Exploring Open Door Legal in Western Addition: A Local Resource Guide

What is Open Door Legal?

Open Door Legal is a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to providing low-income individuals with affordable access to legal resources. Their goal is to give everyone access to high-quality, compassionate assistance regardless of their financial situation. It helps clients develop a comprehensive plan for resolving their legal challenges. They serve clients in:
Open the Door to Justice is an in-house emergency legal clinic that provides free legal services to low-income residents of the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. Open Door Legal serves clients in health and family law.
The OTDJ Clinic is housed in the HealthRIGHT 360 Wellness Clinic, located at the corner of Geary and Fillmore streets . The clinic at this location focuses on family law due to the extensive demand for this practice area among local residents. Clients with a legal matter outside of family law will be referred to other Legal Aid organizations in the area.
The organization has a slate of highly-trained volunteer attorneys willing to provide in-office consultations with clients. The attorneys then follow up with the clients directly, representing them in court for their legal matters. In the past, Open Door Legal has won significant victories for their clients, including those who faced risk of deportation or eviction.

Open Door Legal Services Available in Western Addition

Open Door Legal is open for all! We provide legal services at no cost to low-income San Francisco residents. During the Second and Fourth Tuesday of the Month we host an office out of City College of San Francisco- Ocean Campus. We are also open once a month at St. Francis Square (located at 11 Julian Street). Please see our schedule below, you must make an appointment.
For the next couple of months, we will be at San Francisco Health Plan in ONE MISSION BAY on Fridays.
Housing: Open Door Legal attorneys represent tenants and homeowners who may be facing eviction and facing foreclosure.
Benefits: Our attorneys help individuals access critical public benefits, including disability benefits from the Social Security Administration for qualifying individuals unable to work due to a disability or disabling medical condition, Supplemental Security Income and Medi-Cal.
Immigration: Open Door Legal’s immigration staff provide legal advice and representation to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applicants (DACA), applicants seeking To Adjust Status to be a Lawful Permanent Resident, to apply for Naturalization of citizenship and to apply for humanitarian parole, including U-Visa status for certain victims of certain types of crimes, VAWA applicants and T-Visa applications for victims of human trafficking.
Family: Our family law attorneys provide full-service representation in family law cases, including domestic violence restraining orders and defend clients in custody and child support matters.
Consumer: Our Consumer attorneys help clients with Debt Collector Harassment, security deposit disputes, landlord-tenant issues, and other consumer oriented litigation.
Employment: We currently are unable to take on more employment cases. But you may contact the Employment Law Center for assistance.

Open Door Legal’s Impact in the Western Addition

The impact of Open Door Legal’s work in Western Addition can be illustrated through the numerous lives that have been touched through their services. Since its inception, Open Door Legal has helped thousands of individuals and families in the heart of Western Addition. Their focus is to provide comprehensive legal solutions for low-income individuals, and across 20 practice areas they have met their commitments with unrivaled success.
Success stories abound from Open Door Legal’s efforts in Western Addition. A mother of two young children who faced a default judgment of eviction turned to the organization for help. Not only did the attorney help this tenant to vacate the judgment and save her home, but she was also able to secure an agreement with her former landlord to return the client’s deposit. For another tenant who sought Open Door Legal’s services for wrongful eviction, the attorney successfully negotiated for the landlord to return the excess rent charged, saving the tenant hundreds of dollars.
One of the remarkable aspects of Open Door Legal’s services is the level of success they have had at eliminating or reducing fines for those with past warrants. These fines can often be significant enough to create a barrier to obtaining housing or continuing to live in a community like Western Addition. In most cases, 40-80% of the fine was abated or waived. Although these clients faced stressful situations with the warrants, Open Door Legal was able to reduce or eliminate these results and turn the situations into opportunities for positive change.
The power of Open Door Legal is truly indispensable to ensuring that those living in Western Addition have access to justice. Clients are quoted saying, "This has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I will now be able to keep my business open." Open Door Legal has changed lives and continue to fight for the community of Western Addition.

