Candidate for Director:
Chloe Ramos Czabaranek
My name is Chloe Ramos Czabaranek and I am running for the Legal Clinics Director position for FBANC’s 2021-2022 Board. Currently, I am a Staff Attorney at Justice At Last, a non-profit law firm that specializes in legal advocacy for survivors of all forms of human trafficking located in the Greater Bay Area of Northern California. The reason I am running for the Legal Clinics Director position is because I understand the importance in being connected with our community, the value of proper legal advice, and helping those most marginalized.
I immigrated to the Bay Area in 2001 from the island of Cebu. The passion and dedication of my life to social justice issues started in 2010 when one of my family members received a letter to appear in court for deportation proceedings. Fortunately, the Asian Law Caucus provided legal aid for my family and they were able to stay. But it was in those tumultuous years in which we all discovered that we did not have to hide, unlike what the unfortunate Filipino phrase Tago Nang Tago “TNT” suggested. Instead, we found that there is power in being undocumented, unafraid, and united among DREAMers and allies. I immersed myself in communities such as DREAMers and PAWIS, groups of undocumented students and domestic workers, finding their strength and never ending fight for justice inspirational.
Before attending law school, I worked with Filipino Advocates for Justice(“FAJ”) and PAWIS in Oakland. This organization serves to bring justice to undocumented Filipino laborers. I gained a new passion for workers’ rights that helped prepare me later for my work as a labor union organizer. In my two years as a labor organizer, I successfully organized workers in five nursing homes and a private agency into winning their NLRB elections against their employers. My skills as an organizer allowed me to serve nurses of all ethnicities, connect with healthcare workers’ struggles, and communicate well with those who only spoke Tagalog, Visayan, or Spanish.
During my first year at Santa Clara Law, I connected my school’s Filipino American Law Society (“FALS”) with FAJ where we were able to volunteer for their advocating for tenants’ rights in Union City. Additionally, I was able to connect our FALS to PAWIS-SV and gathered volunteers for their quarterly legal clinics. These volunteering opportunities continued throughout my entire law school career and allowed for law students to experience first-hand screening for legal issues regarding immigration, employment, or housing. In my last year in law school, I served as Co-President for FALS and for the Immigration Law Society, where in the latter club, we planned an immigration legal clinic in Madera, California, where we saw a lack of immigration service providers. Throughout my undergrad and law school career, I volunteered at multiple organizations’ immigration and workers’ rights clinics. I understand the amount of organization, planning, and communication needed to have a legal clinic come to fruition.
I believe my experiences in helping lead multiple legal clinics, organizing workers in their NLRB elections, and belonging in the Bay Area Legal Non-Profit community will enable me to successfully serve as the Legal Clinics Director. Our profession and our culture instills a duty in us to be connected with our community, to give proper legal advice, and to help those most marginalized.