ORAM – Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration – is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping refugees worldwide who have been forced to flee their home countries due to persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. ORAM provides free legal aid to refugees and help resettle and reintegrate them into safety and works closely with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to improve the adjudication of LGBTI claims for protection.

ORAM also works to better educate not only the general public of the plight of LGBTI refugees, but to train and educate NGOs and institutions worldwide to develop the procedural conditions for LGBTI refugees.

ORAM is seeking highly qualified and dedicated interns to perform a wide range of activities, including extensive research and writing on a variety of issues related to protection for persons fleeing persecution based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Participants will have the opportunity to work with the foremost human rights advocates in the international community as part of the world’s leading non-profit for LGBTI refugees. Interns will participate in the process of developing, researching, preparing, and generally supporting our advocacy projects.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

Mazzoni Center, a nonprofit organization which focuses on the health and wellness needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, is currently accepting applications from first and second year law students for summer internships for the summer of 2012.  The summer program will begin on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, and end on Friday, August 3, 2012.

Mazzoni Center Legal Services provides direct legal assistance to low-income LGBT individuals in a wide range of areas, including elder issues, employment discrimination, family law/parenting issues, name changes, relationship recognition and dissolution, advanced planning, and youth concerns.  Interns will gain familiarity with the unique ways that the legal system addresses the specific needs of the LGBT community.  They will contribute to the mission of the office by ensuring that this community has a voice in the legal system.  We also represent individuals in cases which may have an impact on the status of LGBT rights within Pennsylvania.  Interns will work closely with attorneys on a wide variety of cases, some of which may involve precedent-setting legal issues.

If you’re interested, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

I don’t think so.

However, some students are frustrated by the “abundance of paperwork” and volunteer hours they have to put in to get their check. Some are even going so far as labeling the requirements an exploitation of student labor.

Apparently, some law schools require summer stipend recipients to do between 5 and 10 hours of volunteer work on campus and at fundraising events [to raise dinero for future stipends].

From U.S. News

Many law students and J.D.’s report that their public service internships were fulfilling, and schools’ websites celebrate students’ and alumni’s decisions to serve the public. But some say that the internship applications come with too many requirements, warning aspiring public servants to carefully consider whether to participate. . . .

A student at Cardozo, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says he didn’t mind the abundance of paperwork he had to fill out to apply for the public interest stipend he received last summer. But as an “already stressed out” 1L, he didn’t think he should have had to do office work for the school and cold call alumni. . . .

[Leslie] Thrope [director of Cardozo’s Center for Public Service Law] says the stipends help students develop legal skills and transform people’s lives, but Cardozo can’t afford to fund them without students volunteering at an annual auction that raises funds for the stipends. “[T]he requirements are right up front when a student chooses to participate,” Thrope says.

In my opinion, offering 10 hours of your time to help out the law school so that another public interest enthusiast can have an opportunity to do good work is not a biggie.

*As an aside, if you do have your heart set on doing public interest work during the summer and have yet to find the bankroll to do so, check out our Summer Funding Page. There are over 50 funding sources listed!

What do you think? Would you apply for a summer stipend with a few strings attached during your 1L year?

Human Rights Initiative is a non-profit located in Dallas, TX that is committed to providing high-quality legal services free of charge to people who have suffered from human rights abuses. HRI is currently seeking full-time legal interns for its Summer internship program.
HRI strives to provide every legal intern with invaluable experience in immigration and nationality law and international human rights issues. Interns will provide support to either the Asylum, Advocacy, or Women and Children’s programs.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

Independent Police Monitor’s Legal Internship is designed to provide students with experience in legal research and writing and also with practical skills such as case assessment, analysis, interviewing and community organization. 

The primary duties of law school interns are to conduct research, analyze data, and prepare reports on policy issues related to police oversight and misconduct, as well as preventing and detecting fraud and abuse.

They will also conduct complaint intake after appropriate training.  Interns will review completed investigations of complaints of misconduct against NOPD police to determine whether the investigations performed by the NOPD Public Integrity Bureau comply with substantive and procedural due process standards.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!