COVID-19: Keeping Los Angeles Safe

LA Represents is an unprecedented legal assistance initiative to help thousands of Angelenos who are facing extreme hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer have assembled a coalition of law firms, bar associations and attorneys who will enhance their existing pro bono commitments to legal aid organizations to provide COVID-19-related legal services, including helping vulnerable tenants, domestic violence victims and low income individuals with employment, consumer debt, and bankruptcy matters.

Additionally, we have partnered with Bet Tzedek Legal Services to build a new support system for small businesses devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many LA Represents pro bono attorneys will provide assistance to small businesses least likely to have access to effective legal services as they confront new workplace regulations, renegotiate commercial leases, apply for government relief programs, and navigate compliance with emergency health and safety orders.

I need a lawyer to help me with:

My landlord

My safety

My employment

My debt

Other legal questions

My small business needs legal advice

For free legal resources to address problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit Bet Tzedek's website.

I am a lawyer who wants to help

The following legal aid organizations are recruiting volunteer lawyers to assist in landlord/tenant actions:  

Bet Tzedek:

• Bet Tzedek is recruiting volunteers to assist in a remote weekly Monday morning Tenants’ Rights Clinic.  The clinic begins with a Know Your Rights presentation, followed by a series of 10-minute one-on-one counseling sessions between tenants and pro bono volunteers. Volunteers will conduct those 10-minute clinic consultations. All volunteers will need to attend one 1.5-hour remote training and will receive background materials in advance of their first clinic. Prior housing experience is not required.  Volunteers are expected to commit to a 2-hour remote clinic at least once a month over a period of several months.  
• Contact:  Lolita Braymanat lbrayman@bettzdek.org.

Community Legal Aid of Southern California:

• CLA/SoCal holds unlawful detainer answer clinics every Tuesday with volunteer shifts throughout the day.  Pro bono volunteers assist low-income tenants by helping to prepare answers to unlawful detainer complaints in this remote clinic setting.  Expert staff lawyers provide real-time assistance.  The time commitment is approximately three hours, unless a volunteer chooses to represent the client in further proceedings.  
• Contact: Monica Mar at mmar@clsocal.org.

Inner City Law Center:

• ICLC is focused on actual representation at trial of low-income clients facing eviction.  ICLC is also looking for volunteers to handle affirmative litigation involving slum condition housing remediation.  Further, ICLC offers volunteers the chance to help clients experiencing homelessness with expungements, clearing citations, as well as research projects.  
• Contact:  Vidhya Ragunathan at VRagunathan@innercitylaw.org.

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles:

• LAFLA hosts weekly remote eviction answer clinics on Fridays from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m. Volunteer attorneys interview clients, review evidence, and prepare pro se unlawful detainer (eviction) answers under the guidance of a LAFLA supervisor. Free online on-demand trainings are available at pbtraining.org.
• In September/October 2021, LAFLA will be starting a small claims/rent arrears clinic to help tenants who are behind in rent (landlords can start filing Nov 1st). LAFLA also is coordinating an eviction trial prep/settlement clinic, which will likely start in late September.
• Contact:  probono@lafla.org for clinics and Phong Wong at pwong@lafla.org regarding full-scope eviction defense opportunities.

Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles:

• NLSLA holds advice-and-counsel housing clinics on Wednesdays twice per month, from 3:00-5:00 pm. 
• Additionally, in anticipation of a wave of cases likely to begin in November 2021 when current filing prohibitions are lifted, NLSLA will be providing training in October to help tenants with small claims actions for back rent that landlords will be able to file.  Volunteers can also handle these debt-disputes through trial if the landlord chooses to skip the small claims process.  
• Contact: Skip Koenig at SkipKoenig@nlsla.org.

Public Counsel:

• Public Counsel is focused on providing full scope representation to tenants facing eviction upon the expiration of the moratorium.  
• The organization also runs two different general advice clinics during which housing issues frequently arise.  Right now the volunteer slots are booked, but Public Counsel likely will be looking for additional clinic volunteers in the fall.  
• Contact: David Daniels at ddaniels@publiccounsel.org.

Public Law Center:

• PLC operates weekly remote self-help clinics, helping tenants with answers and motions.  
• The organization is looking for volunteer law firms to handle affirmative housing discrimination and habitability cases, full-scope eviction defense cases. In addition, PLC will need volunteers to handle back-rent debt assistance matters in clinics and by full-scope representation (likely starting in October 2021). 
• Contact: Leigh Ferrin at lferrin@publiclawcenter.org. 

The following organizations are also recruiting volunteer lawyers to offer other COVID-19 related legal services including employment, consumer debt, domestic violence, and bankruptcy matters.

• Bet Tzedek
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• Public Counsel
• Inner City Law Center
• Neighborhood Legal Services
• Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice
• Community Legal Aid SoCal
• Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law

Thank you to our partners

• Ackerman LLP
• Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
• Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP
• Alston & Bird LLP
• Arent Fox LLP
• Baker Marquart LLP
• Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow PC
• Blank Rome LLP
• Cooley LLP
• Covington & Burling LLP
• Cozen O’Connor P.C.
• Crowell & Moring LLP
• Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
• Dechert LLP
• DLA Piper
• Duane Morris LLP
• Fenwick & West LLP
• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
• Goodwin Procter LLP
• Guggenheim Partners, LLC
• Hogan Lovells
• Holland & Knight
• Irell & Manella LLP
• Jackson Lewis P.C.
• Jenner & Block
• Jones Day
• Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
• King & Spalding LLP
• Kirkland & Ellis LLP
• Larson LLP
• Latham & Watkins LLP
• Law Offices of Lawrence S. Middleton
• LimNexus LLP
• Loeb & Loeb LLP
• Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
• Margolin & Lawrence
• Mayer Brown LLP
• McDermott Will & Emery LLP
• McGuireWoods LLP
• Milbank LLP
• Miller Barondess, LLP
• Michelman & Robinson, LLP
• Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
• Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
• Nixon Peabody LLP
• Norton Rose Fulbright
• O’Melveny & Myers LLP
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
• Paul Hastings LLP
• Perkins Coie LLP
• Proskauer Rose LLP
• Robins Kaplan LLP
• Seyfarth Shaw LLP
• Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
• Sidley Austin LLP
• Southern California Edison
• Steptoe & Johnson LLP
• Vedder Price
• Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
• Winston & Strawn LLP

Thank you to the following legal organizations

• Arab American Lawyers Association of Southern California
• Armenian Bar Association
• Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles
• Beverly Hills Bar Association
• Beverly Hills Bar Foundation
• Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
• Irish American Bar Association-Los Angeles
• John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles
• LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Mexican American Bar Association of Los Angeles County
• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
• Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
• LA Law Library

Thank you to the following institutions for their support

• UCLA School of Law
• USC Gould School of Law
• Loyola Law School
• Southwestern Law School
• Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
• UC Irvine School of Law
• Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law