Equal Justice America (EJA) and the East Bay Community Law Center  (EBCLC) are pleased to invite graduating Berkeley Law students to apply for the  2023 Brian Lewinstein EJA Fellowship. The EJA Fellowship will place the successful applicant for a period of two years with the Education, Defense and Justice for Youth (EDJY) Practice at EBCLC. The EDJY Practice advocates for young people at the intersection of the juvenile justice and education systems in Alameda County by providing legal representation in juvenile delinquency, special education and school  discipline proceedings. Comprised of the Education Justice Clinic and the Youth Defender Clinic, EDJY provides holistic, wrap‐around legal and social work services  to young people and their families. 

EBCLC is a women of color-led and centered non‐profit legal services organization and the community‐based clinical program for Berkeley Law. EBCLC is committed to increasing access to justice through education and advocacy and by building a culturally diverse workplace, centered on equity and inclusion. With about 80 staff, 150 law students per year, and a nearly $10 million annual budget, EBCLC is the largest provider of free legal services in Alameda County, providing multimodal, collaborative, and holistic legal advocacy to over 5,000 clients annually and engaging in legislative and policy advocacy and affirmative litigation at the local  and state levels.  

The Fellow will support the work of both the Education Justice and Youth  Defender Clinics. The goals of this Fellowship are: direct representation of youth, engaging with and enhancing relationships between youth-focused community organizations and EDJY, and strengthening policy efforts at the community and state levels that address critical education and other needs for youth impacted by the juvenile legal system. These goals are crafted to enable the Fellow to engage in  community lawyering–a practice that recognizes the importance of community leadership in driving legal services and policy advocacy campaigns. The Fellow will be encouraged to take a lead role in enhancing EDJY’s community lawyering efforts in a manner that centers students of color and their caregivers in Alameda County.  

Minimum Qualifications 

• J.D. degree from Berkeley Law expected in May 2023* 
• Demonstrated commitment to racial justice 
• Excellent written and oral advocacy skills
• Ability to partner and work effectively with a diverse range of groups, including people of color, people who are unhoused, immigrants, non‐English speakers,  people with disabilities, people experiencing domestic violence, law students,  service providers, government employees, community partners, elected officials, and law school faculty
• Interest in law student supervision and clinical legal education

* This Fellowship is intended for recently-graduated Berkeley Law alumni. The Fellow must be able to commence work with EBCLC’s EDJY Program in early Fall 2023. Candidates that graduated in 2021 or 2022, and will have spent the interim year(s) clerking, will be considered so long as they can begin the Fellowship Term in Fall 2023.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Proficiency in Spanish 
• Experience working with youth 
• Knowledge of, and/or experience with community lawyering
•  Knowledge of, and/or experience with, criminal, juvenile delinquency, special education and/or school discipline proceedings
• Knowledge of, and/or experience with community organizing and/or legislative advocacy 

Interested applicants should submit application materials by email to both fellowship@ebclc.org and info@equaljusticeamerica.org (include “EJA Brian  Lewinstein Youth Justice Fellowship” in the subject line) no later than October 28,  2022. Please combine all materials into a single PDF. EBCLC will review  applications on a rolling basis and may schedule interviews before the closing date. Application materials should include a statement of interest, resume, short writing  sample, and a total of 3 professional references.  

The statement of interest should address all of the following topics in no more than three double‐spaced, typewritten pages: 

• Describe how you meet the minimum qualifications and any of the preferred qualifications above, and how any relevant lived or professional experience you may have had qualifies you for this position. 
• Describe area(s) of our current systems of juvenile justice and/or public education systems where you believe the need for reform is most critical, and what changes you believe would be most effective in addressing social, racial, and/or disability justice in those area(s).
• Describe what community lawyering means to you, and provide examples of how you might begin engaging in this practice during your first three months  as a Fellow.

Questions about the Brian Lewinstein Fellowship and the application process may be directed to EBCLC Co-Deputy Director, Rosa Bay (rbay@ebclc.org), and Atasi Uppal  (auppal@ebclc.org), Co-Director, Education, Defense and Justice for Youth (EDJY) Practice.

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Across the globe, despite COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders, massive protests continue to rage in response to the murders of Black individuals by the police. The protests call for an end to policing and to the police, and an end to the violent regime of state-sponsored terror and social control of Black communities. Black people are in constant fear of and in danger from the police, when walking down the street, sleeping, and driving.

