I had the opportunity to work with EBCLC’s Housing Clinic for three semesters over the course of my tenure at Berkeley Law, and participated in the Tenants’ Rights Workship my 1L and 2L years. My time spent at the Clinic has been one of the most profound learning experiences of my life. Everyone who works at the Clinic is extremely committed to client-centered advocacy, and to providing exceptional training for their law students. I have not only been taught the skills and values necessary to be an effective and responsible advocate, I have been thoroughly inspired. To me, the Housing Clinics’ co-directors, Linda Yu and Meghan Gordon, epitomize who I hope to be in my career. They are passionate and brilliant, of course, but also enduringly kind and caring towards everyone who touches their office. Even on incredibly hard and stressful days, they find time to make you laugh. They find time to ask you if you are okay, to remind you that you are part of a team, and to teach you the small things that overtime transform the quality of your legal work.
Linda, my primary supervising attorney, has taught me so much about the practicalities of representing tenants, from writing motions to supporting clients in difficult moments, and maybe most importantly, that in almost every situation you can and should send another follow up email. She also taught me how to trust myself. Legal aid work requires you to ask for profound trust from your clients, sometimes after only a few minutes of knowing them, and sometimes in the midst of situations that are life and death for the people experiencing them. Asking this from clients is not easy, and it is a process that demands that you trust yourself. Trusting yourself to do this work is not about blind faith in your abilities, in fact, it is the opposite. It is constantly eliciting feedback, and proving to yourself that you can incorporate it into your work. It is asking for help when you need it, and really, deeply listening to others. It is demanding excellence from yourself while taking care of yourself. It is having internal and external processes in place to check for your blind spots and weaknesses, and mentors who point them out to you with care and consistency. It is demonstrating to yourself that you can navigate through difficult situations, that you can show up and do your best every day. Having Linda as a mentor has shown me how to mentor myself, and while one’s learning can never be complete, Linda has given me the tools to deeply engage in that learning.
I am incredibly proud of the work I have done as a part of the Housing Clinic team, and it has shown me that I can continue to do this work in the future. I want to sincerely thank everyone who works at EBCLC, and especially everyone who works in the Housing Clinic. You have all taught me so much about the work I care so deeply about, and I have genuinely enjoyed working with all of you so much.
Written by Sophia Fenn
University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Class of 2024
East Bay Community Law Center, Housing Clinic