Founded in 1975, Legal Services for Children (“LSC”) is one of the country’s first non-profit law firms dedicated to providing free legal representation and social work services to children. Our mission is to ensure that all children in the San Francisco Bay Area are raised in a safe environment with equal access to a meaningful education and other services that are necessary to thrive and grow. We believe that our youth deserve positive alternatives to unnecessary placement in foster care, juvenile justice facilities, and immigration detention. LSC developed the interdisciplinary approach that is considered a best practice in juvenile law today. We deploy attorney-social worker teams to assist at-risk children who need to access the legal system to stabilize or improve their lives.
LSC’s attorneys represent children in legal matters that involve guardianship, dependency, school discipline, immigration, and other civil legal matters. LSC’s immigration practice involves defending youth in deportation proceedings and representing youth in a variety of affirmative and defensive applications for relief, including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, asylum, U visas, T visas, and DACA. Through our Detained Immigrant Children’s Project, we also provide “Know Your Rights” presentations, legal screenings, and direct representation to unaccompanied immigrant youth in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at its three facilities in Northern California. Our social workers provide crisis intervention, case management, counseling, and psychosocial assessments. LSC staff also engage in policy and advocacy projects aimed at advancing the rights of children.