Academics, protestors, activists, community organizers, nonprofits, and others are quick to point out the dangers of “driving while black.” Due to racial profiling, Black motorists are at exponentially greater risk of being pulled over, cited, and fined for minor traffic-infractions than white motorists. According to Not Just a Ferguson Problem, “San Diego and Sacramento data show that African-American people were two to four times more likely to get pulled over for a traffic stop than white people […]. In San Francisco, over 70% of people seeking legal assistance for driver’s license suspensions were African American, though African Americans make up only 6% of the city as a whole.”[1] Though there are not official statistics, given pernicious anti-Blackness that particularly affects young Black men, it is likely that Black youth are particularly overrepresented among traffic citees.[2]

Black youth face a host of penalties for traffic and nontraffic infractions, which place numerous difficult burdens on their lives. First, traffic and nontraffic tickets are expensive. While base fines for infractions begin as low as $25, fees and penalty assessments can more than triple the costs. For example, the base fine for running a stop sign is $35, but with added fees that infraction will likely end up costing $238. In addition, if a young person fails to appear or to pay a ticket by the deadline, they often receive a $300 civil assessment, which is nearly impossible to expunge. The financial consequences of infractions can be devastating to adults, and are even more devastating to youth, who are less likely to have full-time employment and/or be financially solvent. These fines and fees place Black youth in precarious financial positions, sometimes before they’ve even had their first job.

Minor infractions also tend to result in license suspensions, which further disproportionately harm poor people, homeless people, and youth, who face extreme burdens in getting to court and/or paying tickets. Poor Black youth who live at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities face even more challenges. The result is that many Black youth face driver’s license suspensions prior to being issued a valid license in the first place. A suspended license can also result in subsequent criminal consequences. While driving without a valid license is nearly always charged as an infraction, driving on a suspended license can be a misdemeanor charge, and many jurisdictions across California charge driving on a suspended license as a misdemeanor. Consequences for a conviction of misdemeanor driving on a suspended license include a fine and/or serving jail time. Failing to appear for an infraction court date and failing to pay a court-ordered fine on time can further result in misdemeanor charges and convictions.

Finally, crucially, continued contact with the police can lead to police harassment, violence, and premature death – particularly for Black youth.

In light of the dual pandemics currently raging in our society and, in particular, in our community here in Alameda County, the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) Clean Slate Clinic invites applications for the Fall 2021-23 Brian Lewinstein Fellowship (“Fellowship”).  The Fellowship equates to a two-year, full-time, salaried EBCLC Staff Attorney position that will commence in Fall 2021.  The Fellowship offers recent law school graduates the opportunity to acquire training in policy advocacy rooted in movement lawyering, the provision of direct legal services, clinical supervision of law students, and many other aspects of public interest practice.  The Fellowship is open – and limited – to recent Berkeley Law graduates that expect to earn a J.D. from Berkeley Law in Spring 2021 or shortly thereafter.  Recent Berkeley Law graduates (e.g., classes of 2019, 2020) that have spent one or more consecutive years clerking or in another time-limited public interest fellowship are eligible to apply.

The 2021-23 Brian Lewinstein Fellow will work with EBCLC’s Clean Slate Clinic primarily doing policy work to advance the fight against the criminalization of Black youth in Alameda County by:

1. Advocating before and engaging with local and county-level government agencies to implement recently passed State laws to provide relief to those most impacted by fines & fees;
2. Engaging in policy advocacy to decriminalize Black youth on the road. (The Fellow will regularly attend Back on the Road Coalition meetings, and support other grassroots coalitions engaging in similar work);
3. Conducting targeted outreach to youth-serving agencies in Alameda County, including Youth Uprising (East Oakland), the YEAH Shelter (Berkeley), and Civicorps (West Oakland); and
4. Collaborating with other members of the Clean Slate Clinic team in the provision of direct services to transition aged youth.

EBCLC’s Clean Slate Clinic uses strategic legal and policy tools to reduce pathways to the criminal justice system and remove barriers to employment and civic participation for people with conviction records.

EBCLC is a non‐profit legal services organization and the community‐based clinical program for Berkeley Law. EBCLC is committed to increasing access to justice through education and advocacy and by building a culturally diverse workplace, centered on equity and inclusion. With over 80 staff, 150 law students per year, and an $8+ million annual budget, EBCLC is the largest provider of free legal services in Alameda County, providing multimodal, collaborative, and holistic legal advocacy to over 5,000 clients annually and engaging in legislative and policy advocacy and affirmative litigation at the local and state level.

