“They want housing, but there is just no housing. Some of them have been Berkeley residents for 30 years. You’re telling them they can’t be anywhere,” said Andrea Henson, a homelessness advocate who also works as an intern at the East Bay Community Law Center.

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) seeks an Immigration Staff Attorney/Clinical Supervisor who represents immigrants with a wide variety of immigration matters and trains and supervises law student interns.

The position requires an excellent advocate with strong writing, interpersonal, and organizational skills who works well in a fast-paced collaborative environment, has experience providing immigration services to low-income people, and is committed to training and mentoring the next generation of legal advocates and furthering the mission for social justice.

EBCLC is a non-profit legal services organization and the community-based clinical program for Berkeley Law School. We are committed to increasing justice through education and advocacy, as well as building a culturally diverse workplace centered on equity.

With over 70 staff, 150 law students, and an $8 Million annual budget, EBCLC is the largest provider of free legal advocacy in Alameda County, providing multi-modal, collaborative, and holistic legal services to over 5,000 clients yearly. EBCLC supports is ground-level legal advocacy through legislative and policy advocacy at the local and state level.

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Development Assistant to join its Development Team. The ideal candidate is a positive and extremely organized individual with strong communication skills, a flexible and proactive attitude, excellent judgment, strong software and social media skills, and a commitment to EBCLC’s social justice mission. If you are excited about playing a critical support role fundraising for the largest provider of free legal advocacy for low-income people in the East Bay, we encourage you to apply!

EBCLC is a non-profit legal services organization and the community-based clinical program for Berkeley Law School. We are committed to increasing justice through education and advocacy, as well as building a culturally diverse workplace centered on equity. With over 70 staff, 150 law students, and an $8 million annual budget, EBCLC is the largest provider of free legal advocacy in Alameda County, providing multi modal, collaborative, and holistic legal services to over 5,000 clients yearly. EBCLC supports its ground-level legal advocacy through legislative and policy advocacy at the local and state level.

The Development Assistant will participate in EBCLC’s fundraising efforts through donor cultivation support, including gift tracking and acknowledgement, supporting the creation of donor communication materials, prospect research, maintenance of the development database and other record-keeping systems, and directly supporting the planning and implementation of organizational events.

“They’ve lived all their lives in that house on that street and it’s traumatic and utterly disorienting for them to be evicted from the house,” said Osha Neumann, supervising attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, who is a well-known homeless advocate, and one of those assisting the brothers.

“EBCLC exemplifies the kind of work I hope Berkeley is preparing me to do in the future.”

Through this experience working with other community members for the release of his client, Greg learned the meaning of community.

Kelsey had the opportunity to work on a case that allowed her to witness the untold story of her client.

After careful consideration and consultation with impacted communities, advocates, and the
Debt Free Justice California (DFJC) coalition, Senator Holly J. Mitchell (D – LA) has made the
groundbreaking Families Over Fees Act a two-year bill.

Three years ago, during Brandon Greene’s first week working as a lawyer in a new clinic affiliated with the East Bay Community Law Center, he was handed a stack of cases to review. Each involved a client who was struggling to pay down the fines and fees that easily accumulate in California’s criminal justice system. It was his job to help. A handful of the cases were so old that he couldn’t find current contact information for the clients. He quickly realized that “some of those folks,” even if he did reach them, “could not get back on their feet at all”  because of their debt. “The folks who were being affected were mostly indigent,” he said. “Everything costs money. Every program costs money. And a lot of folks can’t afford to pay these things.”

In 2017, Neumann helped represent First They Came for the Homeless, an organized encampment, against an eviction by BART. In 2018, he represented the RV-based Berkeley Friends on Wheels, and assisted in representing Oakland’s Housing and Dignity Village camp. He’s now working on a lawsuit against Caltrans, which, according to Neumann, has been “taking property and destroying it,” a violation, he argues, of the Fourth Amendment.