Jay Kim is the Co-Deputy Director at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC). Jay provides leadership in the implementation of EBCLC’s strategic and programmatic goals and manages EBCLC’s Consumer Justice Clinic, Housing Practice, Community Economic Justice Clinic, and the Clean Slate Practice.

Jay joined EBCLC in 2020 with over twelve years of community lawyering and nonprofit management experience. As a Co-Founder and Co-Director of Common Law, a non-profit organization in New York City that supported community organizing efforts through legal education and legal assistance, Jay helped grow a volunteer-run start-up to a fully funded organization with innovative programming. For over seven years, Jay defended organized street vendors against excessive fines and administrative violations; represented low-income tenants in the Lower East Side fighting eviction and gentrification; and also created a foreclosure defense legal clinic for pro se homeowners. Employing a combination of direct representation, strategic direct action support, and intensive political and legal education, Jay developed a robust model for community lawyering with grassroots partners. This model not only achieved favorable results for individuals but also built community power for member-based organizations of color.

Jay was also a Supervising Attorney and Clinical Instructor at Rising for Justice (formerly DC Law Students in Court). She supervised and taught trial advocacy skills to a new generation of law students to provide high quality legal services to low-income Washingtonians.

Most recently, Jay served as the Executive Director of the Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the largest NLG chapter in the country. There, she helped diversify the organization’s funding streams, strengthen community partnerships, and design workshops and trainings to better support Bay Area movement organizations.