Minimum Qualifications

• J.D. degree from Berkeley Law expected in May 2021*
• Demonstrated commitment to working on criminal justice issues broadly
• Demonstrated commitment to social, racial, economic, and/or disability justice
• Strong interest in policy work
• Excellent written and oral advocacy skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Interest in, knowledge of, and/or experience with, criminal, juvenile delinquency, and/or clean slate/records and remedies
• Interest in, knowledge of, and/or experience with, coalition-based work, policy advocacy, and movement lawyering
• Interest in law student supervision and clinical legal education and instruction
• Ability to partner and work effectively with a diverse range of groups, including people of color, homeless people, immigrants, non‐English speakers, people with mental disabilities, people experiencing domestic violence, law students, service providers, government employees, community partners, elected officials, and law school faculty.

Interested applicants should submit application materials by email to the following three (3) email addresses (include “2021-23 EJA Brian Lewinstein Youth Justice Fellowship” in the subject line): fellowships@ebclc.org, spatel@ebclc.org and info@equaljusticeamerica.org – no later than Monday, January 11, 2021. Please combine all application materials into a single PDF. Application materials should include a statement of interest, resume, short writing sample, and a total of two or three professional references and/or letters of reference. EBCLC will review applications on a rolling basis and may schedule interviews before the closing date.

The statement of interest should address all of the following topics in no more than three (3) double‐spaced, typewritten pages:

• Describe your personal and/or professional interest in working with and for economically disadvantaged/oppressed youth, particularly in communities of color, and how any relevant practical and/or professional experience you may have had in this field qualifies you for the Brian Lewinstein Fellowship.
• Describe area(s) of our current systems of juvenile justice and/or criminal justice where you believe the need for reform is most critical and what reform(s) you believe would be most effective in addressing social, racial, economic, and/or disability justice in those area(s).
• Describe an area of policy or legislative advocacy that you either worked on or are familiar with, as an example of how you might approach that type of advocacy in the context of transition‐age youth.

* This Fellowship is intended for recently graduated Berkeley Law alums. The Fellow must be able to commence work with EBCLC’s Clean Slate Practice in Fall 2021. Candidates that graduated in 2019 or 2020, and are spending, or will have spent, the interim year(s) in a time-limited clerkship or a public interest fellowship, will be considered so long as they can begin the Fellowship Term in Fall 2021.

Questions about the Brian Lewinstein Fellowship and the application process may be directed to EBCLC Clinical Director, Seema N. Patel (spatel@ebclc.org).

EBCLC is strongly committed to building a culturally diverse workplace centered on equity and providing an inclusive, welcoming, and culturally responsive environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. To achieve this goal, EBCLC works actively to improve our office climate, systems and structures, communications, and community engagement to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued. We strongly encourage individuals from traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. EBCLC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior contact with the criminal justice system, or any other basis prohibited by law.

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_{[1] Not Just A Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California, available at https://lccrsf.org/wp-content/uploads/Not-Just-a-Ferguson-Problem-How-Traffic-Courts-Drive-Inequality-in-California-4.20.15.pdf.}

_{[2] Our definition of “youth” includes transitional age youth (young adults who are between the ages of 16 – 24 years-old).}

Equal Justice America (EJA) and the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) are pleased to invite graduating Berkeley Law students to apply for the 2019 Brian Lewinstein Youth Justice EJA Fellowship. The inaugural EJA Fellowship will place the successful applicant with the Youth Defender Clinic (YDC) at EBCLC for a term beginning in Fall 2019 and lasting for two years. The YDC advocates for young people at the intersection of the juvenile justice and education systems in Alameda County by providing legal representation in juvenile delinquency and school discipline proceedings, as well as assisting young people in overcoming barriers to education and employment. Along with EBCLC’s Education Advocacy Clinic (EAC) and social work program, the YDC provides holistic, wrap‐around legal and social work services to young people and their families.

EBCLC is a non‐profit legal services organization and the community‐based clinical program for Berkeley Law. EBCLC is committed to increasing access to justice through education and advocacy and by building a culturally diverse workplace, centered on equity and inclusion. With over 70 staff, 150 law students per year, and an $8 million annual budget, EBCLC is the largest provider of free legal services in Alameda County, providing multimodal, collaborative, and holistic legal advocacy to over 7,000 clients annually and engaging in legislative and policy advocacy and affirmative litigation at the local and state level.

