Public Advocates Inc. is a left-of-center advocacy group and public interest law firm located in San Francisco, California. The organization focuses on issues such as education, housing, health care, and the economy by promoting left-leaning policy priorities and providing pro bono legal services to change policies in state and federal courts. The organization is one of the oldest public interest law firms in the United States and mostly focuses on California-based left-leaning policy issues and lawsuits. While California is still the main area of focus for the group, it has engaged on policy issues as part of national coalitions, and has become active on the lobbying front. One such project of Public Advocates is the Alliance for Affordable Housing. ¹

Background

Public Advocates Inc. bills itself as among the oldest public interest law firms in the United States. It was founded in 1970 by California attorneys Robert Gnaizda, J. Anthony Kline, Sid Wolinsky, and Peter Sitkin. The organization began due to what was seen as a rigid restriction on the scope of matters that the California Rural Legal Assistance program would cover. The organization has been funded by notable left-leaning grantmaking organizations since its beginning, receiving initial funding from the Ford Foundation and the Zellerbach Family Foundation. The organization began with a focus on many of the legal issues it works on today, including school finance, urban development and planning, transportation, military base redevelopment, healthcare, telecommunications, and climate change. ²

Early clients of the group include Raza Unida, the National Organization of Women, Peace Officers Association, the League of Women Voters, and the Sierra Club. The organization has also incubated several other left-leaning policy organizations, including the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, a public health and pro-Latino advocacy group; the Greenlining Institute, a think tank focusing on racial issues; HomeBase, another public interest law firm that focuses on homelessness; and Health Access, an advocacy group supporting universal health care in California. ³

Activity

Public Advocates states that it receives its revenue “based on a combination of revenue from individual and law firm contributions, foundation grants, state legal services funding, litigation fees, and interest on reserves.” Large law firms that fund the organization include Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati as well as Munger, Tolles and Olson. In recent years, Public Advocates has opened an office in Sacramento, the California state capital, to work as the lobbying arm of the organization. The organization states that the Sacramento office is staffed “with policy advocacy and community relations experts to deepen our influence on state policy and coalitions.” ⁴

Public Advocates often partners with the American Civil Liberties Union in its lawsuits against various government agencies, landowners, and school districts. An example of a suit brought by the organization includes accusing the LA Unified School District of underfunding low-income children by “double-dipping by counting some expenditures for programs in special education services as also fulfilling new spending requirements under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), a 2013 state policy intended to provide more resources for ‘high-needs’ students: English learners, low-income children, and foster youth.” ⁵

Other policy priorities of the organization have been cast aside by fellow left-of-center leaders. In 2015, then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill championed by Public Advocates that would provide state assistance to students left without a college or trade school place following the closure of a for-profit college or trade school. Then-Governor Brown stated in his veto message that “he wasn’t comfortable adding new costs to the general fund outside of the budget process.” ⁶

In addition to suits against government units and legislative advocacy, the organization also frequently lodges suits to prevent private construction projects in favor of government-funded low-income housing. One such case was when the group partnered with Eastlake United for Justice and the Public Interest Law Project and threatened to sue the City of Oakland over the proposed construction of a luxury condo tower on city-owned land near Lake Merritt. ⁷

Other policy priorities of Public Advocates center around diverting funding to low-income communities. The organization led a coalition supporting SB 535, a California law that directed environmental pollution fees to fund specific projects in certain communities. The organization also promotes a regional planning program across California that prioritizes $300 billion in funding for low-income areas. ⁸

Other projects of Public Advocates center around suits concerning transportation funding. Recent suits include one against the California Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which alleged that the MTC “violated federal and state civil rights laws by channeling funds in favor of BART and Caltrain commuters while denying equitable funding to AC Transit bus riders of color.” Public Advocates went on to lose the lawsuit on an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The organization also took on the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union as a client, lodging a 2010 administrative complaint against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. ⁹

People

The president and chief executive officer of Public Advocates is Guillermo Mayer, an immigrant who came to the United States from Mexico at age 11. Mayer’s legal specialty is transportation equity litigation and advocacy. Mayer served as a legislative staffer to former California State Senators Hilda Solis (D-Los Angeles) and Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles). He received a fellowship from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans to fund the completion of his law degree at the University of California Los Angeles. ¹⁰

1. “Who We Are” Public Advocates Inc. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.publicadvocates.org/who-we-are/
2.  “Public Advocates”. Idealist. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/3d9be52ce49748c79e5b6e68e26844fa-public-advocates-inc-san-francisco
3. “History” Public Advocates Inc. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.publicadvocates.org/who-we-are/history/
4. “History” Public Advocates Inc. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.publicadvocates.org/who-we-are/history/
5. Fensterwald, John. “Suit claims LA Unified underfunding low-income kids, English learners”. EdSource. July 1, 2015. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.laaconline.org/pub/13668/suit-claims-la-unified-underfunding-low-income-kids-english-learners/
6. Glidden, John. “Brown vetoes bill, which would have helped students of shuttered colleges”. Times-Herald. October 12, 2015. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2015/10/12/brown-vetoes-bill-which-would-have-helped-students-of-shuttered-colleges/
7. BondGraham, Darwin. “Public Interest Attorneys Ready to File Lawsuit to Block Sale of City-Owned Land”. East Bay Express. June 2, 2015. Accessed June 26, 2020.  https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/06/02/public-interest-attorneys-ready-to-file-lawsuit-to-block-sale-of-city-owned-land
8. “Regional Planning” Public Advocates Inc. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.publicadvocates.org/our-work-2/climate-justice/regional-planning/
9. “Civil Rights Enforcement” Public Advocates Inc. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.publicadvocates.org/our-work-2/transportation/civil-rights-enforcement/
10. “Guillermo Mayer”. Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Accessed June 26, 2020. https://www.pdsoros.org/meet-the-fellows/guillermo-mayer