Vantaggi
Housing law is important and impactful and if you are passionate about that, it will largely be what keeps you in this place. No premiums for healthcare, which is nice!
Svantaggi
They have some serious tax issues that affected all of the work staff in 2021, and seem to be willing to evade tax law in the future, so if you don't receive a W-2 when you work here, don't be surprised. The tone and culture of the workplace is solely set by executive director Elena Popp, who constantly weaponizes the population they serve against their employees by gaslighting and manipulating the staff into doing more work than they are able to take on. Everyone you meet will be burned out, and if they aren't, it's because they were hired yesterday. No one other than the executive director has done more than a year at this organization. Turnover is high, and over the course of my employment I saw several attorneys and other staff quit within two weeks of being hired. Caseload is ridiculously high and attorneys are seriously over-burdened, and the clients they retain pay the price for that. This work can be draining because of the nature of the job, and staff often functions as social workers on top of their legal responsibilities. In short, run. If you are passionate about housing law, there are plenty of organizations in LA where you can get experience that are better structured and will provide more support.