The specific focus of the EJA Fellowship is transition‐age youth, defined generally as young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. Although the modern understanding of adolescent brain development has resulted in recent unprecedented reforms in the California juvenile justice system, these reforms have largely overlooked transition‐age youth. However, California reform efforts such as AB12, which provides extended support and services for young people who historically would have otherwise “aged out” of the foster care system, illustrate a critical unmet need for an in‐depth examination of existing laws and regulations to determine their developmental appropriateness for this population.

The goal of this project is to improve outcomes for transition‐age youth either currently involved in or at risk of becoming involved with, either the juvenile justice or criminal justice system in California. On an individual level, the EJA Fellow will represent youth of all ages in juvenile delinquency and school discipline proceedings in Alameda County, California, in an effort to prevent the over‐ criminalization of youth and pushout from schools.

On a systemic level, the EJA fellow will leverage the fellow’s direct representation experience to create, propose, and advocate for broader reforms, both locally and statewide, which directly impact transition‐age youth. Such reforms could include efforts such as: (1) increasing the age of majority in juvenile delinquency proceedings from 18 to 21; (2) reducing or eliminating the incarceration of transition‐age youth in adult jails and prisons; (3) expanding juvenile procedural safeguards to apply to transition‐age youth; and (4) identifying, developing, and implementing programs and services for transition‐ age youth to help avoid system involvement. Through holistic individual advocacy and policy reform, the EJA Fellow will also directly challenge disparate racial impacts inherent in our current juvenile justice and criminal justice systems. In joining EBCLC YDC, the Fellow may also play a role supervising law students as part of EBCLC’s Clinical Program.

Minimum Qualifications

• J.D. degree from Berkeley Law expected in May 2019*
• Demonstrated commitment to working with children and youth
• Demonstrated commitment to social, racial, and disability justice
• Strong interest in policy work
• Excellent written and oral advocacy skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Interest in, knowledge of, and/or experience with, criminal, juvenile delinquency, and/or school discipline proceedings
• Interest in, knowledge of, and/or experience with, legislative advocacy
• Interest in law student supervision and clinical legal education and instruction
• Ability to partner and work effectively with a diverse range of groups, including people of color, homeless people, immigrants, non‐English speakers, people with mental disabilities, people experiencing domestic violence, law students, service providers, government employees, community partners, elected officials, and law school faculty

EBCLC is strongly committed to building a culturally diverse workplace centered on equity and providing an inclusive, welcoming, and culturally responsive environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. To achieve this goal, EBCLC works actively to improve our office climate, systems and structures, communications, and community engagement to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued. We strongly encourage individuals from traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. EBCLC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior contact with the criminal justice system, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Interested applicants should submit application materials by email to both fellowships@ebclc.org and info@equaljusticeamerica.org (include “EJA Brian Lewinstein Youth Justice Fellowship” in the subject line) no later than Wednesday, January 2, 2019. Please combine all materials into a single PDF. EBCLC will review applications on a rolling basis and may schedule interviews before the closing date. Application materials should include a statement of interest, resume, short writing sample, and a total of two to three professional references and/or letters of reference. The statement of interest should address all of the following topics in no more than three double‐spaced, typewritten pages:

• Describe your personal and/or professional interest in working with and for children and youth in general, and how any relevant practical and/or professional experience you may have had in this field qualifies you for this position.
• Describe area(s) of our current systems of juvenile justice and/or criminal justice where you believe the need for reform is most critical and what reform(s) you believe would be most effective in addressing social, racial, and/or disability justice in those area(s).
• Describe an area of policy or legislative advocacy that you either worked on or are familiar as an example of how you might approach that type of advocacy in the context of transition‐age youth.

* This Fellowship is intended for recently-graduated Berkeley Law alums. The Fellow must be able to commence work with EBCLC’s YDC Unit in Fall 2019. Candidates that graduated Berkeley Law in 2017 or 2018, and that will have spent the interim year(s) completing a judicial clerkship(s), will be considered for the Fall 2019 inaugural fellowship so long as they can commence the Fellowship Term in Fall 2019.

Questions about the Brian Lewinstein EJA Fellowship and the application process should be directed to EBCLC Clinical Director, Seema N. Patel (spatel@ebclc.org) and to Rosa Bay (rbay@ebclc.org), Program Director, EBCLC Education, Defense, and Justice for Youth (EDJY) Practice.

Please note that the application deadline for the 2019 Fellowship has passed.

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