Paul Freese, Jr.

Paul L. Freese, Jr. has worked as a public interest attorney for more than 25 years and provides consulting on holistic innovations and solutions to poverty, with special focus upon foster youth and other acutely traumatized populations who disproportionately suffer both material and relationship poverty.

He specializes in strategic project development to achieve upstream early intervention impact to help fortify distressed households against the prospects of losing children to foster care and system trauma.  He has devoted his career striving to reduce the invisible suffering and identify atrophy afflicting children raised by a foster care system devoted to "compliance" at the cost of "care."  

Paul supports initiatives that help humanize our child welfare, health and corrections systems and bridge the social economic and racial divide that disorients from achieving the Beloved Community.  He champions faith-based and civic service oriented mentoring initiatives to help address the loneliness and isolation of system involved youth. 

He lectures regularly on the importance of applying emerging insights from neuroscience on trauma informed care with special focus upon the ramifications drawn from ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and the need to integrate and apply such insights.

Paul currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Law Center, whose attorneys represent youth in dependency proceedings;  as Vice President for the Board of Directors of Angel’s Nest TLP, a transformative opportunity housing nonprofit for former foster youth;  Equity Law Advocates, the Human Trafficking Legal Network, and Restore Neighborhoods, L.A..   He also has served on many local and national task forces, working groups and commissions addressing the needs of impoverished and traumatized households and communities. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and former Maryknoll Law Missioner.