Law Clerk - Spring 2026

Description:

Location: Remote and Hybrid (Must reside in CA for the semester term)

Various Practice Groups

Description

If you require an accommodation due to a disability to complete this application OR you are experiencing issues submitting your application and accompanying materials, please e-mail: talent@disabilityrightsca.org

Make a difference! We fight for the rights of people that have disabilities....JOIN US!

We encourage those who are d/Deaf or Disabled to apply.

Location:

Remote and hybrid (must live in California for the duration of the paid clerkship). Even if working remotely, law clerks are assigned to the geographically closest DRC office to their place of residence. DRC regional offices include the following: Berkeley, Fresno, Los Angeles, Ontario, Sacramento, and San Diego.

Salary Range (Depends on Law School Year):

1L: $22.00

2L: $23.00

3L: $24.00

Paid, volunteer, and for-credit positions are available for current law students.

DRC has limited funding for clerks who cannot secure funding from their law schools. If possible, we ask all clerks to apply for funding through their law schools and outside sources before requesting DRC funding. Please note, DRC reimburses law clerks for work-related travel expenses and provides a stipend to offset monthly commute costs such as parking and public transportation.

How to Apply:

Interested applicants should upload a resume, a brief writing sample (10 pages maximum) and a cover letter that includes your time commitment, and office location. Interested applicants should review the DRC Practice Areas and indicate which practice group, or groups, they would be interested in working with.

Application Deadline:

Open until filled – Applications should be received by December 8, 2025

Who We Are

Disability Rights California (“DRC”) is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm, established in 1978 to protect the legal, civil, and service rights of people with all types of disabilities. We are the designated Protection and Advocacy agency for California and the largest disability rights organization in the country.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should upload a resume, a brief writing sample (10 pages maximum), and a cover letter that indicates the applicant’s time commitment and closest office location.

Our Culture

Disability Rights California is recognized as a Gold Level Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leader by the State Bar of California! We work to promote and create a culture where people feel empowered to be their true authentic selves to do their best work for our clients and the communities we serve.

Requirements:

Law Clerk Position Summary

Law students will find working with DRC a challenging and rewarding experience. Law clerks are typically assigned to one practice group within the Legal Advocacy Unit (LAU), the Investigations Unit, or the Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA). Each law clerk will collaborate with their team to serve clients across the state. While we do our best to assign supervision in the same office, at times, remote supervision is necessary to provide law clerks opportunities on a particular team. Currently, all DRC employees and law clerks are working remotely. Depending on their assigned team, law clerks may gain experience with:

• Interviewing clients and consumers.
• Providing counsel and advice on self-advocacy.
• Legal research and writing.
• Legislative analysis and writing.
• Representation at mediation and administrative hearings at school districts, universities, regional centers, Social Security offices, and others.
• Assisting people with psychiatric disabilities in locked facilities to ensure the enforcement of their federal, state, constitutional, and statutory rights.
• Assisting clients file charges of discrimination with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights under the Department of Education, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Assisting in the investigation of systemic and potentially life-threatening abuse and neglect in state and private facilities, serving people with psychiatric and developmental disabilities.
• Conduct training on the law and multicultural outreach.

Spring Semester Law Clerk Positions

The Spring law clerk program is shaped by both student interest and DRC’s program needs, with a commitment of 10 weeks to up to 16 weeks, typically beginning in mid-January to mid-April, offering flexibility for students who are receiving academic credit.

To apply, please follow the instructions below and include your requested time commitment and practice area of interest in your cover letter.

DRC’s Practice Areas

Equal Access and Housing Practice Group (EAHPG) – Fully Remote: EAHPG is a diverse, statewide team of passionate attorneys developing and implementing impactful strategies – litigation, policy, and community support – to stop discrimination against people with disabilities. Our current priorities include:

• challenging discrimination in private and public programs;
• confronting the criminalization of people experiencing homelessness;
• protecting and increasing affordable, accessible housing;
• ensuring access to transit;
• access to higher education;
• access to websites and other electronic information;
• access to courts; and
• addressing the intersectional needs of people with disabilities.

EAHPG works to prevent the displacement of persons with disabilities, particularly those in low-income communities and communities of color, by operating a statewide, phone-based legal clinic. The team is interdisciplinary: attorneys and non-attorney advocates work in collaboration with social workers to provide holistic advocacy to people with disabilities on issues impacting their housing (discrimination, accommodations, habitability, barriers to housing, landlord/tenant disputes, etc.). EAHPG’s goal is to build power in communities and support clients to advocate for their rights as tenants through advice, brief services, and select cases for representation in negotiations and administrative hearings. To reach more underserved communities. EAHPG also creates resources (publications, videos, etc.) and provides education and outreach across the state.

Fair Hearing Project (FHP) – Fully Remote: FHP provides representation at administrative hearings for monolingual Spanish-speaking regional center consumers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). FHP will be limited to service denials that will result in serious harm to the client and will partner with community-based organizations to identify clients who have already exhausted self-advocacy strategies. Staff will collaborate with the Legal Advocacy Unit and the Office of Clients Rights Advocates to ensure that DRC offers a comprehensive advocacy strategy to address the needs of the Latinx IDD community. FHP is specifically looking for a law clerk who is fluent in Spanish.

Investigations Unit (IU) – Hybrid: IU uses our access authority as the designated Protection and Advocacy Agency to conduct individual investigations and monitoring in nursing homes, jails, immigration detention centers, state psychiatric hospitals, state developmental centers, and community settings. The Investigations Unit pursues systemic reform through public policy measures. It effectively negotiates solutions for people with disabilities and rarely needs to engage in litigation. The Investigations Unit’s projects include advocating for greater oversight of nursing homes, monitoring the detention of adults and immigrant children with disabilities, and working to end the over-policing and criminalization of people with disabilities.

Working at DRC is a rare opportunity to do what you are good at while making a difference!

Note to Post-Graduates:

Law students who are interested in post-graduate positions should consider applying for DRC-hosted fellowship positions through Skadden, Equal Justice Works, and similar programs. DRC will post sponsorship opportunities as they become available. DRC also accepts law clerk applications from post-graduate individuals looking for a temporary position between taking the Bar Exam and receiving Bar Exam results (Fall and Spring). Please follow the application guidelines above and include in your cover letter your requested time commitment and practice area.