We’re thrilled to announce the May 2020 launch of the Radical Real Estate Law School, which will spread a vision and practical education for transforming our relationships to land and housing, while training up to four activists to become radical real estate lawyers without going to law school. Ways to get involved:
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Aspiring Radical Real Estate Lawyers: Click here to apply to be one of the four legal apprentices.
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Radical Learning Community: Even if you don’t want to become a lawyer, be part of our learning community! Sign up here to get updates, including invitations to workshops and webinars.
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Volunteer Faculty/Advisors: Do you have skills and knowledge to share? Email Tia Taruc-Myers (tia@theselc.org) so we can keep you in mind as we craft our curriculum!
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Sponsors: Email Janelle Orsi (Janelle@theselc.org) to find out how you can help us fund this. We have $100,000 committed to this program, and need to raise $150,000 more to achieve the impact we’re aiming for in the first year. Can you connect us to funders and help us raise the rest?
Radical Real Estate Legal Apprentice Job Description (18-28 hours per week)
We’re looking for someone interested in becoming a lawyer without going to law school! More specifically, we’re looking for someone who is interested in becoming not just any type of lawyer, but a radical real estate lawyer. That means you’ re someone who wants to rethink real estate, dismantle private property, and return land to the commons.
Learn more about becoming a lawyer without going to law school on our blog and on this webinar. This is a one-year position that may be extended depending on funding and staff capacity to provide supervision. In brief, to become a lawyer through California’s Law Office Study Program, you need to apprentice in law offices for four years, 18 hours per week, and pass required bar exams.
Required Skills & Experience
♦ Rooted in economic and racial justice work and movements, or demonstrated commitment to economic and racial justice
♦ Self-motivated
♦ Time and task management
♦ Ability to cultivate and steward relationships
♦ Based in the Bay Area, especially East Bay
♦ 2 or more years of college work (or pass exams demonstrating the equivalent)
Desired Skills & Experience
♦ Priority to staff of partner organizations
♦ People who have experienced housing insecurity and have Bay Area roots
♦ Experience developing and coordinating educational workshops
♦ Community organizing experience
♦ Volunteer coordination
♦ Event coordination
Bonus Skills & Experience
♦ Prior experience with real estate transactions
♦ Experience with democratic decision-making
8 Hours/Week of Bar Study (unpaid)
The State Bar of California requires legal apprentices to “study the law” in a legal office for 18 hours per week. We estimate that a successful apprentice would need to spend eight of those hours studying and preparing for the bar exams. To set you up for success, we’ll help organize recurring study groups so that you can set aside eight hours of study time per week to focus on three required bar exam subjects: Contracts, Torts, and Criminal Law. All you need is a commitment to learn the law, and we’ll reserve a study space, and point you in the right direction for bar prep. These eight hours of study time will be unpaid.
10-20 Hours/Week Legal Work (paid)
This is a 10-20 hour paid apprenticeship position. (The number of hours will be decided in conversation with applicants, based on need and availability.) Depending on your skills and interest, the work you will do in this position may include:
♦ Supervised client work
♦ Event and workshop coordination
♦ Building partnerships and coalitions
♦ Creating educational materials
♦ Miscellaneous work to support the program and our organization
Compensation and Costs:
Your hourly pay rate will be the same as other Law Center staff (we have roughly equal pay with a base annual pay rate of $60,552 for 30 hour/week staff, increased for staff who support children or other family members). We also suggest that you budget between $1,000 and $4,000 for fees, exam registration, and tutoring (if needed) for your 4-year apprentice program.
How to apply:
The first step is to complete the following by March 13:
♦ Fill out this survey
♦ Send a copy of your resume to tia@theselc.org.
After we process your application, we may follow up to ask for a writing sample or references, or may invite you for an interview.
Detailed Job Description
Supervised Client Work
What better way to learn radical real estate law than to dive right in and work directly with our clients? We host three Legal Cafes per month where you can shadow 1-on-1 consultations and learn how to provide on-the-spot legal advice to housing cooperatives, community land trusts, tenant unions, farm cooperatives, and more! You will also be assigned to one East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative project, one farm-related project, and/or one DPO client.
Coordinate Events
We need someone to help us coordinate and host our teach-ins and workshops, including our annual Social Enterprise Law Seminar, Policy Cafes, Legal Cafes, Next Egg webinars, and other educational events.
Build Coalitions and Partner Relationships
Take part in coalition and policy work related to real estate and cooperatives. We need someone who can build relationships with groups like the CA Farmer Justice Collaborative, People’s Land & Housing Coalition, and Right to the City.
Create Educational Materials
Learn legal research and writing skills by drafting educational materials for Law for Economic Democracy, the Next Egg, our Bite-Sized Legal Guides and Toolkit (micro-modules), and for our blog and social media.
Other
Office management
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