Staff Attorney- Homelessness Prevention Law Project

ABOUT PUBLIC COUNSEL

Public Counsel is the largest pro bono public interest law firm in the country. Founded in 1970, it is dedicated to advancing equal justice under law and addressing economic, racial, social, and other inequities by delivering free legal and social services to the most vulnerable members of our community. Public Counsel operates eight legal projects: Children’s Rights, Community Development, Consumer Rights & Economic Justice, Homelessness Prevention, Immigrants’ Rights, Veterans’ Rights, the Audrey Irmas Project for Women & Girls’ Rights, and our impact litigation project, Opportunity Under Law. 

Public Counsel has a full-time staff of over 150. We are committed to building a diverse staff and encourage applications from people of color, people with disabilities, and people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexualities.

ABOUT HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION LAW PROJECT

Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project (HPLP) serves individuals who are at high risk of becoming homeless or are currently unhoused. HPLP assists unrepresented low-income litigants in unlawful detainer (eviction) actions, and provides pre-litigation counsel and advice to tenants who are involved in a landlord-tenant dispute. HPLP also provides pro bono representation to homeless individuals and families to help remove legal barriers to obtaining permanent housing. In addition, we run several community clinics to connect low-income Angelenos with free legal advice, and provide educational workshops in collaboration with community-based organizations. 

In addition to our homelessness prevention and anti-displacement efforts, our recent work includes: 

• Supporting local tenants in their successful efforts to obtain and preserve COVID-related eviction protections;
• Working with community-based organizations to provide know-your-rights presentations and workshops to tenants on new and constantly-changing housing laws;
• Teaming up with other non-profit legal services providers, tenant organizers and community-based organizations throughout Los Angeles County to push forward the implementation of a Right to Counsel for all tenants in eviction proceedings.

JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the Supervising Staff Attorney and Directing Attorney, the Staff Attorney is a full-time position, based primarily at Public Counsel’s main office at 610 S. Ardmore. The position may involves some off-site clinic work in South Los Angeles communities and other parts of Los Angeles County. 

The Staff Attorney will work in Public Counsel’s new “Special Litigation Unit” (SLU) within the Homelessness Prevention Law Project. 

In the midst of the pandemic, there was an explosion of landlord harassment, illegal lockouts, and other actionable behavior by landlords who were not able to evict tenants lawfully due to local, state, and federal protections against eviction. Many tenants have lost their housing and become homeless due to these actions, or have left the area because they were unable to find affordable replacement housing. As a result, a number of new laws have been passed that provide penalties for illegal landlord behavior. But the legal services landscape in Los Angeles does not currently provide a reliable avenue for tenants to pursue legal action against their landlords to enforce these new laws. The vast majority of tenants who obtain legal representation do so through nonprofit organizations, most of which are grant-funded to undertake unlawful detainer defense, and do not have the capacity to initiate litigation against landlords. The private bar does not typically take on such cases in significant numbers, and interest from the pro bono sector has been low.

The SLU will focus on filing lawsuits against landlords to vindicate the rights of tenants to live in safe, well-cared-for, secure housing, free of harassment and discrimination. We expect the SLU to file and litigate lawsuits related to habitability issues, illegal lockouts, constructive eviction, discriminatory housing practices, and violations of the City of Los Angeles’ Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance. The SLU will also pursue novel legal theories to enforce new tenant protections passed in the last 5 years. The SLU will also consult on litigation engagements by Public Counsel and pro bono partners that seek to defend local tenant protections from challenges by landlord interest groups

The Staff Attorney will work with Public Counsel’s pro bono partners on some of this litigation, and will be responsible for carrying out the work of the SLU, in collaboration with the Supervising Staff Attorney and other members of the SLU. 

The team will work collaboratively to determine which cases to file, to investigate and prepare the case for filing, to coordinate with any potential pro bono partners, and carry out all litigation activities once the case is filed. 

This is a full-time position that will involve the full breadth of civil litigation activities, administrative work, grant reporting, meeting with clients and community partners, and court appearances. The position has the following responsibilities:

• With the Supervising Staff Attorney, participate in discussions with internal and external partners about program design and priorities;
• Carry a small individual caseload of cases;
• Participate in the full breadth of civil litigation activities, including drafting and filing complaints, carrying out discovery, filing and responding to motions for summary judgment and discovery motions, taking depositions, preparing cases for trial, and serving as trial counsel in jury or bench trials;
• Assist with preparation of quarterly grant reports regarding case outcomes;
• Participate in external meetings with legal services and community-based organizations as needed, in order to be responsive to community needs;
• Attend virtual and in-person court hearings as required;
• Act as a resource for other Public Counsel staff and community partners; 
• Administrative work related to litigation, including document management, consistent keeping of case notes in the internal case management system and case tracking on the team’s litigation calendar;
• Participate in off-site clinic events of the project as needed;
• Consult on litigation engagements by Public Counsel and pro bono partners that seek to defend local tenant protections from challenges by landlord interest groups;
• Other duties as assigned.