Stanford Law School’s Community Law Clinic (CLC) opened the doors of its new downtown Redwood City home on Wednesday, Nov. 19, celebrating what clinic director Professor Juliet M. Brodie called the clinic’s “new forever home.”
Since 2003, the CLC has been a vital legal resource for low-income residents of the communities surrounding Stanford University, as well as a training ground where Stanford Law students learn by serving those most in need. The CLC is one of 11 clinics that make up the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, all of which allow students the opportunity to spend at least a full academic quarter focusing on real-world lawyering, handling cases from start to finish under faculty supervision. Students in the CLC and their faculty advisors represent clients in three core areas: eviction defense, securing Social Security disability benefits, and removing barriers to reentry after incarceration.
The CLC is the only clinic located outside the Stanford campus, serving as a bridge between Stanford Law School and the broader community. The new location in Redwood City is close to the San Mateo County Superior Court and easily reachable by public transportation.
“This space finally reflects who we are and the work we do,” Brodie said at the event, which brought together community legal service providers, clinic alumni, students, Stanford Law faculty, and supporters. “After years of temporary locations, it feels like we’ve ended up in exactly the right place – embedded in the community, easy for clients to reach, and designed to be a welcoming, dignified environment for anyone who walks through the door.”
George Triantis, JSD ’89, the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean of Stanford Law School, underscored that although opening the clinic’s new home is an important milestone, the essence of the clinic lies in the people who run it and those it serves.
“The strength of the Community Law Clinic isn’t just the space, though the space helps,” Triantis said. “It’s about the people and its mission. In clinic, students learn that being an effective lawyer is not just about appearing in court. It involves a broader assessment of their clients’ needs, a variety of lawyering skills in serving them, and collaboration with other professional and support services. With its location embedded in the community, the CLC – as a full-time student engagement – provides a unique clinical experience.”
Decades of community-driven work
The CLC’s roots stretch back to the mid-1980s, when a group of Stanford Law students launched the East Palo Alto Community Law Project (EPACLP), a neighborhood-based legal services model that endured into the early 2000s. EPACLP’s off-campus location in a low-income neighborhood was central to its mission, and that later became the defining feature of the CLC, which stepped into EPACLP’s mandate when it closed.
The exceptionally long tenures of the clinic’s leaders and staff members have helped define its mission. Brodie has been with the clinic since 2006, clinical supervising attorney Danielle Jones since 2004, and clinical supervising attorney Lisa Douglass since 2007. Legal assistant Lupe Buenrostro started working at the EPACLP in 1989 and legal assistant Lakeshia Phillips-Marshall joined in 2018.
Over the years, the CLC has carried out its mission through a series of beloved but imperfect locations – a deteriorating building in East Palo Alto, a cramped office off a remote Highway 101 interchange, and, most recently, temporary quarters on Stanford’s Redwood City campus.
Community Law Clinic leaders and staff (from left to right): Guadalupe Buenrostro, Lakeshia Phillips-Marshall, Juliet Brodie, Lisa Douglass, and Danielle Jones. | Courtesy Stanford Law
Despite its many moves, the clinic never lost its sense of place, Brodie said. Each office kept the CLC embedded in the neighborhoods where its clients lived and worked, shaping a model of legal service that has always been rooted in the community itself.
“Looking around this grand opening event, we see alumni of CLC that go back many, many years, many of whom are now working day in, day out in the public interest,” Brodie said. “Or they are doing pro bono work in their law firms, or working for government agencies. This is resource-intensive work, and the fact that Stanford University and Stanford Law School have chosen to continue to invest in bricks and mortar in the community means the world to us.”
