Mission & History
OUR MISSION
Based in the City of Compton, CLI’s mission is to increase legal service delivery in underserved communities. The organization, founded in 2005, realizes the challenges that individuals face in finding quality, ethical and affordable attorneys. CLI provides access to critical legal resources primarily to the communities of Compton, the South Los Angeles, and Southeast Los Angeles County. In January 2009, CLI launched the Community Lawyers Access Center (CLAC). Since its launch, CLAC has provided legal information and services to more than 4,600 individuals and conducted more than 1,300 legal clinics, workshops, and information sessions. CLAC operates primarily with the support of volunteer attorneys, students, and paralegals to educate individuals about their legal rights and responsibilities.
Our History
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CLI held two outdoor Saturday Naturalization Clinics in the CLI parking lot
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CLI receives a $150,000 Capacity Strengthening Grant from the LA County Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA) and the Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM)
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CLI holds its first hybrid Winter Celebration Virtual Fundraiser
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Since the inception of CLI in 2005, CLI has assisted 9,600 community members
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CLI has completed 373 DACA applications
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Volunteer attorney hours reaches over 6,500
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CLI receives the California State Bar IOLTA/EAF grant
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CLI hires Miho Murai, Esq. as the permanent Executive Director
- CLI reaches 500 citizen applications
- Reaches 4,000 volunteer attorney hours
- CLI receives the NALEO Grant
- 600 Family Law Consultations were completed by CLI
- CLI beings processes DACA applications
- CLI Launches the annual Justice Jam Event
- Reaches 1,500 volunteer attorney hours
Luz Herrera, social justice lawyer and UCLA Law Professor, was born in Tijuana to Mexican parents and grew up in the Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles. After graduating from Harvard Law, she ran a solo law practice in working class Compton for years. She was the only full-time Spanish speaking lawyer in a city of over 50,000 Latino residents. She says she learned to think like a lawyer at Harvard but learned how to be a lawyer in Compton. After seven years of practice in Compton she became a law school professor full-time. Her academic work is focused on connecting law students with low income people and communities and helping prepare law students to be independent community lawyers. She also established and continues to help guide Community Lawyers, Inc., a non-profit organization providing low cost legal help for poor and working people in Compton.