New Executive Director For East Bay Community Lawcenter

For Immediate Release: April 18, 2007


For More Information Contact:


EBCLC Development Officer Deborah Moss-West


(510) 548-4040, ext. 314


East Bay Community Law Center


NAMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR


Berkeley -- The Board of Directors of the East Bay Community Law Center is pleased to announce that Tirien Angela Steinbach recently became the law center's new Executive Director. After an extensive national search, the EBCLC Board of Directors selected Tirien because of her commitment to providing excellent legal services to low-income communities, her passion for working with clinical students, her proven leadership skills, and her vision for EBCLC's future.


As an agency that prides itself on developing the next generation of community-focused lawyers and leaders, we are particularly pleased to promote an internally developed candidate to this leadership position. Tirien began working at EBCLC in 2001 and most recently served as Director of Clinical & Programs. In that capacity, Tirien provided support and guidance to EBCLC's attorney staff, taught EBCLC's companion seminar at Boalt Hall, and developed an outreach program that brought law students into the community. Before this position, Tirien was the founding director of Suitcase Clinic Legal Services (SCLS), an EBCLC project that focused on addressing the criminalization of homeless and low-income residents.


Under Tirien's direction, the SCLS project evolved into the Clean Slate Practice, helping clients with non-violent criminal records - people who have paid their debt to society - move forward by overcoming legal barriers to stable employment, housing, and civic participation. Tirien originally joined EBCLC as a contract attorney in the Income Support Practice in 2001, after a two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship at the California Appellate Project. She graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1999, where she was an active leader in the Berkeley Law Foundation, Law Students of African Descent, and other student and faculty committees.


Tirien is also a "home-grown" leader who grew up in Berkeley, attended Berkeley High School, and currently lives in Oakland with her family. Her ties to the East Bay, her commitment to EBCLC's culture of shared leadership, and her familiarity with EBCLC's client base and relationships with other key stakeholders, all make Tirien uniquely and ideally suited to build on EBCLC's rich history and lead our efforts to address issues facing East Bay communities.


Since its founding by Boalt Hall School of Law students in 1988, the East Bay Community Law Center has become the largest provider of free civil legal assistance to the poor in Alameda County and a nationally-recognized poverty law clinic. More than 100 law students under the supervision of 15 staff attorneys serve several thousand low-income Californians each year with legal needs related to housing, health care, income, employment, economic development, and civic participation.


EBCLC would also like to recognize and thank the following foundations for their support of our executive transition process: van Loben Sels/RembeRock Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and Y & H Soda Foundation.


For more information, please contact Deborah Moss-West at EBCLC at:


moss-west [at] ebclc.org or (510) 548-4040, ext. 314.