Community Volunteers
| Pre-Law Students |
| Paralegals and Paralegal Students |
| Other Professionals |
| High School Students |
| Other Community Volunteers |
| Download an application in PDF format |
To volunteer at a Self-Help Legal Access Center in the Inglewood, Santa Monica, Torrance, or Long Beach courthouses, click here.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles offers a range of internship and volunteer opportunities for community volunteers to assist us in delivering legal services to the poor in Los Angeles County. Our current volunteers range from undergraduates to retired executives. Please review these pages for information the types of opportunities and how to apply. All of our opportunities are offered during normal business hours; we don’t offer volunteer opportunities on evenings or weekends.
Volunteers are matched individually with openings in our projects. We don’t use volunteers to screen phone calls or handle telephone intake. While a few projects may have trainings or orientations, most simply start new volunteers whenever there is a need.
Volunteer opportunities for community volunteers at LAFLA are highly competitive; we can typically place about 20% of those who apply to volunteer with us. Typically people apply a couple of months before they are ready to start. We can almost never start someone within a few days of receiving an application.
While we require a minimum of 60 hours, the more time an applicant is able to commit, the more likely we can place that volunteer. Other factors include the applicant’s reasons for wanting to volunteer, fluency in speaking Spanish or an Asian language, and related experience or training.
Please check your resume and all of your correspondence carefully before sending it to us for grammar, spelling, word usage, and syntax. As a law firm we need volunteers with strong communication skills and attention to detail.
LAFLA offers a number of opportunities for current undergraduates or those with undergraduate and even graduate degrees who are applying to law school. Some may involve working directly with clients, while others may involve litigation support or administrative work. We try to ensure that all pre-law students get an opportunity to see how the legal system operates, and how it struggles to protect the rights of the poor.
Summer Internships
During the school year we place pre-law students in particular
projects. During the summer, however, we take 35-40 law
students. They consume much of our time, space, and ability
to supervise.
In order to allow a small number of pre-law students to gain experience
during the summer, LAFLA will accept 3-4 pre-law students each
summer. Candidates must have cars, as you will fill in gaps
in our delivery system. Fluency in a second language--Spanish,
Farsi, or an Asian language--is the most important skill a pre-law
student can bring to our work.
Interns will work in a Self-Help Legal Access Center working directly with litigants on landlord/tenant and family law cases, interviewing and advising them on how they should proceed with their case. In recent years we have had interns from UCLA, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, Northwestern, Yale, and Amherst.
Here a few examples of projects summer interns have worked on:
• Clinics at the Labor Commissioner's office,
assisting with workers making wage & hour claims
• Preparing and conducting audits on parental
involvement at local public schools
• Helping to defend students at expulsion hearings
• Attending trials and hearings
• Researching filings in various courthouses
• Assisting at clinics for clients with limited
English proficiency (Spanish, Asian languages)
• Performing paralegal tasks on large affirmative
lawsuits against slumlords
• Assisting with preparing tenants to represent
themselves in court (Spanish, Korean, Russian)
Offers are made on a rolling basis, so early application is highly
encouraged.
Paralegals and
Paralegal Students
Paralegals and paralegal students may volunteer at a Self-Help Legal Access Center in the Inglewood, Santa Monica, Torrance, or Long Beach courthouses. For more information, click here.
LAFLA does try to use professional volunteers in their expert capacities, such as private investigators. For more information, contact the Director of Private Attorney Involvement at volunteer@lafla.org.
LAFLA does use high school volunteers from time to time in administrative and clerical positions. Students must be able to travel to our offices and must demonstrate strong academic accomplishments. LAFLA policies prohibit anyone under 18 from interacting with clients. Students must apply personally; LAFLA will not accept applications from parents or guardians.
In addition to the categories listed above, LAFLA does have opportunities form time to time for retired individuals and others who are not interested in pursuing a legal career.
Download an application for pre-law students and other community volunteers in PDF format (Acrobat 193K).
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
© 2008 Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
