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Current SLPS Projects

The current SLPS Projects are:

  • Environmental Justice Workshop

  • Advocates for Youth Justice (AYJ)

  • Berkeley Tax Law Clinic (BTLC)

  • Berkeley Immigration Law Clinic (BILC)

  • California Asylum Representation Clinic (CARC)

  • Civil Rights Outreach Project (CROP)

  • Community Legal Outreach (CLO)

  • Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

  • La Raza Workers' Rights Clinic

  • Workers' Rights Clinic (WRC)

 

 

 “Working with the Civil Rights Outreach Project allowed me to engage with the issues directly affecting my community at an early stage in my legal career.”-- Yaser Ali, Class of 2012

 

 

Environmental Justice Workshop

EJW provides pro bono legal assistance on environmental and environmental justice issues by partnering with Bay Area organizations. Students engage with issues that are local, national, and international in scope, including topics such as: climate change, sustainable economic development, food justice, international finance and development, land use and permitting, and energy policy.

Students have the opportunity to draft legal documents, conduct policy research, and provide direct services under the supervision of experienced Bay Area practitioners. Projects are designed to evolve as students shape the work around their current environmental justice concerns. EJW recognizes the human aspect of environmental issues and interfaces with affected groups in order to help advance community-based solutions.

Advocates for Youth Justice (AYJ)

Juvenile Hall Outreach (JHO)

JHO is a Street Law program that empowers incarcerated and detained youth by teaching them basic criminal procedure and their legal rights. The outreach program provides an opportunity for participating Berkeley Law students to facilitate a 6-week course at the Alameda County Juvenile Hall on topics such as Miranda Rights, Search and Seizure, Three Strikes, and Police Misconduct. Teaching teams comprised of 4-6 Berkeley Law students are assigned to teach in a particular juvenile hall unit, which vary by age, gender, and level of security. Berkeley Law students are provided with a detailed teaching curriculum, and are expected to meet weekly with their teaching team for lesson planning, team collaboration and preparation. Participating students learn about criminal procedure, including the disparity between theory and reality in high crime neighborhoods, and gain experience working with incarcerated clients.

Education Advocacy Clinic

The EAC works with attorneys from the National Center for Youth Law and Disability Rights, CA to train Berkeley Law students to become court-appointed educational rights holders for children in foster care who have special education needs. Once trained, Berkeley students are paired with a foster youth, as well as an experienced Berkeley Law educational advocate and a practicing attorney for mentoring and assistance. The Ed Advocate then works with schools and other service providers to actively advocate for their assigned youth’s special education needs. Participating students learn about administrative law, special education, the foster care system, and gain valuable mediation and advocacy skills. Because of the personal connection made with a foster youth, a one year minimum commitment is required for this clinic.

Expulsion Representation Clinic

The ERC offers participating Berkeley Law students an opportunity to act as a non-attorney advocate for a child facing expulsion from his/her school. In many cases, this entails investigating a case, and conducting opening and closing statements and witness examination at a formal hearing. Berkeley Law students are trained by attorneys from Legal Services for Children who specialize in expulsion representation. Following the training, Berkeley Law students are paired with a mentoring student who has previously conducted a hearing, as well as with a supervising attorney at LSC.

Berkeley High Student Court

BHSC is a program at Berkeley High School (BHS) that takes an alternative, student-based approach to school discipline. The Court handles real discipline cases brought before a student jury, and student lawyers argue the case for both sides. Berkeley Law students train BHS student lawyers by teaching a class on the basics of trial procedures—i.e., the trial process, voir dire, opening and closing statements, objections, etc.—and mentor BHS students as they participate in the program. A Berkeley Law student also serves as trial coordinator, acting as clerk and bailiff, selecting jurors from the jury pool and assisting the judge. The coordinator’s most important job is to contact and recruit judges (both state and federal), prominent law professors and lawyers from the community to serve as judges. Berkeley Law students are recruited to teach, mentor and preside over trials throughout the school year.

