About
The New Attorney Pipeline Project
The Legal Aid Association of California is the statewide membership organization for legal aid nonprofits serving low-income people, seniors, and people with disabilities. This project exists because starting a legal aid career in California is far harder to navigate than it should be.
Many recent graduates begin their careers through an external fellowship: Skadden, Equal Justice Works, Borchard, and a smaller set of bridge programs that support graduates until bar results arrive. The application process is confusing, the timelines start a year earlier than students expect, and it is difficult to learn which legal aid or immigration nonprofit would hire a graduate before admission.
It runs the other way too. Legal services organizations, particularly those serving rural Californians, struggle to reach students without spending time and money they do not have.
This platform gathers what is scattered: fellowship processes, alternatives to fellowships, the organizations that hire new graduates, a matching portal that connects students with employers, and resources for the organizations doing the hiring and the career services staff doing the advising.
How it is built
Four commitments
Accessible by default
Built to WCAG 2.1 AA targets: keyboard paths for every interaction, visible focus, semantic landmarks, and reduced-motion variants for every animation.
Maintainable by LAAC staff
Fellowships, organizations, and resources are structured content, so staff update listings without touching design or layout.
Findable
Each page carries its own metadata and structured data, so students find the fellowship page from a search engine or an AI assistant, not just the homepage.
Honest about data
The matching tool explains why an organization matched, and never presents a ranked list as a decision.
Funding
This project is funded through a Legal Aid Infrastructure & Innovation grant awarded to LAAC by the California Access to Justice Commission.