2023
Legal Empowerment Fund
Harness the power of frontline community organizations
We are thrilled to support the following 19 partners through three priority areas of investment: Movement Lawyering, Leadership Pathways and Capacity Building. These organizations focus on pressing issues such as Native American rights, immigration, criminal justice reform, and many others.
Movement Lawyering ($140,000)
Strengthening the model of social change that harnesses the joint power of lawyers and community organizers
Practicing movement lawyering that is rooted in anti-displacement work and affordable housing advocacy to close the racial wealth gap.
Ensuring implementation of the California Racial Justice Act (RJA) allowing individuals to challenge retroactively different forms of racial bias in their criminal cases.
Protect the fundamental rights of youth in the delinquency system in California and demand investment in community-based supports.
Movement Lawyering ($140,000)
Strengthening the model of social change that harnesses the joint power of lawyers and community organizers
East Bay Community Law Center
Practicing movement lawyering that is rooted in anti-displacement work and affordable housing advocacy to close the racial wealth gap.
USF Racial Justice Clinic
Ensuring implementation of the California Racial Justice Act (RJA) allowing individuals to challenge retroactively different forms of racial bias in their criminal cases.
Youth Law Center
Protect the fundamental rights of youth in the delinquency system in California and demand investment in community-based supports.
Leadership Pathways ($372,500)
Building onramps into law and into positions of power in society
Hosting a public interest fellow to use legal services, coordination, and advocacy to fight for the liberation of immigrants in detention.
Increasing the number of Native American students applying to and attending law school and ensuring that Native American attorneys ascend to powerful positions in law.
Promotes educational achievement, legal empowerment, civic engagement, and leadership among first-gen underrepresented high school students in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond.
Hosting a public interest fellow to advocate for “Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing” to push for decarceration and liberation more effectively.
Creating opportunities for college students to engage in criminal justice reform through direct services.
Hosting a public interest fellow at the U.S. Mexico border to assist transgender asylum seekers.
Leadership Pathways ($372,500)
Building onramps into law and into positions of power in society
American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education
California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice
Hosting a public interest fellow to use legal services, coordination, and advocacy to fight for the liberation of immigrants in detention.
California Indian Law Association
Increasing the number of Native American students applying to and attending law school and ensuring that Native American attorneys ascend to powerful positions in law.
Center for Youth Development Through Law
Promotes educational achievement, legal empowerment, civic engagement, and leadership among first-gen underrepresented high school students in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond.
For the People
Hosting a public interest fellow to advocate for “Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing” to push for decarceration and liberation more effectively.
Legal Education Access Pipeline, Inc.
San José State University Record Clearance Project
Creating opportunities for college students to engage in criminal justice reform through direct services.
Transgender Law Center
Hosting a public interest fellow at the U.S. Mexico border to assist transgender asylum seekers.
UCLA Law Fellows
Capacity Building ($300,000)
Enhancing sustainability + innovation in smaller, newer legal organizations
Improving the pipeline to appellate practice for first-gen, underrepresented law students.
Increasing opportunities for Black Californian college graduates to become lawyers through legal apprenticeships as an alternative to the bar exam.
Addressing health, workers’ rights, civil rights, and the issues of solitary confinement through policy advocacy in Sacramento.
Enhancing the Lifeforce (A’tishwin) of coastal ocean waters by integrating traditional knowledge of the Indigenous People in partnership with scientists and environmental groups.
Capacity Building ($300,000)
Enhancing sustainability + innovation in smaller, newer legal organizations
The Appellate Project
Improving the pipeline to appellate practice for first-gen, underrepresented law students.
Community Justice Alliance, Inc.
Esq. Apprentice
Increasing opportunities for Black Californian college graduates to become lawyers through legal apprenticeships as an alternative to the bar exam.
Immigrant Defense Advocates
Addressing health, workers’ rights, civil rights, and the issues of solitary confinement through policy advocacy in Sacramento.
Northern Chumash Tribal Council
Enhancing the Lifeforce (A’tishwin) of coastal ocean waters by integrating traditional knowledge of the Indigenous People in partnership with scientists and environmental groups.
