Law Clerk 2025

Description

If you require an accommodation due to a disability to complete this application OR you are experiencing issues submitting your application and accompanying materials, please e-mail: talent@disabilityrightsca.org . Please note resume and cover letter are required. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Make a difference! We fight for the rights of people that have disabilities.... JOIN US!

We encourage those who are D/deaf or Disabled to apply.

Location: Remote and Hybrid (CA) • Various Practice Groups

Remote and hybrid (must live in California for the duration of the paid clerkship). Even if working remotely, law clerks are assigned to the geographically closest DRC office to their place of residence. DRC regional offices include the following: San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Ontario.

Salary Range (Depends on Law School Year):

1L:  $17.66  

2L: $20.00  

3L: $21.00  

Paid, volunteer, and for-credit positions are available for current law students. 

DRC has limited funding for clerks who cannot secure funding from their law schools. If possible, we ask all clerks to apply for funding through their law schools and outside sources before requesting DRC funding. Please note, DRC reimburses law clerks for work-related travel expenses and provides a stipend to offset monthly commute costs such as parking and public transportation. 

How to Apply: 

Interested applicants should upload a resume, a brief writing sample (10 pages maximum), and a cover letter that indicates the applicant’s time commitment and closest office location.

Application Deadline: 

Open until filled. Applications should be received by the following dates to be considered for the first round of interviews. 

Spring 2025 

Deadline to Apply: November 8, 2024

Summer 2025 

Deadline to Apply: April 4, 2025 

Fall 2025

Deadline to Apply: August 1, 2025

Who We Are 

Disability Rights California (“DRC”) is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm, established in 1978 to protect the legal, civil, and service rights of people with all types of disabilities. We are the designated Protection and Advocacy agency for California and the largest disability rights organization in the country. 

How to Apply 

Interested applicants should upload a resume, a brief writing sample (10 pages maximum), and a cover letter that indicates the applicant’s time commitment and closest office location.

Our Culture 

Disability Rights California is recognized as a Gold Level Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leader by the State Bar of California!  We work to promote and create a culture where people feel empowered to be their true authentic selves to do their best work for our clients and the communities we serve.    

Law Clerk Position Summary 

Law students will find working with DRC a challenging and rewarding experience. Law clerks are typically assigned to one practice group within the Legal Advocacy Unit (LAU), the Investigations Unit, or the Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA). Each law clerk will collaborate with their team to serve clients across the state. While we do our best to assign supervision in the same office, at times, remote supervision is necessary to provide law clerks opportunities on a particular team. Currently, all DRC employees and law clerks are working remotely. Depending on their assigned team, law clerks may gain experience with: 

• Interviewing clients and consumers. 
• Providing counsel and advice on self-advocacy. 
• Legal research and writing. 
• Legislative analysis and writing. 
• Representation at mediation and administrative hearings at school districts, universities, regional centers, Social Security      offices, and others. 
• Assisting people with psychiatric disabilities in locked facilities to ensure the enforcement of their federal, state,      constitutional, and statutory rights. 
• Assisting clients file charges of discrimination with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights under the Department of Education, U.S.      Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. Equal Employment      Opportunity Commission. 
• Assisting in the investigation of systemic and potentially life-threatening abuse and neglect in state and private facilities serving people with psychiatric and developmental  disabilities. 

Conduct training on the law and multicultural outreach.  

Summer law clerk positions are a 10-week commitment and generally begin on June 02, 2025, to August 08, 2025, for a 37.5-hour week.  

Spring and Summer semester law clerk positions, and their time commitments, are driven by student interest and DRC's need. Students typically work 20 hours a week for 10 weeks. Please follow the application instructions below and include your requested time commitment and practice area in your cover letter. 

Requirements

DRC’s Practice Areas 

-     Civil Rights Practice Group (CRPG) – Fully Remote: CRPG is a diverse, statewide team of passionate attorneys developing and implementing impactful strategies – litigation, policy, and community support – to stop discrimination against people with disabilities. Our current priorities include: 

• challenging discrimination in private and public programs; 
• confronting the criminalization of people experiencing homelessness; 
• protecting and increasing affordable, accessible housing; 
• ensuring access to transit; 
• access to higher education; 
• access to websites and other electronic information; 
• access to courts; and 
• Addressing the intersectional needs of people with disabilities. 

We are committed to progressive social change for diverse people with disabilities and strive to build a culture of cooperation and mutual support. 

-     Fair Hearing Project (FHP) – Fully Remote: FHP provides representation at administrative hearings for monolingual Spanish-speaking regional center consumers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). FHP will be limited to service denials that will result in serious harm to the client and will partner with community-based organizations to identify clients who have already exhausted self-advocacy strategies. Staff will collaborate with the Legal Advocacy Unit and the Office of Clients Rights Advocates to ensure that DRC offers a comprehensive advocacy strategy to address the needs of the Latinx IDD community. FHP is specifically looking for a law clerk who is fluent in Spanish. 

-     Healthcare/Home & Community-Based Services (HCBS) Practice Group – Fully Remote: Healthcare/HCBS works to address barriers and inequities in our healthcare system to ensure that people with disabilities are not housed in institutions, but rather have access to the services and supports needed to live at home in the community. We believe healthcare is a human right, and fight to preserve that right with our federal, state, and local partners. Our advocacy focuses on access to Medi-Cal programs and services including HCBS Waivers, In-Home Supportive Services, and California Children’s Services. We engage on these issues through a combination of direct representation, policy advocacy and impact litigation. 