Website: http://ayj.berkeley.edu/

Berkeley Immigration Law Clinic (BILC)

The Berkeley Immigration Law Clinic (BILC) provides free immigration law consultation and official document preparation for low-income immigrants in the Bay Area. BILC is coordinated by Asian Law Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association.  BILC helps economically-disadvantaged immigrants file documents mandated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, including family petitions, naturalizations, declaration letters, and other official citizen and immigration documents.  Students work directly with immigrants, meet with clients, prepare immigration documents, draft declarations, and can also refine their language skills if they speak another language.

Berkeley Tax Law Clinic (BTLC)

The Berkeley Tax Law Clinic (BTLC), which is coordinated by the IRS's Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication division, provides free current year income tax preparation assistance for low-to-moderate income taxpayers in the East Bay each February, March, and early April. The clinic requires Berkeley students to undergo extensive training and to take an online test in the fall before they are eligible to help prepare tax returns. As a result of this training, Berkeley law students can help local residents claim valuable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is a refundable credit for people who work but do not earn high incomes. BTLC tax preparation assistance services are free to members of the community earning less than $49,000 annually, and no appointment is necessary.            

Location: East Bay Community Law Center at 2921 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA 94703.

California Asylum Representation Clinic (CARC)

The California Asylum Representation Clinic (CARC) provides students with the opportunity to assist refugees throughout the asylum process. Participants, most of them first-year law students, gain hands-on experience in providing vital legal assistance and reaching out to under-served communities in the Bay Area. In partnership with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and under the guidance of experienced attorney and student mentors, students work in pairs to interview clients and draft client declarations; perform legal and factual research on asylum law and country conditions; represent clients at their asylum interviews; and advise clients following a decision on their case. Reed Smith, LLP and local immigration attorneys provide CARC students with additional support and mentorship.

CARC has grown into one of the largest student-run clinics at Berkeley Law. Each of the last few years has seen more than 80 Berkeley Law students serve as volunteer participants, student mentors or clinic coordinators. Since its founding in 1995, CARC has successfully assisted hundreds of refugees from all over the world in their bids for asylum, including asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and Central America.

Office: Student Center, #24 

Community Legal Outreach (CLO)

For more than ten years, EBCLC’s Community Legal Outreach (CLO) Program has engaged first-year students to assist underserved communities throughout Oakland. Under the supervision of EBCLC staff attorneys, upper class student coordinators recruit and train students to conduct outreach visits to shelters, transitional housing sites and health clinics.

Each year, CLO students provide basic information and make referrals to more than 1,000 low-income people in need of social and legal services. These linkages often make the difference between people being housed or homeless, and having access to other basic necessities such as income and health care.

For the CLO website, check http://www.ebclc.org/

General Outreach and Poverty Law

CLO students conduct outreach at the Neighborhood Justice Center on the first and third Mondays of the month. Supervised by an attorney, they provide legal support and referrals for a variety of legal questions related to housing, criminal law, public assistance, small claims court, and more. On the second and fourth Mondays, students will conduct outreach at a variety of locations throughout Berkeley, including the Men's and Women's Shelters, and the Youth Clinic.

Benefits Outreach

Through weekly outreach to clients at the Social Services Agency, CLO students "meet clients where they are" to provide assistance with CalWORKS, General Assistance, and other public benefits (i.e. "welfare"). There is also an income support outreach group at the Public Benefits Office to support efforts to educate benefits recipients on the Maximum Family Grant rule. This new branch of the PBO will partner with Law Students for Reproductive Justice to provide support to women and families in the Public Benefits system.

Location: North County Multi-Service Center, 2000 San Pablo Ave, Oakland; Eastmont Town Center, 6955 Foothill Blvd, Oakland

Homeless Outreach

On the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of the month, CLO students conduct outreach to the homeless populations of Oakland and Berkeley, going to homeless shelters, drop-ins, transitional houses, and clinics (including the student-run Suitcase Clinic). Supervised by an attorney, they provide legal advice and referrals, do intake for people who have received "quality of life" citations, and conduct "know your rights" trainings.

