BAYLEGAL'S AREAS OF PRACTICE FOR SUMMER 2026 LAW CLERK POSITIONS
REQUIRED - Please carefully review the description of the available legal practice area placements below and reference your top three practice areas in your cover letter. Be aware of the physical office location of the positions before making your decision:
Consumer Protection (Oakland, San Francisco) – Assist with advocacy and litigation to address economic and financial problems affecting low-income consumers, who are particularly vulnerable to high-cost credit, predatory loans, credit reporting errors, problems with employment and housing, background reports, predatory for-profit schools, and unfair business models such as credit repair organizations and foreclosure rescue scams. This practice area provides an opportunity to assist with client interviews and learn to issue-spot legal problems, draft legal pleadings, and conduct legal research and writing. Certified law students are encouraged to appear in court.
Economic Justice (EJ) (Oakland, San Francisco) - Learn about Medi-Cal, Medicare, Healthy Families, CalWORKs, General Assistance, CalFresh, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and general health access issues. Participate in direct individual representation and ongoing impact litigation - cases often intersect with civil rights, language access, and domestic violence. This practice area provides an opportunity to work with clients to identify their eligibility for life changing safety-net public benefits, gather and build evidence, prepare briefs, assist with negotiations, and represent the client at an administrative hearing.
Family Law for Survivors of Domestic Violence (Napa, Richmond, Oakland, Redwood City, or San Jose) - Participate in our comprehensive legal representation of low-income survivors of domestic violence. This practice area provides an opportunity to provide litigation assistance in a full range of family law matters, including divorce, child custody and visitation, child and spousal support, and restraining orders.
Health Consumer Center (Oakland) – Support low-income individuals in accessing health care services and coverage. Opportunities may include assisting attorneys in providing legal counsel to clients experiencing health care access or coverage issues; negotiating with health care agencies and/or service providers; representing clients (under direct supervision of a licensed attorney) in escalations, complaints, appeals, or administrative hearings on a range of health-related legal matters, including those involving the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”); participating in policy advocacy aimed at eliminating systemic barriers to health care access. Note this position requires a successful clearance of a live scan background check.
Housing Preservation (Napa, San Francisco, or San Jose) - Work on homelessness prevention, file fair housing administrative complaints (HUD & DFEH) to address housing discrimination issues, preserve affordable housing, and fight illegal evictions. This practice area provides an opportunity to build up cases from interview, preparation of legal pleadings and discovery and potentially assist with a full civil litigation case over a short amount of time (including possible jury trial).
Immigration Advocacy for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (San Jose) – Help provide comprehensive legal services to low-income immigrant survivors of inter-personal violence. Assist with VAWA Self-Petitions and U Visa Non-Immigrant Petitions - which provides immigration relief and access to critical safety net public benefits for survivors who are either immediate family members of abusive U.S. Citizens or Legal Permanent Residents, or who cooperate with the investigation and/or prosecution of the crimes perpetrated against them. Learn how to assess eligibility, prepare immigration pleadings, and work directly with immigrant survivors.
Individualized Legal Support Services (ILSS) (San Francisco) - This practice area provides an opportunity to help eliminate legal barriers to employment and self-sufficiency, such as suspended driver’s licenses, employment rights regarding criminal background checks, housing habitability, and consumer credit issues.
Litigation (San Francisco) – Help to identify patterns of wrongdoing or harmful systemic issues impacting our clients and evaluate potential impact litigation cases. This practice area provides an opportunity to support BayLegal attorneys by conducting legal research, drafting pleadings, creating litigation support tools, engaging in discovery, and participating and contributing to team meetings/ co-counsel strategy calls.
