Some people leave the room, and the room never quite feels the same again. Hessam Zand was that kind of friend, that kind of presence. He wanted to be a lawyer. He never got the chance. The story below is about how two of his closest friends made sure the dream did not end with him, and why they chose Western State College of Law to keep it alive.
The Scholarship
The Hessam Zand “I Love You 3,000” Scholarship provides $3,000 to an incoming student at Western State College of Law. It is administered and awarded by the Western State Experiential Learning Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
The scholarship’s name borrows a phrase any Iron Man fan recognizes instantly. Hessam was a devoted fan, and for him those four small words carried a whole worldview.
Financial need is part of the picture, but it is not the whole picture. The award is designed for students who carry what the founders describe as “superhero” qualities: resilience that has already been tested, leadership that already shows up in their communities, and a real, demonstrated commitment to helping people who cannot help themselves. The kind of person Hessam was.
About Western State College of Law
Founded in 1966, Western State College of Law is the oldest law school in Orange County and is fully ABA-approved. The school operates today as part of Westcliff University and is located in Irvine, California.
Over its history, Western State has graduated more than 11,000 attorneys, and more than 150 of those graduates have gone on to serve as California judges and judicial officers.
The school is known for small class sizes and a strong emphasis on practical, hands-on legal training through clinics, externships, and experiential programs designed to put students in real legal settings well before they leave campus.
For The Injury Firm, this is not an abstract relationship. Both founding attorneys are Western State graduates. Hiva Bana, Esq., founder and president of the firm, graduated among the top three of her class in 2022, earning multiple Witkin Awards along the way. Amir K. Nevis, Esq., the firm’s senior litigation attorney, graduated in 2020 and earned the Witkin Award in Evidence, which is given to the top student in the class.
The classrooms, the professors, the late nights in the library, the moot court rounds: all of it shaped the lawyers they became, and a meaningful part of the firm they built together traces directly back to that campus.
Why the Donation Matters to the Firm
Giving back to Western State was, for the founders, the natural thing to do. The school invested in them. The scholarship is one way of returning that investment to the next generation of students who will follow the same path.
There is also a quieter reason. Hessam never sat through a Civil Procedure lecture. He never argued in his first moot court. He never crossed a stage to receive a diploma. The scholarship gives someone else the chance to do all of that, in his name, at the same school that opened those doors for his two closest friends.
The work he never got to do continues through the students who carry his name with them into the profession.
That, more than anything, is why the firm felt the donation belonged at Western State and nowhere else.
Learn More or Support the Fund
Prospective students, Western State alumni, and anyone moved by Hessam’s story can read the full scholarship description on the official Western State College of Law page: Alumni Scholarships – Western State College of Law.
To the future recipients: walk in carrying his name well.
To Hessam: we love you 3,000.