How to Access Open Door Legal in the Western Addition

In the Western Addition, Open Door Legal connects community members in need with qualified attorneys. To access services, individuals can either self-refer or receive referrals from community partners. Open Door Legal’s intake team will conduct a quick screening to determine eligibility based on factors such as household income and available services in the community. There is no fee for these legal services.
If deemed eligible, clients will be scheduled for a one-on-one meeting with an attorney for a consultation. At this meeting , individuals will be able to explain their legal issue and the attorney will advise whether Open Door Legal can assist with that particular legal problem. if the organization does not currently have the capacity to assist or is not the right fit, attorneys will do their best to make appropriate referrals and help individuals connect to the right resource.
With more than 25 years of combined experience, Open Door Legal’s all-staff attorneys provide expertise in family law, immigration law, criminal law, housing law, and public benefits law. Also, all attorneys are licensed to appear before all levels of California State and Federal Courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ways to Volunteer at Open Door Legal

Open Door Legal is grateful for all of our generous supporters who are a part of our community and believe in the values of our organization. Those who choose to support our work understand that they are contributing to making justice accessible to everyone, no matter what. How can you get involved with and support Open Door Legal? Read on to learn some ways to help us further our mission.
Open Door Legal welcomes new volunteer attorneys interested in joining our team. We appreciate the expertise that volunteer attorneys provide and the effort that they devote. Most volunteers come to Open Door Legal through an attorney fellowship, 2L summer, or undergraduate internship, and we are not actively seeking attorneys outside of those programs.
For students not operating under a fellowship program, there may be opportunities available for you! Occasionally, we have attorney-client meetings that are open to law students. However, non-fellowship student volunteers are expected to have expertise to offer, as well as the ability to conduct themselves independently, with minimal oversight and mentoring.
Open Door Legal welcomes pro bono volunteers from the membership of the Bar Association of San Francisco. If you have a few hours per month that you would like to dedicate to working on cases, email info@opendoorlegal.org to make arrangements for a family law case. We ask that anyone taking a family law case complete at least the 6-hour mandatory family law training provided by BASF before accepting the case.
Open Door Legal welcomes law students through programs such as UC Hastings Clinics & Externships, JusticeCorps, AmeriCorps, work-study, and grant-funded fellowships. Note: we are not able to accept law students not enrolled in a legal clinic, externship program, or fellowship.
Open Door Legal welcomes undergraduate fellows through programs such as the Guardian Scholars Program , AmeriCorps, and the Bonner Program. Open Door Legal only accepts fellows and interns through programs. We do not accept students on their own initiative.
Open Door Legal welcomes college interns through programs such as AmeriCorps and the Bonner Program. Open Door Legal only accepts interns through a program. We do not accept college students on their own initiative.
Open Door Legal welcomes community members interested in serving on the organization’s Board of Directors. The board meets every other month in Western Addition and is responsible for overseeing the work of the organization. Board members take an active role in promoting the organization and supporting its staff. Board members serve two-year terms, can be reelected twice, and are asked to donate $5,000 per year as a contribution to Open Door Legal and fundraise at least another $3,000 from others.
If you’re a lawyer, you can help Open Door Legal and other legal aid organizations in two ways. First, if you know any employers that make below-market offers (because they are subsidized by fellowships), encourage them to pay their new hires a "liveable" salary (whether through the sponsors of the fellowship or their own funds). If you are affiliated with an employer, see if they have any "no-poach" agreements with other employers in the Bay Area. If they do, encourage them to put an end to those agreements. These old restrictions are hurting us all by artificially keeping salaries low, creating barriers to access to justice, and leading to a lack of diversity in the legal industry. In short, encourage the employers who are contributing to the problem to join Open Door Legal and do their part to end systemic injustice. Second, you can contribute or fundraise for a JusticePen (unless you are in a fellowship program, you cannot apply for a JusticePen).