Advocacy & Volunteer
Students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of non-legal volunteer work in the community.
Current Roster
The purposes of this organization are two-fold: 1) to provide free legal services to people with civil legal problems and 2) to provide pro bono opportunities to law students where they can learn to work with both clients and lawyers while serving people in need.
Human Rights and International Law Organization (HRILO) brings awareness of international public interest and international private law issues to campus, and provides opportunities for all UC Law SF students to engage in substantive legal work. HRILO is a space for students interested in international law to explore and develop their passion. The purpose of HRILO is to provide the opportunity for all UC Law SF students to engage in substantive legal work in the area of international human rights.
Contact: hrilo@uclawsf.edu
The purpose of the Law Empowerment and Access Pro Bono Project is to provide opportunities for youth from marginalized communities to experience and engage with law school and legal topics. We aim to facilitate lessons that cover relevant and pertinent subjects such as constitutional rights to empower youth with critical thinking skills and knowledge needed in law school and beyond. Our primary goal is to demystify legal education (and in turn, the law) by highlighting and encouraging more diverse representation in the legal field.
Contact: leap@uclawsf.edu
The purpose and objective of LARC, a once-a-month pro bono clinic coordinated by the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco (hereinafter referred to as JDC), is to provide brief advice and information to members of the public with legal questions and concerns. LARC provides students the unique opportunity to earn pro bono hours while gaining client-facing skills. Students participate as intake volunteers but may also shadow attorneys during client consultations if time and coverage permits. LARC operates in compliance with UC Law SF policies and regulations.
The mission of Students for Immigrants? Rights Pro Bono is to provide students with the opportunity to engage in pro bono events related to immigration law and immigration issues. In addition, SIR Pro Bono will comply with all UC Law SF policies and regulations.
Contact: HSIR@uclawsf.edu.
The purpose of Homeless Legal Services (HLS) is to provide legal services to the homeless and to provide law students an opportunity to work with both clients and lawyers on solving legal issues.
Contact: homelesslegalservices@uclawsf.edu
The purpose of the UC Law SF Student Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is to bring together progressive law students under the principle that human and civil rights are more sacred than property rights. The NLG has 20 issue-based national committees, projects, and tasks forces working in virtually all areas of public interest and movement law. Law students are the NLG’s fastest growing membership category, with 100+ chapters at law schools nationwide. Law students work on a variety of issues, organizing on and off campus.
Contact: nlg@uclawsf.edu
UC Law SF Abolition & Prisoner Outreach seeks to serve, uplift, and empower incarcerated persons through organized volunteer efforts. We collaborate with Prisoner Legal Services, UnCommon Law, and various other organizations.
Contact: hpo@uclawsf.edu.
For more than a decade, UC Law SF students have partnered with the IRS and the United Way to offer free tax preparation and filing services to low-income community members through the?Volunteer Income Tax Assistance?(VITA) program. The purpose of the UC Law VITA program is threefold: (1) to educate members of the UC Law SF academic community to provide tax filing assistance; (2) to provide free tax filing services to low-income Bay Area residents; and (3) to comply with the UC Law SF policies and regulations.
The UCLSF-ESCDROJ Partnership (HJP) advances the rule of law and promotes human rights in Haiti by supporting the country?s legal education and engaging in human rights advocacy. HJP represents a collaboration of UC Law SF and École Supérieure Catholique de Droit de Jérémie (ESCDROJ), the only law school in Haiti dedicated to preparing students to serve the public interest. Since 1999, HJP has sent annual delegations of UC Law SF faculty and students to our sister school in Haiti, and we have also hosted several delegations of Haitian lawyers and students in San Francisco. To keep the partnership open to all UC Law SF and ESCDROJ students, HJP solicits donations that help defray the costs of travel. Donations will also provide much needed resources to support the launch of the first Criminal Justice Clinic at the law school in Haiti. We also welcome in-kind donations such as laptop computers and airline miles and provide opportunities for lawyers and other advocates in the Bay Area to mentor Haitian law students.