Community Law Center Students can choose between the civil law clinic; the KGACLC, which provides direct free legal services to low income clients in the areas of consumer law, immigration law, and workers’ rights; and the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP), in which they learn about criminal law and work to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. Founded by the law school’s La Raza students under the guidance of Professors Nancy Wright and Eric Wright and other volunteer lawyers in order to help day laborers, the East San Jose Community Law Center took on the name of George Alexander, dean emeritus of the Law School, and his wife, former attorney Katharine Alexander, after their generous contribution in 2004. Under the direction of experienced attorneys, students serve about 1,000 individuals a year at the KGACLC through a combination of legal representation in cases, advice clinics, and educational workshops on the law. Students are trained for their clinic work through mandatory courses in litigation skills, interviewing and counseling, as well as in the substantive law. Santa Clara Law professor Angelo Ancheta, who was previously on the faculty of Harvard Law School and legal director of its Civil Rights Project, says that over the past few years, students have successfully represented clients in a class action to extricate them from oppressive financing contracts signed under pressure from door-to-door computer salespeople; have helped untangle immigration messes caused by “notarios,” notaries or paralegals preying on immigrants from countries where notaries are licensed to practice law; and have collected back wages for workers whose employers refused to pay them and threatened to have them deported if they complained. With the Bay Area’s economic downswing, the KGACLC is seeing more illegal debt collectors and predatory practices by finance companies. It may expand its practice areas into other areas of consumer law, as well as problems involving bankruptcy and foreclosures.
In the fall of 2009, the KGACLC and other community agencies shared in a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to assist victims of human trafficking in the South Bay. Unlike the case Tse is working on, most trafficking, says Ancheta, “is largely under the radar. A typical case involves a woman who has been taken into domestic service and becomes a house servant or slave to someone who is affluent. It’s hard to monitor, but when you find the victims, they need a lot of services.” The grant, for which the KGACLC is the lead agency, funds an array of these services provided by community organizations throughout the Valley, from counseling to shelters to legal assistance. The KGACLC receives approximately $60,000 of the grant, which it uses to assist the victims with immigration issues. The benefits of the clinics reach far beyond the individual clients they serve. As a Santa Clara Law student, Dori Rose Inda ’00, a former social worker, worked in the KGACLC (then the East San Jose Community Law Center), assisting victims of fraud in the Watsonville area. After graduation and working at California Rural Legal Assistance, she established, in 2002, the Watsonville Law Center, which provides free legal services in the areas of workers’ rights, consumer protection, and barriers to employment. Ancheta is not surprised when he learns that students are inspired by their work at the KGACLC to become community leaders changing the structures of society to remedy injustice. “I don’t think there is any question that students coming through the program see the world in a different light. Most develop a stronger empathy with low-income people and immigrants.”
The Northern California Innocence Project The Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) is a training ground not only for future criminal defense attorneys but also for future prosecutors seeking professional and ethical grounding for their work. For many students, the experience is pivotal in making career choices.
Alumni Leaders Who Serve in the Judiciary As an essential part of the justice system, well trained and ethical judges provide an important community service. There are numerous Santa Clara Law alumni who are members and former members of the judiciary, including retired California Supreme Court Justice Edward A. Panelli ’53 B.S., ’55 J.D. (left) and Oregon Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert D. Durham ’72. To see a complete list, visit law.scu.edu/sclaw. 10 santa clara law spring 2010