Fueled by the injustice he encountered as a student advocate, Phil Hernandez ’16 has turned a simple idea into a California bill to protect tenants involved in eviction lawsuits. While working with the Housing Program at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), Hernandez assisted clients who suffered from what he calls “a big flaw in landlord-tenant law.”
Thousands of low-income Alameda County families will no longer have to pay juvenile probation and public defender fees. On March 29, 2016 the Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to impose an immediate moratorium on all fees charged to parents and guardians with children in the juvenile justice system.
It was high-stakes for the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), representing a trafficking victim for the first time. It was high stakes for EBCLC student Asher Waite-Jones ’16, pursuing a visa for a detained client badly in need of help. And it was the highest of stakes for Lynden, who asked not to use her last name, an undocumented transgender woman from Belize facing possible deportation.
DMV Policies Violate Californians’ Constitutional Rights and Jeopardize Employment Opportunities, according to the East Bay Community Law Center & Social Justice Law Project
Oakland, Calif., February 24, 2016 — A new lawsuit filed today charges the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with a widespread practice of illegally retaining and reporting the criminal history records of upwards of 1 million Californians.
National Jurist has named Luke Diamond ’16 a 2016 Law Student of the Year. His many achievements include founding the Consumer Rights Workshop, whose students have helped more than 150 clients, and strengthening the East Bay Community Law Center’s debt-collection litigation defense practice.
Mindy Phillips ’15 and Whitney Rubenstein ’14 have plenty in common. Both found a second home in the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) soon after enrolling at Berkeley Law. Both strive to support at-risk youth. And both received prestigious, two-year Equal Justice Works fellowships to do just that at EBCLC. Phillips’ initiative provides immigration legal services to Oakland public school students and their families. Rubenstein’s offers legal representation and social work support to Oakland public housing tenants who face possible eviction because of a juvenile delinquency matter. Each innovative project is improving the lives of vulnerable children.
Salmon — the Oakland resident featured in my story, who has legal support from the East Bay Community Law Center — has struggled with homelessness and unemployment and has been unable to pay fines tied to two minor traffic tickets over the last two years. The resulting license suspension has prevented him from getting multiple jobs, and he can’t afford to pay the more than $1,000 he now owes.
In April 2005, the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) hosted a “Clean Slate Summit” at Laney College in Oakland. Organized by EBCLC leaders Tirien Steinbach ’99 and Margaret Richardson ’03, the event drew more than 900 people
In many circles, using the law for good has become a tired cliché. But at Berkeley Law’s annual Citation Award Dinner on Oct. 20, that ethos stood out as the honorees’ connective thread.
