Clinics and Other Discrete and Less-Time-Intensive Opportunities That Have a Big Impact

Transcription

1 Clinics and Other Discrete and Less-Time-Intensive Opportunities That Have a Big Impact The following is a list of opportunities at Public Counsel that are a good fit for volunteers who are seeking a less time-intensive experience. All of the matters on the list are available to attorneys. Some are also available to law students and non-attorney professionals. If you are interested in a particular matter, and meet the qualifications, please feel free to reach out directly to the identified contact person. Click to read more: Federal Pro Se Clinic Bankruptcy Self-Help Desk and Clinic Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Hearings Community Development Project Educational Seminars Early Care & Education Project Educational Seminars Public Counsel CARES Project Homelessness Prevention Clinic at People Assisting the Homeless Guardianship Clinic Federal Pro Se Clinic For attorneys who want to share their litigation and federal court experience in a courthouse clinic. This clinic provides legal advice to pro se litigants with cases pending in the Central District of California. You will work under the supervision of a staff attorney with extensive experience in federal court practice. Location: Federal District Court at 312 N. Spring Street in downtown L.A. Time Commitment: Clinic takes place Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 1:30 to 4:30. Attorneys can volunteer for one session at a time or commit to an ongoing schedule. Qualifications: Litigation attorneys. Some federal court experience helpful but not necessary. Contact person: Frances Azizi fazizi@publiccounsel.org Bankruptcy Self-Help Desk and Clinic For attorneys who wish to help individuals through the bankruptcy process, either by counseling individuals one-on-one at the self-help desk or presenting to a group in a workshop-style clinic. You will gain valuable client counseling skills and increase the breadth of your bankruptcy knowledge due to the plethora of bankruptcy and bankruptcy-related issues that arise at the bankruptcy self help desk and clinic. Location: Self-help desk located at the Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, CA The Clinics take place at Public Counsel s offices located at 610 S. Ardmore, Los Angeles, CA Time Commitment: Self-help desk is open to the public on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-2 and 2-4, you could volunteer on a quarterly or monthly basis. Clinics are held every other Tuesday from Qualifications: Attorneys with any level and type of experience [note: no prior bankruptcy experience required]. Contact Person: Maggie Bordeaux at mbordeaux@publiccounsel.org;

2 Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Hearings For attorneys who would like to gain valuable client counseling skill by advising debtors regarding the consequences of reaffirming a particular debt prior to their reaffirmation hearing. Location: Reaffirmation Hearings take place at the in the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Court and the Woodland Hills Bankruptcy Court. Time Commitment: you could volunteer on a monthly or quarterly basis for a specific hearing date(s) at either court location. Qualifications: Attorneys with any level and type of experience. No prior bankruptcy experience required Contact Person: Maggie Bordeaux at mbordeaux@publiccounsel.org; Community Development Project Educational Seminars For attorneys who wish to educate non-profit or small business clients about particular legal issues (usually transactional in nature). Location and Time: Seminars are arranged at various locations and on various dates throughout the year. The amount of time for each presentation is finite, and attorneys can commit to doing a single presentation without any requirement to do additional presentations. This is a great opportunity to gain public speaking experience. Most of the presentation materials and technical support needed to understand and teach the materials will be provided to the volunteer attorney by Public Counsel. Qualifications: Attorneys with at least one year of general practical experience. Contact Person: Carlo Castro, at ccastro@publiccounsel.org; Early Care & Education Project Educational Seminars For attorneys who wish to educate child care providers about particular legal issues arising from running a small business. Location and Time: seminars are arranged at various locations and on various dates throughout the year. The amount of time for each presentation is finite, and attorneys can commit to doing a single presentation without any requirement to do additional presentations. This is a great opportunity to gain public speaking experience. The presentation materials and technical support needed to understand and teach the materials may be provided to the volunteer attorney by Public Counsel. Qualifications: For attorneys with any level and type of experience. Contact Person: Please your resume to Alma Bonifacio at abonifacio@publiccounsel.org.

3 Public Counsel CARES Project For nearly 25 years, Public Counsel staff and volunteers have been a constant presence in LA County s social service offices. We ve built a reputation of obtaining results for people struggling with poverty. Angelenos know that Public Counsel connects people to essential services, Public Counsel fights for people s dignity and rights and Public Counsel cares about their future. That s why we re announcing Public Counsel CARES, the new name for our signature General Relief Advocacy Project (GRAP). Public Counsel CARES stands for Connecting Angelenos to Resources and Essential Services. It also stands for the way our project has grown beyond protecting General Relief (GR) benefits to pushing for systemic changes and being a louder voice for Angelenos rights. For any attorney, law student, or non-attorney professional interested in volunteering, Public Counsel s CARES Project is the largest and most well-established legal advocacy program working on-site in multiple offices of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS). Each year hundreds of volunteer law students, attorneys and persons with no prior legal experience are trained in a one day experience consisting of an informational seminar in the morning and advocacy in the afternoon. In one day you will be able, with the supervision and support of our staff attorneys, to advocate on behalf of impoverished clients, helping them secure desperately needed shelter, food, healthcare, transportation and other social services and benefits. Qualifications: No prior experience in the subject area required. Time Commitment: Half day for training and half day for advocacy service. Contact Person: Leah Gasser-Ordaz, at lgasser-ordaz@publiccounsel.org; note: if you are from a law firm or business group and wish to coordinate a day of CARES advocacy for multiple members of your organization, please contact Ms Gasser-Ordaz to make appropriate arrangements. Guardianship Clinic Intake Night For a group of attorneys at a law firm or in-house corporate legal department who are interested in assisting unrepresented parties in filling out the paperwork and court forms necessary to establish a guardianship over an at-risk youth. Public Counsel s Guardianship Program, which facilitates guardianship appointments for youth at risk of entering the foster care system, will organize a single weekday evening clinic where a group of attorneys from a law firm or corporate in-house law department will come to Public Counsel, after the workday is over, meet with clients seeking guardianship appointments, and assist them in understanding the process and filling out the legal forms necessary to establish the guardianships. This is an outstanding way to engage a sizable number of attorneys from your organization to work together on a concerted project that is very discrete in nature. Our Guardianship Clinic legal team will first come to your offices at a convenient time to train your designated group of lawyers on the relevant area of law and procedure. Following the training, a scheduled weekday evening clinic will occur at Public Counsel s offices, at a date and time that is convenient for your colleagues (and, again, it would be after work hours). During the clinic, the trained attorneys will provide the services to the clients under the direct supervision of Public Counsel s Guardianship attorneys. There will be no legal work or follow up required following the clinic, which makes this program highly compatible with the volunteers busy work schedules. The team of volunteer attorneys who are interested in this project can participate just once, or Public Counsel can arrange a series of evening clinics of this nature to more regularly engage the volunteer attorneys from your organization. The number of clinics would depend on the volunteer attorneys interest and capacity. The guardianships involved are not contested (typically it is a grandparent or relative seeking the appointment). However, they are essential to the futures and well-being of the youth being represented.

