Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was illegal. This decision blocks new applications for DACA and puts the lives of almost 650,000 DACA recipients and the millions of people connected to them at risk. This includes our client, a UC Berkeley […]
The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is proud to announce that, after over four years of advocacy, Governor Newsom signed AB 1720. This bill will remove barriers from the criminal background check process for people applying to work at care facilities. As one EBCLC client stated, “This will help families and their children move […]
We will break this law. Women of color comprise the majority of EBCLC’s executive leadership team. Our staff consists of a majority of women of color. The most significant percentage of clients that we serve are women of color. Last week’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is unequivocally an attack on women of color. […]
My last case in Records Remedies court was just as meaningful. I had the privilege of working with a new parent who had fought California wildfires while incarcerated, a true hero. Despite risking his life for such little pay, my client was unable to work as a firefighter once he was released because of his prior convictions…
The skills and network I gained through the Clinic allowed me to further assist vulnerable, underprivileged communities. After my summer with EBCLC, I founded a consumer pro bono project at Duke Law School, where I recruited more than 50 students and forged partnerships with local and national consumer organizations…
EBCLC also showed me that our legal system, although it is adversarial, benefits from sympathy and solidarity. Civility and respect gave rise to greater negotiation and compromise from opposing counsel at IEP meetings. Connecting with my client and not focusing solely on his legal issues deepened the quality of our advocacy…
Beyond client interaction, the Youth Defender Clinic also provided me several chances to appear in court before a judge, a unique experience that truly cannot be replicated in a classroom setting. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush of fighting for a client before a room full of people, and it served as a great reminder of why this work is so important.
EBCLC was a surprising and wonderful summer experience. A first work experience in the legal world is never an easy transition—even in the best of circumstances, to have responsibility as an advocate thrust upon you can be daunting. But my summer was also the first summer of a pandemic that has stretched into its third year. Logistically, this marked the summer with new learning experiences for supervisors and students alike…
I came to law school with a passion for tenants’ rights and housing justice generally, and the Housing unit at EBCLC only reinforced that. As a 1L, it is easy to feel directionless, overwhelmed by first-year doctrinal classes and unsure about how to put your passions into actionable steps. But EBCLC provided a space to do just that…
I participated in two EBCLC clinics during my time at Berkeley Law. My supervising attorneys always assigned me meaningful work, with real opportunities to actually practice being a lawyer, and they provided by far the most comprehensive supervision and feedback that I received during my legal education. If I learned anything about how to actually be a lawyer during my time in law school, it mostly happened in Clinic…
