Oakland City Attorney
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The Office of the City Attorney is committed to protecting the rights of our most vulnerable neighbors and to ensuring City government is accessible to every Oakland resident.
The City Attorney’s Office includes special units, programs and initiatives to advocate for the rights and interests of the Oakland community.
The Neighborhood Law Corps (NLC) is an award–winning unit in the City Attorney’s Office that works with partners in the community to improve quality of life in Oakland.
Through lawsuits and other civil actions, the NLC fights for social, environmental and economic justice with a focus on abusive landlords, substandard housing, human trafficking, violence and public nuisances including illegal dumping.
The program, often described as a cross between the Peace Corps and Legal Aid, launched in 2002 and has been recognized with awards including the Gold Award for Municipal Excellence from the National League of Cities and the Making Democracy Work Award from the League of Women Voters Oakland.
Help for Oakland Residents
Although the NLC fights for systemic change for Oaklanders, the City Attorney’s Office does not provide legal counsel to individual Oakland residents. If you are in need of advice or assistance from a lawyer, local resources are available here.
To advance systemic rights and opportunities for historically and presently marginalized communities in Oakland by enforcing, strengthening, and creating laws responsive to those communities’ needs, in furtherance of racial, economic, and environmental justice.
The City Attorney’s Open Government Program is designed to ensure that the citizens of Oakland have full access to information about their City, and that the business of City government is conducted in the light of day.
On October 22, 2020, Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker (retired) launched the Housing Justice Initiative to be a force multiplier for her work protecting vulnerable tenants in Oakland’s diverse neighborhoods. For years, the award-winning Neighborhood Law Corps has taken the lead in the City Attorney’s Office on lawsuits to secure justice for tenants. That work is critical as Oakland’s housing crisis forces more and more families to leave our city or to become homeless. We refuse to accept the current state of affairs as the new normal. We strive to enforce every Oaklander’s right to safe, healthy, and dignified housing.
Stay connected to our activities via email
City Attorney Ryan Richardson releases a periodic newsletter in which he provides updates about the work of the Office of the City Attorney as well as reflections on current local, statewide, and national legal topics of importance to Oakland residents.
Oakland City Attorney
City Hall – 6th Floor
1 Frank Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, California
94612
