Navigating the Legal Landscape

Hi! My name is Ellie Edwards, class of 2026, and I’m majoring in politics. This summer, I’m interning at the Alameda County Homeless Action Center, or HAC, which is located in Alameda County, California. HAC’s main work is representing unhoused, disabled people in the application process for various social assistance programs, most frequently Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The application process for these programs can be complicated, and it is not unusual for cases to go to hearing in front of a judge. 

As a legal intern at HAC, I have spent most of my time working on a case that will be going to hearing later in the year. I started by sorting through over one thousand pages of medical records, and now I’m working on writing the hearing brief, which will be submitted to the administrative law judge presiding over the hearing. The hearing brief contains a list of the procedural history of the case, a description of the facts of the case — who the claimant is, how they came to be disabled, and the effect of their disability on their ability to work — and the complex legal argument itself. To qualify for benefits, claimants must either meet all the criteria of a specific disability listing in the Social Security Administration’s official list of impairments or meet the very stringent disability criteria of the Medical-Vocational Guidelines. The argument for why the client meets one or more of these definitions of severe disability is laid out in the brief and includes many citations to the claimant’s medical records, which are entered as evidence prior to the hearing.

I got to attend a hearing with one of the HAC attorneys, and I found it to be very different from the portrayals of the court system that are often depicted in the media. Disability benefits hearings are not trials, so there’s no one in the hearing room except the claimant, the attorney, the judge, the stenographer, and occasionally a vocational expert, a medical expert, or even a curious legal intern. Hearings can take between fifteen minutes and two hours, depending on the complexity of the case and the personal style of the judge. Frequently, the claimant is asked many invasive questions by their attorney and sometimes by the judge in an effort to prove — or, as some judges will do, call into question — that the disability prevents the claimant from supporting themselves through work. While these questions are often necessary, the process can be very uncomfortable for the claimants. This is especially true for those represented by HAC, who, as unhoused people, tend to be in particularly vulnerable positions and have often faced significant trauma. As such, HAC attorneys try to protect their claimants from unreasonably invasive questions and provide support before and after the hearings to the greatest degree possible.

Most days, I spend the majority of my time reading through medical records and working on the documents for my case. I also spend some afternoons assisting with the drop-in assistance service that HAC offers. During drop-in shifts, I and an attorney work together to help the people who come in however we can. What we do in drop-in varies from day to day. Sometimes we spend a couple of hours with someone to help them fill out an application for CalFresh, sometimes we print something out for someone, and sometimes we simply give someone a sympathetic ear while they vent. Each person we help is offered a bag of snacks and a bottle of water.

The attached photo was taken during a visit with a HAC attorney and the other interns to a homeless encampment in Berkeley that was in the process of being swept. We went to hand out water, snacks, hygiene kits, dog food, tarps, and other essentials, and to provide any assistance that the residents needed. Organizers within the homeless community were able to tell us what work needed to be done.

I’m interested in becoming an attorney, and I could not have been more happy with my summer internship experience at the Homeless Action Center. Because of this internship, I’m now considering a career in public interest law!