Participating Organizations/Agencies

Want to be a participating organization/agency? Contact us

Potential LfA Sites Hiring for the Class of 2027:

Center for Biological Diversity
Eviction Defense Collaborative
Open Door Legal
Solano Public Defender

Past participating sites include:

Berkeley City Attorney
Center for Food Safety
Consumers Union
Contra Costa District Attorney
Contra Costa Public Defender
Contra Costa Superior Court
Disability Rights California
First District Appellate Project
Marin District Attorney

How it works – Give Something, Get Something

We believe both fellows and agencies “win.” Fellows have an early commitment of a one-year post-bar position, plus concentrated effective training during 3L year preparing them for that post-graduate year.

While site partners pay LFA for their fellows, they get a year of post-graduate service from fellows they have already trained for eight months, at a cost below that of a full-time permanent hire, and with no obligation to hire the fellow after that year. Since most agencies have more work demand than funding, this can help expand their staff to meet the need to provide their legal services. The placement’s total cost for a fellow in the San Francisco Bay Area from the Class of 2027 is $80,600, payable during the two years of the fellowship arc; that fee enables LFA to pay a salary of $62,000, plus a health insurance allowance, and all employment taxes and costs. Only malpractice insurance and bar admission fees, if provided for other agency attorneys, must be covered by the participant agency. Costs and salary will vary in other geographic locations.

Both sides share bar passage risk: a fellow who does not pass on the first try may take unpaid leave to study for the next bar exam and return to complete the service year.

LfA alumni Aaron Jaques ’14 and Saron Tesfai ’14 with LfA Academic Director Professor Mai Linh Spencer.
Encouraging Public Service

We believe that even if fellows move on from public interest/public service work during their careers, the fact that their first professional experience involved learning and lawyering in the public interest/public service will have lifelong impact. We anticipate they will continue, through pro bono involvement, Board service, public advocacy, and/or charitable giving, to assist in solving the problems to which they were passionately devoted in these formative professional years. Thus, we hope to build a group of attorneys committed to removing barriers to access to justice.