Consumer Justice Clinic
What is the Consumer Justice Clinic?
EBCLC's Consumer Justice Clinic provides assistance and representation to low-income Alameda residents on a variety of consumer issues, including debt collection defense, student loans, car fraud, predatory lending, and consumer scams.
Students engage in a full range of litigation procedures, including propounding and responding to discovery, drafting motions and developing case strategies, and participating on local and regional policy initiatives on behalf of low-income consumers.
Students will also staff the General Clinic, which provides legal information, education, and advocacy on a wide range of civil legal issues to individuals who cannot find legal assistance elsewhere.
Staff at Consumer Justice Clinic
Sharon Djemal, Director
Sharon is the amazing and beloved director of the Consumer Justice Clinic.
She started at EBCLC in 2000. For many years, she worked in EBCLC's housing practice fighting unlawful detainers (evictions) and suing landlords. Prior to EBCLC, Sharon was a Soros Fellow at the Urban Justice Center’s Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project, where she represented public housing tenants being evicted from their homes based on criminal allegations. She is currently a member of the California State Bar’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Service and serves as a Pro Tem Judge in Contra Costa County.
Kara Acevedo, Staff Attorney / Clinical Supervisor
Kara is a graduate of Berkeley Law. During law school, she interned in EBCLC's Green Collar Communities Clinic and in Centro Legal de la Raza's Immigration Practice, and volunteered extensively with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. She joined EBCLC in 2014 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Immigrant Consumer Justice Project. Her goal is to increase access to EBCLC's consumer practice for immigrant communities.
Miguel Soto, Staff Attorney / Clinical Supervisor
Miguel attended UC Berkeley as an undergrad and Santa Clara University as a law student. While at law school he spent two years with the consumer program at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center. After graduating he worked as a solo practitioner focusing on consumer protection cases. He also volunteered with the Justice and Diversity Center in San Francisco, providing pro bono legal services for low income consumer cases.
Elizabeth Deucher, Registered Legal Services Attorney / Clinical Supervisor
Beth attended the University of Cincinnati School of Law School and has focused her career on public interest and consumer law. She began her law career in legal aid, working as a staff attorney for Prairie State Legal Services in Illinois. After about seven years, she transitioned to the Illinois Attorney General’s office, where she worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Fraud Bureau.
Maria Brambilla, Program Coordinator
