Guy Danilowitz immigrated to the United States as a pre-teen when his parents decided that they could no longer live comfortably as whites when the rest of the population was suffering under apartheid. Growing up in Connecticut, Mr. Danilowitz eventually lost his South African accent, but he never lost his belief in civil rights and his desire to help people fight injustice. ''As a young boy, I immediately had questions about why do we have legal systems and why do we obey laws that sometimes we find morally reprehensible,'' Mr. Danilowitz said. After graduating with a degree in economics from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Mr. Danilowitz moved west to San Francisco, where he has championed the cause of the homeless as a community activist with the Homeless Coalition. He left the coalition about 15 months ago to join the Law Offices of Michael Sorgen, as a legal assistant in a prominent civil rights practice (see this week's attorney profile on Sorgen). He hopes to go to law school in the fall. Mr. Danilowitz, 30, said his experience in the law firm has been invaluable. Although many said the job as a legal assistant would dampen his desire to attend law school, he says he is more determined than ever. ''Being in an administrative position and doing clerical support tasks for people for so long is almost motivation enough in and of itself to go and get the degree,'' he said. He said his job is about 80% clerical and 20% paralegal and that it can be frustrating to always support someone else's work ''even though I do believe in the work they do here.'' He says the firm's lawsuit on behalf of two National Guard troops fighting their involuntary enlistment extensions so they do not have to go to Iraq has kept the whole office busy. The clients in that case are called John Doe One and Two to protect their identities from the military and their commanding officers. ''Filing a case like this is really complicated because with both of them filing as John Does, it meant a lot of the stuff had to be filed under seal, so the clerical logistical aspects of that we've worked on,'' he said. Working on quantitative issues is another reason not to become a lawyer, he said, but even that will not stop him. The firm is handling a case alleging that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has been discriminating against Asian-Americans in their pay rates. ''The case has turned into a big math problem because everyone has different statistics about what the average is, and so it's extremely complicated,'' he said, adding that the case prompted Michael Sorgen to ask Mr. Danilowitz if he still planned to become an attorney. ''I do,'' he replied simply. Mr. Danilowitz, who still volunteers with the Homeless Coalition, said he would like to work for a public defender and learn criminal defense and perhaps practice immigration law. ''I lived in Senegal, West Africa, for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer, so I've seen the struggles that West Africans have coming here just to get a job to feed their family and see how confusing and complicated immigration can be,'' he said. ''But ultimately, I'm interested in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law, and so I think I might eventually like to get a Ph.D. or an advanced law degree and perhaps teach.'' Mr. Danilowitz would like to continue working with the homeless and thinks the current Care Not Cash plan being lauded nationally in San Francisco is a farce. The Care Not Cash plan, which was launched in May, drastically reduced welfare checks to hundreds of homeless people in San Francisco and offered housing and services instead. Although more than 400 people had their checks slashed, only about 90 have been given permanent housing. The rest have had their checks cut—some from as high as $410 a month to $59 a month—and been asked to live in shelters until housing becomes available. ''Ever since (the 1980s), every mayor in San Francisco has become mayor based on some new homeless plan that hasn't really had much behind it except for a lot of planning, so I'm a little bit cynical about what the mayor's going to accomplish in regards to homelessness,'' said Mr. Danilowitz, who worked unsuccessfully to defeat the voter-approved Care Not Cash plan. Mayor Gavin Newsom has made homelessness his top priority and says the Care Not Cash plan will revitalize the city. Mayor Newsom has said homeless people, and not the Golden Gate Bridge, have become the symbol of San Francisco. But Mr. Danilowitz is skeptical. ''To me, any proposals coming out of the mayor's office, as far as homelessness is concerned, seems politically motivated,'' he said. ''They never actually consult homeless people about these things. The Coalition on Homelessness never really gets invited to the table to be a part of this, so I'm kind of cynical.''

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