What to do if you graduated from law school in California only to learn the state’s summer bar exam is suspended due to the coronavirus? What to do with a growing demand for low-cost legal services within the state? You pivot.
Enter the Legal Services Funders Network, a network of funders in the Bay area of California who fund civil legal services organizations as a strategy to eliminate poverty. Within just 13 days the network developed and launched its first collaborative funding project: a Post Graduate Law Fellows Program.
Through the program recent law school graduates provide 15-20 hours of work weekly for 7 months within Legal Service Organizations in the Bay area. Cases these organizations take on revolve around unemployment issues, employees working in high risk environments or conditions, eviction, clients dealing with fraud, those seeking benefits or access to healthcare, and those dealing with discrimination.
The program is a win-win in that it expands the number of clients served by the legal service organizations and the new graduates receive a first-hand look at issues impacting those most in need. The fellows receive a stipend have time to prepare for the next California Bar Exam.
As of June 1 the program placed 30 fellows (graduates from four area law schools). Each sponsorship is $18,000 with $15,000 dedicated to the stipend with $3,000 for the legal service organization.
For more, read the June 24, 2020 blog post on Exponent Philanthropy written by Claire Solot. How We Catalyzed a Fellows Program to Meet Legal Services Needs During COVID-19.