University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law has received a $3 million commitment from Robert Buccola ’83, and his wife, Dr. Kawanaa Carter, to support the Homeless Advocacy Clinic. The gift establishes the Buccola Family Homeless Advocacy Clinic Endowment.
The experience at the clinic trains students to be effective advocates for their clients by learning fundamental lawyering skills while providing barrier-free, holistic and client-centered legal services to unhoused residents of Sacramento County, California.
Michael Hunter Schwartz, dean of McGeorge School of Law, said this generous support empowers students to grow their lawyering skills while simultaneously making a meaningful impact on our community.
Established in 2021, the Homeless Advocacy Clinic has had a significant impact in the community. The clinic is the first in the country to provide legal services exclusively to formerly incarcerated people experiencing homelessness.
In 2023, students working in the clinic played a critical role in saving unhoused and other low-income people across Sacramento more than $162 million in court fines and fees.
“My internship at the clinic gave me invaluable experience and insight into holistic lawyering — that is, a lawyering approach that doesn’t just look at the client’s legal issues but how their legal issues came to be,” said Maya Alexandria ’25, who worked in the clinic over the summer. “Thousands of dollars in fines? Those charges accumulated while my client was unhoused and unemployed. The ability to help my clients get back on their feet and break through the vicious cycle makes every second I’m in the clinic meaningful and impactful.”
Ron Hochbaum, associate clinical professor at McGeorge School of Law and a national expert on homelessness and poverty law, directs the clinic.
“This generous gift ensures that McGeorge and its students will be part of the solution by providing critical legal services to remove barriers to housing for some of Sacramento’s most marginalized residents,” Hochbaum said.
Robert Buccola, managing and founding partner of Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP, said having a program like this that provides these otherwise powerless people with access to available benefits is critical to improving the welfare of the most marginalized members of society.
“Donating money is probably the easiest thing,” Buccola said. “The hard work is rolling your sleeves up and helping people. It’s really wonderful to know the law school that I graduated from is putting energy out in this less than glamorous area.”
McGeorge School of Law’s legal clinics have been providing free services to people in the Sacramento community since 1964. Four of the clinics operate on campus and are collectively known as Community Legal Services. Under the supervision of faculty, students work with clients in the areas of bankruptcy, elder and health law, homeless advocacy and immigration law. Three off-campus clinics give students the opportunity to work in federal courts, prisons and the California State Legislature — the Federal Defender Clinic, the Prisoner Civil Rights Mediation Clinic and the Legislative and Public Policy Clinic.
