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Legal Aid Association of California New Attorney Pipeline

Closing next Equal Justice Works applications close September 17 in 9 days

The whole year

How it works

Getting Matched

For the Public Interest Bar Fellowship you can apply with an organization you have already found, or on your own and be matched.

Two ways to apply

Joint applications are for an LSO host to apply with a law student that they’ve already identified. Solo applications are for law students and potential LSO hosts to apply separately, and LAAC will do the best to quickly match to see if a connection can be made. Joint applications are prioritized and processed first.

Joint applicants are processed first, and the number of joint applications LAAC approves decides how many solo applicants it can take. So if you already have an organization interested in you, apply together and apply early.

What happens after you apply

  1. LAAC screens the applications

    Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so an early application is read earlier.

  2. LAAC proposes a match and shares contact details both ways

    You get the organization's details; the organization gets yours.

  3. You interview within 72 hours

    By video or phone, and each side reports the outcome back to LAAC within 48 hours.

  4. Mutual interest confirms the match

    If either side is not sure, both go back into the pools and are matched again.

What the application asks about you

One online form, no attachments. There is no transcript to send and no minimum GPA; LAAC says it does not ask for a GPA at all. Two of the questions are how the matching actually works:

  • The counties and regions you can work in.
  • The languages you speak or write, and how fluently.

Neither is a formality. LAAC's answer to why only certain counties are in the program: “Matching Fellows and LSOs in the same or a nearby county is important to us to make this a ‘locals helping locals program,’ limit commutes, and avoid the need for relocation.”

The language question is what lets a host serving a community in its own language find someone who speaks it.

LAAC describes it this way

After screening applications, LAAC will propose a match and send contact information to both the potential Fellow and potential Host LSO. After receiving this information, they will conduct a virtual (e.g. Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout) or phone interview within 72 hours and independently report back to us within 48hrs the outcome of the interview. If there is mutual interest, the match will be confirmed. If either the potential Fellow or the host LSO does not feel well suited for the match, both parties will reenter the applicant/host pools.

Published at the Public Interest Bar Fellowship page.

Who you could be matched with

Rank the hosts by what you studied

58 organizations have hosted a fellow who had not passed the bar. Each cycle's hosts are drawn from organizations like these.

What these 58 work on, in LAAC's own eight subjects
  • Housing Law 10
  • Immigration 10
  • Family Law and Domestic Violence 7
  • Small Business and Employment Law 5
  • Bankruptcy 3
  • Civil Rights and Discrimination 3
  • Healthcare and Benefits 3
  • Criminal Law 2

Bar length is relative to the deepest subject, 10 organizations; the hairline marks half. Subjects come from each organization's own published description of its work, so a short bar can mean the work is rare or only that few have described it.

What the ranking leaves out

Subjects are one of five things LAAC weighs, and the only one that can be read off published words. Four are between you, the form and LAAC's staff:

  • Your clinic and law-related work experience.
  • The languages you speak or write, and how fluently.
  • Where you will be living between August and November, against where the organization is.
  • What the organization has told LAAC it needs, down to whether the work needs a car.

Subjects here are read from each organization's own published description of its work, not from anything LAAC has said about a match. A high number is a place to start a conversation, not an offer, and the order says nothing about you.

The poverty law subjects you have studied

These are the eight LAAC names on its criteria page. Switch off the ones you have not taken and the list below re-orders. Each subject is matched from related terms in an organization's own description, so a mention of tenants counts as housing and a mention of reentry as criminal records; a subject here means the description points that way, not that the organization uses LAAC's course name.

23 of the 58 organizations that have taken someone before the bar name at least one of the eight in their own description of their work.

Ranked by subjects in common

  1. AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP)

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Immigration, Housing Law, Bankruptcy, Small Business and Employment Law

    5 of 8

  2. Disability Rights California (DRC)

    Housing Law, Healthcare and Benefits, Civil Rights and Discrimination, Small Business and Employment Law

    4 of 8

  3. Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA)

    Immigration, Housing Law, Bankruptcy

    3 of 8

  4. Legal Access Alameda

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Housing Law, Bankruptcy

    3 of 8

  5. Legal Aid at Work

    Immigration, Civil Rights and Discrimination, Small Business and Employment Law

    3 of 8

  6. Legal Assistance for Seniors (LAS)

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Immigration, Healthcare and Benefits

    3 of 8

  7. Homeless Action Center (HAC)

    Housing Law, Healthcare and Benefits

    2 of 8

  8. Legal Aid of Sonoma County

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Housing Law

    2 of 8

  9. Legal Services for Children

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Immigration

    2 of 8

  10. Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)

    Criminal Law, Civil Rights and Discrimination

    2 of 8

  11. Step Forward Foundation

    Family Law and Domestic Violence, Immigration

    2 of 8

  12. Bay Area Legal Aid

    Small Business and Employment Law

    1 of 8

  13. Centro Legal De La Raza

    Immigration

    1 of 8

  14. Family Violence Law Center (FVLC)

    Family Law and Domestic Violence

    1 of 8

  15. Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)

    Immigration

    1 of 8

  16. Justice and Diversity Center (JDC)

    Housing Law

    1 of 8

  17. Kids In Need of Defense

    Immigration

    1 of 8

  18. Law Foundation of Silicon Valley

    Housing Law

    1 of 8

  19. Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC)

    Small Business and Employment Law

    1 of 8

  20. National Housing Law Project (NHLP)

    Housing Law

    1 of 8

  21. Open Door Legal

    Housing Law

    1 of 8

  22. Root & Rebound

    Criminal Law

    1 of 8

  23. Social Justice Collaborative

    Immigration

    1 of 8

35 more that this cannot rank

LAAC's directory entry for each of these does not say what kind of law they do, or LAAC lists them only in a fellowship roster with no description at all, so nothing here can put them in order. They take fellows before the bar all the same, and an organization that has not described its work is not a worse place to spend a fellowship, only a quieter one on this page.

All 58, with their records The fellowship itself
A speaker stands at a lectern in a wood-paneled hearing room, addressing about fifteen people seated in rows of wooden chairs. A second person listens from a table in the foreground.
A speaker addressing advocates in a hearing room