USD Law Advocate, Spring 2026

The clinics have been providing exceptional services for more than 50 years while staying alert to emerging needs for legal assistance. As proof, the Housing Rights Clinic recently added a satellite program housed in the San Diego Law Library, giving students opportunities to represent tenants who would otherwise be on their own in unlawful detainer eviction proceedings. Aus tin praised the Housing Rights Clinic’s founder and supervising attorney, Professor Alysson Snow , for her “brilliant idea” to represent people appearing in pro per for their court hearings. In a similar fashion, Professor Tammy Lin ’06 (JD), supervising attorney of the Immi gration Clinic, has stepped up efforts “to the next level” in response to the tremendous need for full-scope legal representation in Immigration Court (removal hearings) and Board of Immigration Appeal appellate cases. Furthermore, Austin noted that the Legal Clinics are proud to welcome the newest addition to the program: the Innocence Clinic. Overseen by renowned advocate Professor Justin Brooks , the clinic builds on Brooks’s longtime efforts to assist people who have been wrong fully incarcerated—and is now creating opportunities for USD Law students to do the same. HELPING PEOPLE STAY HOUSED Since its launch in 2022 with a $230,000 grant from a private foundation, the Housing Rights Clinic has helped some 500 people, said Snow, who previously led the Consumer Protection Division at the Legal Aid Soci ety of San Diego and currently serves as the mayor of Lemon Grove, a suburb of San Diego. The clinic works with people facing homelessness, eviction, foreclosure, and threats to housing like uninhabitability and harass ment. Yet each time Snow and her students went to housing court, they identified unmet needs. “Every time we went to court, we saw people who showed up without a lawyer on the day of their trial,”

Snow said. “They were not able to negotiate favorable settlements or navigate the legal process.” Snow tried to figure out how to provide effective legal services, “and it seemed like the best way was to reach people on the day of trial. Every incentive for the landlords and for the tenants to settle culminated right before trial.” With another grant from a private foundation, the Eviction Negotiation Program was born on June 2, 2025. The program evolved because judges frequently have too many cases to hear in one morning and often order the parties into the hall to negotiate a settlement. That is when Snow and her law students step in: They approach people outside the courtroom and offer to represent them in their eviction negotiation. Arriving shortly after 8 a.m., they conduct an intake, review the materials and proceed to negotiate. On a typ ical day, the case is resolved by noon. To further assist these clients, Snow has procured space in the San Diego Law Library, a block away from the courthouse, where students can meet with clients in a confidential setting. Snow told the story of one couple with two children. “They owed about $10,000 in back rent,” she said. “They were trying to find a new place to live. If they had to pay the back rent, they could never move forward with their lives.” Snow and her students negotiated a settlement in which “the couple did not have to pay the back rent. They got 60 extra days to find a new place to live, and they were able to move forward with a clean slate. That was a new lease on life, and they were thrilled,” she added. “None of our clients have fallen into homelessness, which is nothing shy of a miracle,” noted Snow. “Stu dents get to use their law degree to help someone stay housed, to keep a family together under the same roof. I am hopeful that the clinic will create a new bastion of social justice warriors who are ready to take on these dif ficult fights.”

“ I am hopeful that the [Housing Rights Clinic] will create a new bastion of social justice warriors who are ready to take on these difficult fights. ” —PROFESSOR ALYSSON SNOW

AIDING IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR FAMILIES San Diego’s proximity to the U.S.- Mexico border led USD Law to establish its Immigration Clinic in 1984. Lin, who helped build the

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