemper for the past five years and sees Kemper as a mentor. Aquino-Silva said Kemper understands what students need and has the compassion to address those legal issues.

“I see her going above and beyond every day,” Aquino-Silva said.

Christin Liu, a counseling attorney for Student Legal Services, said she has worked in the office with Kemper for the past nine years, adding that she has been impressed by Kemper’s creativity in serving students.

“She dedicated 40 years of her career to this office,” Liu said. “If I think of Student Legal Services, I think of Liz.”

Liu said she also appreciated the collaborative environment Kemper established in the office for the attorneys, creating strong friendships with her colleagues.

“If it weren’t for Liz, I don’t think I would have stayed in this office for as long as I have,” she said.

Naomi King, an alumnus of the UCLA School of Law, said she witnessed Kemper’s care for her clients and set an example for what a good lawyer looks like while working as a student legal clerk in the office for four years.

Kemper’s behind-the-scenes advocacy for the office expanded the scope of the office, making its resources more accessible to UCLA students, King said.

Mai Vu, a third-year economics and public affairs student, said Kemper assisted her through making her first important life decisions in a safe manner.

Kemper went line-by-line through Vu’s first apartment lease with her, adding helpful recommendations for Vu’s situation such as renter’s insurance and creating an enforceable roommate agreement, Vu said. She added that if it wasn’t for Kemper, she would be in serious monetary liability right now.

“I’ve always felt very safe to approach her with my personal issues and know that she wouldn’t judge me or hold it against me, and she would really see things from my perspective and give me advice in a very, very objective lens,” Vu said.

The Student Legal Services office will miss Kemper and remember everything she has done to advocate for students’ rights and expand the office’s reach, Liu said.

“We’re losing one of the greatest minds and one of the greatest champions of students here at UCLA,” she said.