Pre-Approved Pro Bono Projects

The following projects are offered through the Pro Bono Program throughout the Fall 2011 semester:

• Bankruptcy Project: Students will work with attorneys from the Public Law Center (PLC) to provide in-depth intakes and assist clients to complete questionnaires and legal documents, including bankruptcy forms. Assistance in this area will allow some clients to save their homes, and others will be given a fresh start.
• Bet Tzedek Impact Litigation: Law students are needed to research issues for active cases, including several class action lawsuits targeting unscrupulous foreclosure practices by banks. Law students can assist in researching potential causes of action under state and federal law, and in developing liability theories in these cases.
• Camp Pendleton Legal Assistance Office: Students will provide legal assistance to military officers, enlisted service members, and their families in the areas of family law, consumer law, estate planning, and various other issues.
• Civil Litigation: Students will work with attorneys from McDermott Will & Emery on a pro bono civil litigation matter referred by the Public Law Center (PLC), which involves a dispute with a homeowner's association (HOA) over who is responsible for damages resulting from water leaks that has left the client without a functioning kitchen for over a year.
• Coastkeeper Volunteer: Student volunteers may provide legal research in areas of environmental permitting, review upcoming legislation, and possibly draft comment letters in response to permitting requests or local, environmental regulations.
• Community & Economic Development Project: Students are needed to volunteer with the CED unit of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles assisting with work in the areas of affordable housing, charter schools, land use, small business, non-profits, work force development, community benefits agreements, and more.
• Domestic Violence Casework with Latham & Watkins, LLP: Attorneys from the firm of Latham & Watkins, LLP will supervise students working on complicated Restraining Orders for victims of domestic violence.
• Domestic Violence Declarations: : Students will volunteer from 8:30 a.m. to approximately Noon at the courthouse in Orange, assisting self-represented clients to prepare their declarations for their Temporary Restraining Orders.
• Domestic Violence Courthouse Clinics: Student volunteers in the DV clinics in Long Beach, Norwalk, and Compton will assist victims of domestic violence and elder abuse in preparing requests for restraining orders.
• Education Rights Project: Volunteer students will work with the Learning Rights Law Center to conduct in-person client intakes at LRLC’s offices in downtown Los Angeles, which consist of interviewing potential clients, reviewing client documents and identifying potential legal issues.
• Employment Rights Project: Bet Tzedek's Employment Rights Project represents low-wage workers who are asserting claims for unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions. Students will have the chance to represent workers in wage claim hearings before the Labor Commissioner.
• Environmental Litigation: Surfrider v. City of Dana Point - Students are needed to assist on the likely appeal by the City of Dana Point and/or the Coastal Commission to a Declaratory Judgment won by the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery LLP on behalf of Surfrider.
• Expungement Clinics: Expungements allow individuals to seal or dismiss certain criminal convictions if particular requirements are met, allowing them to move on with their lives, and seek jobs that would otherwise not be available. Clinics are held in Riverside (Fridays) and Long Beach (Tuesdays).
• Family Law Advocacy: Students will work with Bill Tanner, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, to assist low-income Orange County residents with all of their family law needs, including custody and visitation issues. Students may assist with self-represented clients during their hearings.
• Foreclosure Mitigation Unit: Students will assist Patricia Pinto, the managing attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, with her cases regarding loan modification and foreclosure prevention. Student work will include intakes, interviews, discovery, and preparation of legal documents.
• General Legal Services for the Poor: Students will assist Yolanda Omana, a senior attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Orange County with work in areas of family law and unlawful detainer (landlord-tenant), but she is a generalist and works on a wide variety of cases.
• General Relief Advocacy Project (“GRAP”): Students assist clients with emergency benefits advocacy, particularly relating to shelter, food, health, transportation, and other social services needs. GRAP advocates routinely arrange for homeless individuals to receive shelter they would not otherwise have received, and assist indigent individuals in obtaining food and nutrition.
• Global Access to Medicine: Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) aims to promote access to medicines for people in developing countries by changing norms and practices around university patenting and licensing. UCI Law students will work under the supervision of Prof. Arewa to research and draft equitable access licensing language.
• Guardianships: Students will work with attorneys from Paul Hastings LLP to assist caretakers seeking probate guardianships of minor children. Students will interview the caretakers, prepare the guardianship forms, and attend the hearing with the supervising attorney. The cases are referred by the Public Law Center (PLC), and a PLC attorney will provide training and legal assistance.
• Haiti Human Rights Initiative: The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and its partners in Haiti are bringing together Haitian grassroots advocates to participate in Haiti’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council. IJDH needs students to help prepare for Haiti’s human rights review under international law.
