EBCLC's Community Economic Justice (CEJ) practice is committed to developing innovative, long-term economic development solutions to address the systemic problems confronting the low-income community. Since 1995, EBCLC staff and students have provided legal services to community-based organizations in the East Bay, including technical assistance related to microenterprise start-up, job creation, nonprofit management, housing development, and neighborhood preservation.

For more than five years, EBCLC provided significant assistance and leadership to a coalition of community organizations working to establish the People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union, a vital institution that opened its doors in West Oakland in March 2001. The credit union brings banking and credit access to tens of thousands of community residents previously denied these basic financial services. EBCLC likewise incubated the Bay Area Construction Sector Intervention Collaborative - which became independent in November 2003 - providing critical job training and apprenticeship opportunities to women and people of color traditionally excluded from living wage construction sectors jobs.

Recent CEJ efforts have included the Regional Non-Profit Pro Bono Initiative, providing direct legal services to more than 100 community-based organizations in the East Bay, and the development of HOPE Enterprises, a partnership with grassroots youth organizers in East Oakland, to promote food justice, youth employment, and sustainable community-based economic development.

Current CEJ projects include a focus on equitable practices with respect to large-scale housing and commercial developments in Oakland. EBCLC is working closely with community groups to ensure that low-income residents benefit from the economic growth taking place in Oakland, from the implementation and enforcement of living wage and local hiring preferences to the provision of affordable housing and local business opportunities.