Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR), founded in 1968, works to advance, protect and promote the legal rights of communities of color, and low-income persons, immigrants, and refugees. Assisted by hundreds of pro bono attorneys, LCCR provides free legal assistance and representation to individuals on civil legal matters through direct services, impact litigation and policy advocacy.
LCCR is interested in sponsoring applicants for fellowships, including the Skadden and Equal Justice Works Fellowship Programs, for the 2017-2019 cycle. LCCR is particularly interested in potentially sponsoring projects in the following areas:
- Economic Justice: Our Economic Justice agenda includes work on the civil rights of poor and homeless people, including (1) advocating for due process rights to alleviate the burdens of court and municipal debt, including traffic, criminal debt, parking and car tows; (2) fighting the criminalization of homelessness and poverty; and (3) providing general legal services to poor and homeless clients at our Glide Clinic. We welcome project ideas related to any of these areas.
- Education: Our education program seeks to secure equal educational opportunity, with a particular focus on breaking down barriers that disproportionately impact youth of color. We are interested in projects that will address educational inequities, such as discriminatory discipline practices or school districts’ responsibility to meet the needs of English language learners. The project proposal could also center on leveraging California’s recent school funding reform, the Local Control Funding Formula, to affect these changes.
- Racial Justice/Re-entry and Policing: Our Second Chance program assists clients who are working to overcome barriers to employment and housing due to past arrest and conviction records. We are interested in projects that could expand the scope of our re-entry work to juveniles; or address other issues related to removing consequences of a criminal record. We are also doing work on discriminatory policing in communities of color.
- Advocacy for Immigrant Youth: through our immigration/asylum program, we increasingly see minors in need of legal assistance. We are interested in sponsoring a project that would provide asylum and Special Immigrant Juveniles Status (SIJS) advocacy and other services for minors, including increasing pro bono representation and developing impact advocacy.
- Economic Justice/Community Economic Development: we currently provide transactional legal assistance to low-income micro-entrepreneurs. We are interested in creative projects that would develop legal and policy advocacy strategies to address the displacement of diverse communities and local businesses throughout the Bay Area, with a focus on strengthening food enterprises, people of color, immigrants, and/or women.
- Other projects in the areas of racial justice, economic empowerment and/or immigrant justice.
Apply
If you are interested in pursuing a fellowship with our organization, please email your resume, writing sample, a list of three references, and a cover letter that briefly describes your interest in a particular project to:
E-mails should clearly state the name of the sponsorship opportunity (i.e. “Skadden/EJW Candidate Application) in the subject line. Applicants are encouraged to submit their materials as soon as possible, but in any event no later than July 15, 2016. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The Lawyers’ Committee is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, lesbians, gay men, transgender individuals, persons with disabilities, people with past contact with the criminal justice system, and people over 55 are encouraged to apply.
