Community Legal Services

Grocery store worker smiling while posing at the register
Grocery store worker smiling while posing at the register
Grocery store worker smiling while posing at the register

Community Legal Services

Our Focus

The Community Legal Services Program operates LAAW’s Workers’ Rights Clinic, which provides free comprehensive legal advice to approximately 1,500 low-income Californians each year about legal rights related to work in California. LAAW is proud to operate 13 sites of the Workers’ Rights Clinic throughout California.

At the Clinic, legal counselors interview clients about the full range of issues they are facing in the workplace. Those issues might include, for example, wage theft, race discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation based on immigration status, unemployment insurance, paid family leave, and workers’ compensation. Workers get legal advice individually tailored to their specific circumstances.

The Clinic’s goal is to empower workers by helping them understand their rights, obtain their wages, keep their jobs, and otherwise assert their workplace rights. Our Clinic gives LAAW a unique perspective on what workers are experiencing “on the ground” at any moment in time, which informs LAAW’s overall efforts to create systemic change in response to the most pressing needs of low-wage workers, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups of workers.

The Workers’ Rights Clinic also strengthens the legal system by training the next generation of lawyers on the importance of workplace rights. Each year, we mentor approximately 100 law students from top law schools around the state, who act as legal counselors in many of our Clinic locations.

Partners

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