The Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center

“By resolution on 5/26/11 the Board of Directors ratified and confirmed that it had in the past and continued to delegate authority to the Executive Committee to act on its behalf in all matters except those specified in that resolution. At year-end 2017 the Executive Committee had 50 members.”

“990 draft copy will be presented and communicated to Finance Committee(FC). FC approve form 990 after their review and a copy of form 990 will be presented to the Board after it's filed with IRS.”

“Each member and staff must sign and acknowledge LAAW's conflict of interest policy when hire. A copy of the signed policy is placed in staff's personnel file.”

“Each year the Board of Trustee review and approve ED's compensation in December for the following year.”

“Each year the Board of Trustee review and approve officers and key employees compensation in December for the following year.”

“Upon request.”

“Client Note 1 - Form 990, Part IIIStatement of Program Service Accomplishments 4aLAAWs three largest legal service areas are Direct Services, Enforcement and Impact Litigation, and Outreach and Education.Direct Legal ServicesIn 2017, LAAW provided free legal information and counseling through clinics, helplines, and limited representation to thousands of low-income Californians through our Workers Rights Clinic, Wage Claim Clinic, Disability Rights Clinic, and various legal helplines, as described below, which collectively assist 2,000 to 3,000 workers across the state each year: a. Clinics:i. Workers Rights ClinicsOur Workers Rights Clinics generally operate weekday evenings in underserved communities at 10 different sites throughout California, including: San Francisco (two locations), the Berkeley/Oakland border, Fresno, Santa Ana, Sacramento/Davis, Watsonville, East Palo Alto, and San Diego, and San Bernardino. We also recently laid the groundwork to launch an eleventh Workers Rights Clinic site in South Central Los Angeles. Workers unable to attend an in-person clinic are assisted via weekly phone-in clinics. In 2017, approximately 80 law students and 103 volunteer attorneys participated in over 159 Workers Rights Clinics across the state. At each clinic, trained student counselors conduct intakes with the many clients that appear in person, confer with supervising attorneys to analyze the legal issues arising from that intake, and then provide clients with information, suggest possible solutions, and make relevant referrals as appropriate. Counselors serve an additional and important function: to inform clients when they do not have legal recourse for their problem, while acknowledging clients expressed feelings that they were not treated fairly. The Workers Rights Clinic model relies on volunteers and partnerships with law schools and community organizations. Our Workers Rights Clinic partners are U.C. Berkeleys School of Law, U.C. Davis School of Law, U.C. Hastings College of the Law, and U.C. Irvine School of Law; Stanford School of Law; the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law; the University of San Diego, the University of California Los Angeles; as well as East Bay Community Law Center; Central California Legal Services; Legal Aid Society of Orange County; and the Watsonville Law Center, the Los Angeles Black Workers Center, among others. ii. Wage Claim ClinicHeld at San Francisco and Oakland California Labor Commissioners Office locations. The Wage Claim Clinic helps victims of wage theft calculate unpaid wages and complete wage claim forms. In 2017, LAAW attorneys and approximately 39 legal advocates made 30 appearances before the Labor Commissioner at either wage claim conferences or hearings and 26 appearances before the California Uninsurance Appeals Board at unemployment insurance appeal hearings on behalf of indigent and low-wage workers and recently unemployed or disabled workers, successfully secured benefits in 96% of the cases. The wage hearing appearances resulted in favorable judgments, totaling nearly $313,281.27. Several other claims were resolved through negotiated settlements, which produced a total of nearly $156,762.26 in monetary damages to workers for wage and hour violations. In 2017 the Wage Program continued its new project to assist construction workers record mechanics liens on properties when they are underpaid or not paid at all, for the work they perform.iii. Workers Rights Disability Law Clinic: Held at the Ed Roberts Campus, a universally-accessible transit-oriented disability services hub in Berkeley. The Workers Rights Disability Law Clinics services are tailored to the needs of clients with disabilities, who receive information, evaluation, advice, and representation when appropriate, on matters regarding reasonable accommodation and disability-based discriminatory treatment or practices. iv. Legal HelplinesIn addition to the clinics, LAAW operates three legal helplines”