The ALC is the nation's oldest legal and civil rights organization serving low-income Asian Pacific American communities. Law clerks will be matched with one of the below program areas and supervised by one or more staff attorneys:
PROGRAM AREAS:During the Fall and Spring semesters, law clerks must be available a minimum of 15 hours per week. During the Summer, law clerks are full-time. Assignments include conducting legal research, client intake interviews, drafting declarations, researching and drafting court filings such as briefs and motions, attending hearings, developing know your rights materials, and drafting letters in support of or opposing pending bills in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
Housing Advocacy and Community Development Project: provides legal assistance to low-income tenants and seniors and seeks to build community infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods. The Project also represents community constituents in the public planning process.
Immigrants' Rights Project: leverages litigation, legal services, and organizing/outreach for permanent resident and undocumented immigrants in the Bay Area around detention; deportation; constitutional and due process claims, including supporting community mobilization and education regarding comprehensive immigration reform. The project also protects refugees, asylees, and other immigrants facing overbroad and spurious national security related immigration charges through litigation, education, and advocacy.
Juvenile Justice and Education Project: disrupts the school to prison pipeline by providing legal advocacy, education, and policy advocacy to assist youths of color and their families with navigating language and cultural barriers in the juvenile justice system and with challenging school harassment and violence in the K-12 school system.
National Security and Civil Rights Project: challenges national security practices that impinge on the civil rights of South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, and Middle Eastern descent, including unfair searches and interrogations of individuals returning to the United States after travels abroad. The Project uses litigation, policy advocacy, and community education to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of vulnerable communities.
Voting Rights & Voter Empowerment Project: through legal advocacy, community collaboration, & education, the project seeks to expand and protect the voting rights of the Asian American & Pacific Islander communities to ensure the full participation of all eligible voters in the electoral process. Since 2000, the ALC has jointly conducted multi-lingual exit polling and poll monitoring in San Francisco Bay Area to document and advocate against numerous barriers that effectively disenfranchise limited English proficient communities.
The application deadline for Fall 2010 law clerks is August 27, so it's coming up fast. For more information on how to apply, go to the Asian Law Caucus website here. You can also download a PDF of the announcement here.