-     Housing Stability Project (HSP) – Fully Remote: HSP works to prevent the displacement of persons with disabilities, particularly those in low-income communities and communities of color, by operating a statewide, phone-based legal clinic The team is interdisciplinary: attorneys and non-attorney advocates work in collaboration with social workers to provide holistic advocacy to people with disabilities on issues impacting their housing (discrimination, accommodations, habitability, barriers to housing, landlord/tenant disputes, etc.). HSP’s goal is to build power in communities and support clients to advocate for their rights as tenants through advice, brief services, and select cases for representation in negotiations and administrative hearings. To reach more underserved communities, HSP also creates resources (publications, videos, etc.) and provides education and outreach across the state. 

-     Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) Practice Group – Fully Remote: The Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Practice Group works at the intersection of impact litigation, individual representation, policy advocacy, collective action campaigns, and other systemic reform efforts to advance the civil and human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our current priorities include:

1. Dismantling the structural racism and discrimination experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities receiving services and other support from the state of California and local/regional providers.

2. Advancing the core principles of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring and the rights of disabled people to live, work, and play in their communities.

3. Expanding access to alternatives to legal processes like conservatorships that strip people of their decision-making rights, such as Supported Decision-Making, Self-Determination, and other supports that advance the autonomy, preferences, and choices of intellectually and developmentally disabled people.

4. Building relationships with and developing advocacy strategies alongside organizations led by intellectually and developmentally disabled people and their families.

Investigations Unit (IU) – Hybrid: IU uses our access authority as the designated Protection and Advocacy Agency to conduct individual investigations and monitoring in nursing homes, jails, immigration detention centers, state psychiatric hospitals, state developmental centers, and community settings. The Investigations Unit pursues systemic reform through public policy measures. It effectively negotiates solutions for people with disabilities and rarely needs to engage in litigation. The Investigations Unit’s projects include advocating for greater oversight of nursing homes, monitoring the detention of adults and immigrant children with disabilities, and working to end the over-policing and criminalization of people with disabilities. 

-     Mental Health Practice Group (MHPG) – Fully Remote: MHPG advocates for Californians with a mental health diagnosis. We work in institutions to keep individuals free from abuse and neglect and protect their legal rights in mental health facilities, including county-funded facilities and state hospitals. We work in jails, juvenile facilities, and detention centers to improve conditions, eliminate unnecessary isolation and segregation and secure adequate medical and mental health treatment. We work to increase community mental health treatment and housing for individuals, to avoid unnecessary institutionalization or homelessness. We also work to protect the rights of patients, including the right to confidentiality, due process, and voluntary treatment. 

-  Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA) - Hybrid: OCRA advocates for people with developmental disabilities who are regional center clients, including people who reside in state developmental centers and community facilities. OCRA is a team of zealous advocates and disability generalists who are building a culture of teamwork and working for a world where all disabled people have power, are treated with dignity and respect, and make their own decisions. As part of this dynamic team, law clerks will provide helpful information, advice, and representation on a wide range of legal topics. Examples include regional center eligibility and services, special education, Social Security, IHSS, and living in the community. 

-     Pathways to Work – Fully Remote: Pathways to Work provides advocacy services to people experiencing disability-related barriers to employment. Through the Client Assistance Program (CAP), we assist people with difficulties seeking or receiving vocational rehabilitation services from the Department of Rehabilitation, independent living centers, or other programs funded by the Rehabilitation Act. Pathways to Work also assists people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in addressing barriers in work, such as reasonable accommodations and transportation. 

-     Voting Rights Practice Group (VRPG) – Fully Remote: VRPG advocates to ensure that voting is accessible for people with disabilities statewide. The VRPG provides voting rights trainings; advocates to improve the voter registration process for people with disabilities; collaborates with election officials to improve voting accessibility; runs a hotline on election days and assists voters with election-related complaints; pursues impact litigation on voting access issues; comments on election legislation; consults on accessible voting equipment; creates helpful publications for voters with disabilities and election officials; trains poll workers; and participates on disability-focused voting accessibility committees. 

-     Youth Practice Group (YPG) – Fully Remote: YPG ensures students with disabilities benefit from the vast array of educational services and support guaranteed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. YPG works to remove barriers for students with disabilities so they can learn, play, and participate in extracurricular activities in neighborhood schools with their peers. Our work includes due process and compliance complaints, litigation, and systemic advocacy. 

Working at DRC is a rare opportunity to do what you are good at while making a difference!  

Requirements

How to Apply 

Interested applicants should upload a resume, a brief writing sample (10 pages maximum) and a cover letter that includes your time commitment, and office location.  

Interested applicants should review the DRC Practice Areas and indicate which practice group, or groups, they would be interested in working with. 

Note to Post-Graduates:

Law students who are interested in post-graduate positions should consider applying for DRC-hosted fellowship positions through Skadden, Equal Justice Works, and similar programs. DRC will post sponsorship opportunities as they become available. DRC also accepts law clerk applications from post-graduate individuals looking for a temporary position between taking the Bar Exam and receiving Bar Exam results (Fall and Spring). Please follow the application guidelines above and include in your cover letter your requested time commitment and practice area.