Access to Justice Legal Fellow

Access to Justice Legal Fellow

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law

Our Mission

We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive.

Our Organization

The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed.

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 68,000 low-income Coloradans across 54 counties, distributing more than $280 million in emergency assistance. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper. CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by the White House and HUD in 2022-2023, think tanks like the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.

More about the Access to Justice Fellow Role:

Our practice is seeking an Access to Justice Legal Fellow to partner with our Clinic and Community Law
teams to expand access to justice for tenants facing housing instability in Colorado. This fellowship
will focus on building innovative, community-centered legal services that help low-income tenants
navigate eviction proceedings, understand their rights, and access meaningful legal support at critical
moments in the eviction process.

We believe that housing stability is foundational to individual and community wellbeing. Yet many
tenants - particularly low-income families, seniors, individuals with disabilities, immigrants, survivors
of violence, and communities historically excluded from legal resources - face eviction without access
to legal counsel or information about their rights. We are seeking a fellow who is excited to partner
with us to develop creative, community-responsive legal interventions that strengthen housing
stability and increase access to representation.

The fellow will work closely with the Clinic Supervisor and Community Law Supervisor, who will
provide mentorship, training, and supervision throughout the fellowship. Together, we will
collaborate to develop and submit applications to one or several fellowships, including the Equal
Justice Works, Justice Catalyst, and any law school-specific public interest fellowships. If selected, the
fellowship position would begin at CED Law in early Fall 2027.

We welcome applicants who are interested in shaping and co-designing a project with us. There is no
need to have a fully developed proposal before reaching out. Big picture, this project could focus on:

Partnering with jurisdictions in the greater Denver metro to establish and operate a recurring legal eviction clinic for tenants facing housing instability
Developing a “Lawyer for a Day” courthouse program to provide limited-scope legal assistance and representation to tenants navigating eviction proceedings
Creating partnerships with community organizations to deliver accessible know-your-rights trainings on housing and eviction law to vulnerable populations
Expanding access to legal information and representation for tenants in underserved communities and legal deserts
Supporting highly vulnerable tenant populations, including seniors, families with young children, survivors of domestic violence, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities
Advancing innovative and community-centered approaches to eviction prevention and housing stability
Strengthening partnerships among courts, legal services organizations, and community-based organizations to increase access to justice for tenants
Gathering and analyzing data on tenant needs, service delivery, and eviction outcomes to inform evidence-based interventions, strengthen program effectiveness, and support long-term housing stability efforts

In this role you will:

Communicate with clients in a timely, respectful, empathetic, and trauma-informed manner
Build relationships with community organizations, courts, and partner agencies to support housing stability initiatives
Help establish and implement a recurring legal eviction clinic in partnership with greater Denver metro jurisdictions and community stakeholders
Assist in developing a “Lawyer for a Day” model to support tenants appearing in eviction court
Provide direct legal services, limited-scope representation, and/or legal information to tenants facing housing instability, as appropriate to the fellowship project
Develop and facilitate community education and know-your-rights presentations related to housing and eviction law
Set and complete project goals identified in partnership with supervisors and in accordance with fellowship requirements
Develop knowledge of Colorado housing and eviction law and apply it to direct services, trainings, and systems-level problem solving
Coordinate with supervisors and stakeholders to ensure timely project implementation, case tracking, reporting, and fellowship deliverables
Sharpen project management, relationship-building, public speaking, and community lawyering skills
Contribute to a collaborative, equity-centered legal practice focused on expanding access to justice and preventing housing instability

Position Requirements:

Work collaboratively with CEDP (the host organization) to develop and submit fellowship application(s)
Demonstrated passion for housing justice, economic justice, public interest law, and/or access to justice
Strong desire to center client and community needs in legal advocacy and program design
Excellent interpersonal communication skills and ability to engage with diverse stakeholders
Strong organizational and project management abilities
Ability to work in a collaborative, fast-paced, and community-centered environment
A supportive, client-focused, and solutions-oriented attitude
Creativity, initiative, and willingness to think outside the box in designing sustainable legal interventions
Interest in community lawyering, public speaking, and partnership-building
Ability to travel within the Denver metro area and surrounding jurisdictions for community events, court appearances, meetings, and trainings
Knowledge of Microsoft Office, Google Suite, and case management systems preferred
Other language skills are not required but are a strong plus and may be eligible for an additional language salary differential