• Health Consumer Action Center and Government Benefits: Students will assist the Legal Aid Society of Orange County with policy advocacy and also assisting low-income clients in Orange County to access health care services and solve serious issues clients may have with their public benefits and/or medical insurance.
• HIV Asylum Case: Students will work with attorneys from the firm of McDermott Will & Emery to represent an HIV positive client, who is seeking asylum from return to Mexico due to his medical condition and sexual orientation.
• HIV Immigration Project: Joseph Weiner of the HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance (“HALSA”) will supervise students assisting HIV positive clients with their immigration needs. Students may visit the Asylum Office in Anaheim, immigration court in LA, or the detention center in the Santa Ana jail.
• Holocaust Survivors Justice Network: Students will work with attorneys from O’Melveny & Myers, LLP to assist Holocaust survivors who may qualify for pension benefits from the German government for work they performed while living in Nazi-controlled ghettos.
• Homeless Declarations for Impact Litigation: Volunteers are needed to conduct interviews and prepare declarations on behalf of Orange County residents that are seeking (or have previously sought) General Relief (GR) benefits.
• Housing Project with LASOC: Crystal Sims, Director of Litigation for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, will supervise a student interested in housing issues (including predatory lending issues), subsidized housing, and landlord/tenant issues.
• Housing Project with PLC: A student will work with attorneys Kristen Lara and Pauline Chow from the Public Law Center in the areas of unlawful detainer, habitability issues, security deposit recovery, and some mobile home ownership issues.
• Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Association—Legal Aid Project: A student will volunteer at the IELLA office in Riverside, assisting low-income clients with their document preparation in the areas of small claims and family law.
• Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (“IRAP”): Students will work in pairs under the supervision of attorneys from Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP to provide direct assistance to refugees seeking resettlement from abroad. Additional students will assist with research for litigation seeking a right to counsel in various administrative stages of the refugee process.
• Legal Aid Casework: One student will assist Renato Izquieta, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, in all of his practice areas, including tax, family law, homeless issues, and general litigation.
• Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Research: During the 19th and 20th centuries, Native American children were sent to boarding schools to be indoctrinated in the Euro-American standard. The children, who were separated from their families and tribes, were often encouraged or forced to abandon their Native American language and culture. Students are needed to research potential litigation
• Nonprofit Corporate Matters and Contract Analysis: A student will volunteer with Public Counsel’s General Counsel, Liz Bluestein, assisting her with issues regarding legal ethics, contract drafting and review, grant compliance, corporate governance, and maintaining tax exempt status.
• Orange County District Attorney’s Office: Students will get significant exposure to issues of evidence and criminal procedure while observing in court, researching and writing, and possibly assisting with preparation for in-court appearances by an Assistant District Attorney.
• Saturday Academy of Law (SAL): Law students will provide legal education on the First Amendment and free speech rights to Santa Ana High School students who have been accepted to the SAL Program. SAL offers a six-week session to 9th graders from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds. SAL aims to improve participants' academic skills and also inspire and excite students about the study of law through interactions with faculty, undergraduates, law students, and legal professionals.
• Senior Citizen Legal Advocacy Program: Assist Bill Wise, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, with numerous issues affecting senior citizens, including Social Security, food stamps, family law, property, homeowners associations, consumer fraud, collections, and bankruptcy.
• Superior Court Self Help Centers: Students will get hands-on experience with individuals that are representing themselves in legal actions in areas of housing, family law, small claims, probate, and others at courthouses in either Orange County, Long Beach, or Compton.
• SSI Project: Students will assist attorneys Bill Wise and Nancy Rimsha from the Legal Aid Society of Orange County with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) issues for clients of low-income seeking government benefits due to their age or disability.
• Transactional and Intellectual Property Project: Students will work on cases referred through the Public Law Center’s Community Organizations Legal Assistance Project (“COLAP”). Projects may include Intellectual Property matters, website review, non-profit formation, or employment issues.
• Victims of Crime Special Visas (U-Visa): Students will be supervised by attorneys from Snell & Wilmer in preparing U-Visa requests for victims of crime, who have cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation related to their victimization. Cases are prepared and referred by the Public Law Center (PLC).

During the 2010-2011 academic year, Luke Boughen and Greg Mintz (both Class of 2012) helped environmental nonprofit Surfrider Foundation win a lawsuit to provide public access to Dana Point Strands beach. Attorney Brock F. Wilson of McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Irvine, which represented Surfrider in Surfrider Foundation v. The City of Dana Point, said the UCI Law students' pro bono research and detailed legal analysis were invaluable, informing Surfrider's opening and reply briefs and oral arguments.

• Read the ruling granting Surfrider's Request for Declaratory Relief (PDF).

Past semester project lists:
  • Fall 2010 projects
  • Spring 2010 projects
  • Fall 2011 projects