As a clinical student with the Community Economic Justice Clinic, I had the opportunity to work with low-income entrepreneurs of color as they built and grew small businesses and non-profits in the East Bay. Through the client work and CEJ’s seminars, my team became well-acquainted with the deep history of economic injustice in California. Housing costs, transit deserts, redlining, gentrification, zoning laws, and arbitrary business permitting can all serve as barriers to people seeking economic opportunities for themselves and their communities. CEJ approaches its work by starting with the idea that opportunities to build economic value, whether as a business owner, employee, customer, tenant, or community member, are characterized by racial and economic disparities.
Economic injustice is everywhere, and only a wide variety of tools can begin to unravel that web. This is why CEJ takes a dual approach to advocacy—engaging in direct client work and policy advocacy simultaneously. In law school, opportunities to both navigate existing laws for clients while challenging those same laws because they perpetuate injustice are rare. CEJ made it possible for me to counsel a client on her upcoming rent negotiation in the morning and go knocking on doors and distributing affordable housing literature in the afternoon. Canvassing on behalf of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act gave me a chance to get to know my neighbors and provided me with the tools to intelligently talk about affordable housing in Berkeley.
CEJ also taught me about unconventional ways in which lawyers can work with communities to build economic prosperity and solidarity. One example that comes to mind is the Community Land Trust movement, which involves the collective purchasing of land to hold in trust and keep it affordable for residents. Another is helping small businesses start employee-owned cooperatives, which equitably distribute power and profit among members. Another still is advising sustainable home food businesses that repurpose produce that would otherwise have been diverted to landfills. CEJ introduced me to chefs, artists, grocery store owners, and gardeners, all creatively finding ways to create value and give back to their Bay Area communities.
Corporate and non-profit laws in the U.S. were not created with social-justice entities in mind, yet these businesses and nonprofits continue to thrive and lift up others along the way. I have been inspired by the creativity of my clients and the ways in which they navigate power to achieve their goals and build robust organizations from scratch. Law school can beat some of the optimism out of you, but working with CEJ’s clients made me feel more hopeful about what small-scale economic empowerment can do for social justice. I am leaving law school filled with gratitude for the opportunities EBCLC provided me, and I will remember my time working with some of the East Bay’s coolest residents with great fondness.
Written by Alex Sasse
University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Class of 2024
East Bay Community Law Center, Community Economic Justice Clinic