Location: East Oakland Community Project (5725 International Ave, Oakland) and other sites TBD.

Tenants' Rights Workshop

The Tenants' Rights Workshop works closely with residents of Oakland and Berkeley to help inform them of their legal rights and remedies regarding a variety of issues, from procuring security deposits to warranty of habitability concerns. Students work one-on-one with staff attorneys from the East Bay Community Law Center to come up with the best solutions to the tenants' problems. In doing so, they learn relevant housing codes and statues, and effectively identifying and addressing clients' legal issues. The workshop meets weekly on Wednesday evenings.

Location: East Bay Community Law Center (3130 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley)

Civil Rights Outreach Project (CROP)

CROP works in collaboration with the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) in San Francisco to outreach to monolingual and economically disadvantaged individuals within communities impacted by post-9/11 profiling and discrimination. CROP aims to assist these communities with their legal needs, educate them about their legal rights, and empower them to advocate on their own behalf.

In conjunction with the ALC and other partnering attorneys, CROP participants travel to community centers in the Berkeley-Oakland area to provide clients with free, limited legal knowledge and to conduct intakes. Students will gain substantive knowledge of national security and civil rights issues, as well as training on issue spotting and client interaction. CROP can accommodate a range of commitment levels.

E-mail: crop-directors@googlegroups.com

Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

IRAP provides legal assistance to Iraqi refugees applying for resettlement to the United States. The project serves clients living inside and near Iraq, and who are among the 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country due to the war, economic depravity, and persecution. Others are in grave danger due to previous work for a US employer. Founded in the Spring of 2008, more than 40 IRAP Berkeley students have partnered with law firms and solo attorneys across the country to provide legal assistance to these refugees.

Students are paired together with IRAP coordinators and supervising attorneys. Together, they contact clients oversees and develop legal strategies for the client’s cases based upon the clients’ experiences and personal narratives. They then work alongside the attorneys to provide the client with detailed guidance in navigating the often opaque resettlement process. Students prepare requisite documents, assist in drafting client declarations, solicit US government and military recommendations, provide translation services, and advocate on behalf of their clients with the aim of seeing their clients approved for resettlement to the US.

Website: http://www.irap-berkeley.org

La Raza Workers' Rights Clinic

La Raza WRC provides comprehensive legal services to immigrant, low-income and Latino communities in the Bay Area.  These services include bilingual legal representation, education, community organizing and advocacy.  Through education and legal assistance for wage claims, discrimination, and workers' compensation, the Workers’ Rights Clinic helps low-wage workers fight unlawful working conditions.

The WRC has provided an opportunity for students to work directly with clients who have been impacted by wage and hour violations, employment discrimination and/or retaliation, and other areas of employment law. In particular, students are given the opportunity to meet directly with clients, prepare their demand letters or wage claims, research different areas of the law (in the event the clinic does follow-up work for the client), and in some cases, represent them at agency hearings. 

Workers' Rights Clinic

The Workers' Rights Clinic serves to provide free legal information to low-income workers with employment-related problems and to give Berkeley Law students, particularly first-years, an opportunity to interview and work with clients who need their help. Clients meet one-on-one with a Berkeley Law student to discuss the details of the client's employment problem. Together, the attorney and the student analyze the client's situation, identify legal issues, and determine what remedies the client might pursue. The student then reports back to the client and discusses the possible solutions with her or him. Students usually volunteer every other Thursday night, where they learn from dedicated supervising attorneys about current issues in employment law in a small-group discussion setting. Students also find that the WRC provides a good opportunity to meet and talk with other students interested in community service and experiencing the law at work outside of the classroom.

E-mail: workersrights@law.berkeley.edu
Website: http://workersrights.boalt.org/