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SKILL SHARPENER
Workers’ Rights Clinic Links Law School with Legal Aid [by Erica Winter] The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, San Francisco, has teamed up with Bay-area law schools to provide free legal services to low-income people facing problems in the workplace. The Bay Area Workers’ Rights Clinics program seeks to extend the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center’s (LAS-ELS) mission of providing “sound practical advice on legal rights in the workplace,” says LAS-ELS senior staff attorney Mike Gaitley.
Participating law schools include Boalt Hall,
the Boalt Hall clinic is staffed by student
overtime pay as well. Second-most common
Hastings Law School, and Santa Clara Uni-
volunteers. There are designated attorney-
are people who feel they have been wrongly
versity School of Law, all located in the San
teachers for each site; Gaitley is the attorney
terminated - because of discrimination, or
Francisco Bay area of California. LAS-ELS
for the Hastings Law clinic, and Alvarez is the
because of one mistake after years of work.
partners with the law schools to train stu-
one for Santa Clara Law.
The majority of the workers’ rights clinic clients come from urban Santa Clara County,
dents to be “front-line counselors,” says Gaitley. Immediate benefits are twofold, he says.
At the start of the summer or the semester,
and work as laborers, landscapers, or in
The program trains students in practical
law students receive training from LAS-ELS
restaurants, says Alvarez.
legal skills, and it also broadens the reach of
and their law schools, including role-play-
LAS-ELS to serve more people. One attorney
ing and a mock intake interview video - “so
At Santa Clara Law, the workers’ rights and
at Legal Aid could talk with five people per
they can approach the first interview with
workers’ compensation clinical services often
night, says Gaitley; with the law students
less trepidation,” says Gaitley. Students also
overlap, says Alvarez. People will come to the
involved through their schools’ clinics, they
receive training on basic issues in employ-
clinic seeking help receiving workers’ com-
can serve 25 people per night.
ment law, such as discrimination, workers’
pensation benefits, but will also need help for
compensation, and wage-per-hour issues.
the workers’ rights section if their employers
Workers’ rights was the spark that ignited
are making it difficult for the worker to return
clinical education at Santa Clara Law in 1993,
During each clinic night, eight to twelve law
when members of the schools’ La Raza Law
students do intake interviews with people
Students Association started the East San
seeking aid with workplace problems. After
There are over 100 lawyers who volunteer to
Jose Community Law Center to help low-
talking with a person for about half an hour,
supervise law students in the clinics on a pro
income people in the area in a wage dispute.
the student will describe the situation with
bono basis every year. About 100 law students
The law school’s clinical program is now the
an attorney. The student then returns for a
participate, and between 2,000 and 3,000
Katharine & George Alexander Community
follow-up talk with the person and passes on
low-income people receive help through the
Law Center, and includes workers’ com-
the conclusions reached in the discussion.
clinics every year, says Gaitley.
pensation, immigration and consumer law
The student-attorney sessions are “very in-
after recovery.
services. The field of workers’ rights was the
structive,” says Gaitley. The “students do the
Santa Clara and Hastings pay LAS-ELS an
“impetus for starting clinical work at the uni-
work, the attorney is there to guide them in
annual stipend to teach the clinical course
versity,” says Margarita Alvarez, Supervising
thinking the whole thing through….to super-
at the law schools. The rest of the funding
Attorney in Workers’ Rights at the law center.
vise and act as a safety net for the student.”
comes from Legal Aid fundraising. “We have
The Bay Area Workers’ Rights Clinics
Sometimes the relationship continues after
ley. LAS sees contributions from foundations
program runs in different locations dur-
the initial interview, with the clinic taking the
and cy pres awards, as well as law firms.
ing the week - in San Francisco at Hastings
person on as a client.
Firms funding LAS work are “so generous,”
an incredible board of directors,” says Gait-
he says, adding that, among Bay-area firms,
Law School on Mondays, in San Jose with the Santa Clara clinic on Tuesdays, over the
The primary concern brought to the clinic
phone via a 1-800 number on Wednesdays,
is when a worker is not paid his or her final
and at Boalt Hall on Thursdays. Both Santa
paycheck upon termination, says Alvarez.
Clara and Hastings law schools include the
Often, law students and attorneys will find
clinic in their programs for course credits;
that these same clients have not been getting
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there is “a universal willingness to chip in.”