Please join the Levin Center and SLS Alum Katherine Lin of EBCLC for an informational workshop about their Housing Program’s Summer 2022 Internships!

This is an in person event and food will be provided.

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East Bay Community Law Center’s (EBCLC) Housing Program is hiring for Summer 2022 interns! As the largest provider of free legal services in the East Bay, we here at EBCLC are all too familiar with the crushing effects of evictions having served communities grappling with a housing crisis prior to 2020. Now, in the midst of the pandemic that has hit hardest those already most vulnerable, the need to represent low-income tenants could not be more urgent or critical.

With six other practice areas besides Housing, EBCLC is a clinic at Berkeley Law School and one of California’s leading racial justice legal clinics. It was founded in 1988 and is a non-profit organization in addition to operating as a clinic.

The Housing Team is a litigation practice designed to protect and promote safe, healthy, and affordable housing for low-income tenants. If you join our Housing team, you will focus on defending tenants from eviction lawsuits, with an emphasis on representing tenants in long-term tenancies to preserve the value of rent controlled units. We also prioritize subsidized tenancies such as those in the section 8 and conventional public housing programs, as well as defending tenants with disabilities.

The Housing Team also offers a unique opportunity for law students to hone their litigation skills—offering litigation opportunities that are rare among even attorneys who have graduated and passed the bar. Due to the fast-paced nature of eviction lawsuits, as well as the avalanche of cases we anticipate in 2022 after eviction moratoria may lift, students will have the opportunity to draft and file legal papers including robust, dispositive motions, propound and respond to discovery, engage in one-on-one negotiations with opposing counsel, draft settlement agreements, and advocate for clients at mediations or administrative proceedings before public housing authorities. Certified students have the additional opportunities of conducting depositions, appearing in court, and arguing motions.

And because we are first and foremost a direct services practice, joining the Housing team means you will have the opportunity to cultivate the trusting relationship between advocates and clients that is integral and necessary to our work. Students will directly interact with clients throughout the Summer.

EBCLC’s Housing Team is also a great place to spend your summer: we take our work seriously but don’t take ourselves seriously. We are a tight-knit team that loves happy hours, trivia nights, and debating pop culture. We believe that to be a zealous advocate, you must first and foremost be a full individual. Work-life balance is essential to direct services, and we take our commitments to our families and communities just as seriously as we do those commitments we make in the office.

If you have questions or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact Katherine Lin (SLS ’14) at katherinejlin@gmail.com. Information on how to apply will also be forthcoming here: https://ebclc.org/students/summer-program/