4 Location and Time: Trainings at your offices at a date and time convenient to you. Clinics at Public Counsel, located at 610 S. Ardmore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005, at a date and time convenient to you. Qualifications: This is for attorneys with any level and type of experience. Contact Person: We invite you to form a team in your firm or organization and to contact Nicole Rivera Vazquez, at nrivera@publiccounsel.org, to schedule a training and a clinic. One-Time Ask a Lawyer Clinic for IP Lawyers and Employment Law Specialists: Discrete Intellectual Property and Employment Law Counseling Sessions with Non-Profit and Small Startup Clients One-Time Ask A Lawyer Clinic for IP Lawyers and Employment Law Specialists: Discrete Intellectual Property and Employment Law Counseling Sessions With Non-Profit and Small Start Up Clients For a group of attorneys at a law firm or in-house corporate legal department who have intellectual property expertise or who specialize in labor and employment law and who are interested in assisting non-profits and small startups at a single, discrete Ask A Lawyer session where you would analyze and answer questions face-to-face with clients on matters in these legal subject areas. Public Counsel s Community Development Project provides pro bono legal representation to numerous non-profit and small startup businesses that are serving the needs of low income communities. These businesses regularly have discrete intellectual property and employment law advisory matters that require immediate direction. The Community Development Project will arrange a single Ask A Lawyer clinic session for a group of interested attorneys in your law firm or in-house corporate legal department who have intellectual property or employment law expertise so the attorneys can meet with the clients and give them pointers and a roadmap to resolve the questions posed. There will not be any work for the volunteer attorneys beyond the one-time clinic. To the extent the clinic session identifies some broader ongoing legal need on the part of the client, Public Counsel will perform a follow up assessment to determine the nature of that matter and whether the matter is something we would want to place with pro bono counsel. The Ask A Lawyer session will occur on a weekday, and at a date and time that is convenient to your group of volunteers. To the extent there is desire and capacity in your firm or department to participate in multiple clinic sessions, additional clinics will be arranged based on this same model on other dates that are convenient to your colleagues. Location and Time: Clinics will be held at Public Counsel, located at 610 S. Ardmore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005, at a date and time convenient to you. If you would like to host a clinic at your offices, that is also a model Public Counsel would welcome. Qualifications: This is for a group of attorneys within a law firm or a corporate in-house practice group who have intellectual property or labor and employment law expertise. Contact Person: If you would like to form a group at your firm or organization to participate in one of these clinics, please contact Sarah Stegemoeller, at sstegemoeller@publiccounsel.org.

5 Homelessness Prevention Clinic at People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) For attorneys and law students interested in doing intake and providing limited advice to homeless and atrisk individuals at a once-a-month walk-in clinic. Location and Time: PATH's 340 N. Madison Avenue site, near Beverly and Vermont; second Wednesday of every month; from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; could volunteer on a limited one-time basis or commit to an ongoing schedule. Qualifications: This is for attorneys and law students with any level and type of experience. Contact Person: Sarah Evans, at sevans@publiccounsel.org. Attorney Or Law Student Volunteer For Pro Per Guardianship Clinic Background Information: Public Counsel s Pro Per Guardianship Clinic has an available position for a volunteer attorney or law student to assist pro per litigants to file applications for probate guardianship. This is an opportunity to work directly with low-income people on a one-on-one basis. We assist friends or family of children whose parents are either unable or unavailable to care for them. Under the guidance of Public Counsel s staff attorney, volunteers conduct client intake interviews, navigate the legal software used to complete the required paperwork and are educated about the court process and legal requirements so that they may explain the relevant law and procedures to litigants. Volunteers are also offered the opportunity to observe court hearings. Minimum Qualifications: Attorney or law student with any level of experience. Expected Time Commitment: Clinic hours are Monday through Wednesday from 9:00 a.m.- 4 p.m. We request that volunteers commit to 6-8 hours per week, for a minimum of 12 weeks. Date Needed: Immediate Location(s): Pro Per Guardianship Clinic Stanley Most Courthouse (Downtown LA) 111 N. Hill St., Room 230 Los Angeles, CA Main Offices of Public Counsel 610 South Ardmore Avenue Los Angeles, CA How to Apply for the Position: Please send your resume and cover letter to: Nicole Rivera Vazquez Staff Attorney Children s Rights Project 610 South Ardmore Avenue Los Angeles, California nrivera@publiccounsel.org Last updated 03/26/15