Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center
http://www.scu.edu/law/kgaclc/index.html
For more information, visit their website.

HISTORY

The Community Law Center began in 1993 as a volunteer effort of La Raza Law Students Association at Santa Clara University to help day laborers collect wages they were due. Based on the documented need and the students' success, the program received grant support to provide a full range of employment and immigration services in the fall of 1994. In 1995 the Center began offering assistance with consumer matters, and in 1997 expanded to help low-income entrepreneurs with their legal needs. Today the Community Law Center continues its work in all these areas.

OVERVIEW OF THE LAW CENTER

For the past eleven years the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center (formerly known as the East San Jose Community Law Center) has provided pro bono advice and representation in several areas including workers' rights, workers' compensation, consumer rights and immigration rights. Poverty-stricken minorities and immigrants make up the vast majority of clients of the KGACLC, which is the civil clinical component of the Santa Clara University School of Law. It utilizes law students working under attorney supervision to provide free legal services. This model achieves two goals: (1) it allows law students to receive excellent training in the handling of cases involving real clients, with close supervision, allowing them to become better attorneys, and (2) it provides very low income clients with representation they would not have otherwise. The utilization of law students permits the Center to represent more clients than would a legal services program solely staffed by attorneys, and encourages legal professionals to consider a career serving the public interest. Many of our graduates remain committed to providing pro bono services throughout their legal career.