Law Clerk (Spring Externship)

About UnCommon Law

UnCommon Law fights to ensure that all people incarcerated for violent crime have access to effective legal representation and opportunities for healing. Through our unique, trauma-informed model of advocacy, we provide the space currently missing in the system for healing, accountability, and safe pathways home from prison. In developing new self-narratives, the people we serve are able to more effectively disrupt violence inside and outside prison and become leaders who change negative societal narratives about those incarcerated for violent crime. Our groundbreaking approach is changing policy and outcomes, driven by the voices and experiences of system-impacted communities. UnCommon Law’s values include accountability, audacity, authenticity, collaboration, community, empathy, imagination, joy, liberation, and sustainability.

About the Position

The Law Clerk position provides law students the opportunity to work alongside Attorneys and Legal Assistants who represent clients in their parole hearings, as well as engage in legal research and writing projects. Law Clerks will also have the opportunity to learn about the discretionary parole process, California prisons, and the life cycle of individual journeys through incarceration and release. This is a hybrid position based in Oakland, CA, part-time (minimum 16-20 hours/week) over the quarter or semester calendar (at least 8 weeks). This position is unpaid and offers a $1,000 stipend per semester to defray some costs. A higher stipend amount is available for Law Clerks who commit to additional hours.

Responsibilities

• Direct Attorney support: Drafting follow-up communications and/or consultations to clients; providing feedback on client writings; supporting Attorneys in the preparation of and attendance at legal visits and phone calls; assembling Parole Packets to submit to the Board of Parole Hearings
• Research & writing: Researching and writing memos about legal issues impacting clients or related policy; reviewing case records and prison files; compiling housing, employment, and other support resources for incarcerated clients; drafting habeas petitions
• Communications: Responding to non-client mail
• Information management: Updating contact records and maintaining our legal database

Requirements

• Compassion for incarcerated people and their family members, and a demonstrated interest in criminal justice reform
• Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• A professional demeanor and pleasant disposition
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• Sensitivity to confidential matters
• A working proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel, Google Suite, and CRM software (strongly preferred)

Benefits

• $1,000 stipend per semester to defray some costs (higher stipend available for additional hours)

Schedule

• Part-time (minimum 16-20 hours/week)
• At least 8 weeks over the quarter or semester calendar
• Hybrid position based in Oakland, CA

UnCommon Law requires candidates to provide proof of good standing from their school in the form of a letter from their dean or school’s registrar. We strongly encourage applications from people impacted by incarceration as well as from traditionally underrepresented communities.