Legal Fellowship, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

The Organization

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a public interest law firm that protects and advances the civil rights of adults and children with mental disabilities. For nearly four decades, our lawyers and policy staff have brought impact litigation, participated in Supreme Court cases, lobbied Congress and federal agencies, and worked with state-based legal advocates to ensure the rights of people with mental mental disabilities to self-determination, employment, education, housing, and health care and mental health services. Our cases are primarily brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Medicaid Act. We are active in the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights and other D.C-based coalitions. The Bazelon Center envisions an America where people who have mental disabilities make their own life choices and are supported in participating fully in their communities.

The Position

• The Bazelon Center regularly seeks applicants for Skadden, Equal Justice Works, and other applicable fellowships. Candidates interested in a fellowship project in any of our core areas of advocacy, including criminal justice systems reform or children’s mental health and education systems reform, are encouraged to submit a preliminary proposal for consideration. Please review our website to learn more about our current advocacy efforts.
• Qualifications: Applicants should be rising third-year law students or recent law school graduates with excellent academic credentials and strong research and writing skills. Related experience and/or judicial clerkship experience is a plus.

Do you have a passion for helping others?  See the full-post on PSJD.

Policy Director 

The Organization

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas is a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The ACLU of Kansas works in the state legislature, the courts, and local communities to protect the rights of all people living in Kansas. The organization’s work includes efforts to strengthen and defend First Amendment rights, voting rights, reproductive rights, racial justice, LGBT rights, immigrants’ rights, stopping government surveillance, and reforming the criminal justice system. The ACLU of Kansas often works in broad-based coalitions made up of individuals and organizations from across the political, partisan, and ideological spectrum. The ACLU of Kansas is an affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union, has an annual budget of approximately $1 million, and has more than 30,000 supporters across the state. The headquarters of the ACLU of Kansas is in Overland Park, Kansas, with a field office located in Wichita, Kansas.

The Position

The ACLU of Kansas seeks a dynamic, creative, self-motivated team player to serve as its Policy Director. The Policy Director will oversee the organization’s broad-based policy program at the state and local levels with a focus on building organizational capacity around our racial justice work, including voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and smart justice reform. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the position is based in Overland Park. During the Kansas legislative session, this staff person will be expected to be in the state capitol in Topeka on a regular basis (usually Tuesday-Thursday).

Ready to fight for civil rights and liberties? Check out the posting on PSJD.

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

Teleford Taylor Human Rights Clinical Teaching Fellowship

The Organization

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is a leader in legal education, located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The law school is renowned for its program in intellectual property, which includes the FAME Center for Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Law. Cardozo Law has a long tradition of public advocacy and is the birthplace of the Innocence Project and the home of our Center for Rights and Justice.  Cardozo offers a world-class faculty and encourages creative thinking and innovation in the legal profession. Cardozo provides students with a strong foundation in legal theory combined with practical hands-on experience in a variety of areas including criminal law, civil rights law, and business law. The school prides itself on creating a vibrant and warm community for faculty, staff and students.

The Position

The Fellow will work in the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and in the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR). Reporting directly to the Clinic and Institute Director, responsibilities will include co-supervising clinical projects, developing seminar lesson plans, teaching in the clinic seminar, mentoring students, researching and writing, and planning and implementing Clinic and CLIHHR events. The position is ideal for a candidate with a strong interest in clinical teaching and in the substantive areas of international human rights law, international refugee law, and international criminal law.

The Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic is a semester-long clinic in which students represent individuals and institutional clients in international human rights cases and projects selected within a framework of atrocity prevention. The overall objective of the Clinic is to provide students with first-hand experience in the range of activities in which lawyers engage to promote respect for human rights and the diverse ways the law is utilized to prevent atrocity crimes and promote justice and accountability for mass atrocities. In order effectively to bridge theory and practice, the Clinic is divided into several pedagogical components: a weekly seminar, case and project work, and skills training. In the spring semester, the Advanced Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic continues the work of the fall Clinic with a select group of students.

Do you have a passion for human rights?  See the full-post on PSJD.

Law Clerk

The Organization:

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. NCLR litigates precedent-setting cases at the trial and appellate court levels; advocates for equitable public policies affecting the LGBT community; provides free legal assistance to LGBT people and their legal advocates; and conducts community education on LGBT legal issues.

NCLR’s projects and practice areas include family (including marriage equality, parenting, and other relationship protections), youth, immigration, elder, transgender, employment, and sports law.

The Position

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is seeking law clerks to assist with all aspects of its national impact litigation, public policy, and educational work. Much of the clerk’s time will be devoted to interacting with members of the community who contact NCLR’s legal information helpline and handling their questions from start to finish under the supervision and training of NCLR staff attorneys. Clerks also conduct case research, update publications, and draft memos on a wide range of issues affecting LGBT people and their families.

Positions are available in NCLR’s National Office in San Francisco, CA. Summer clerks work full time, and semester clerks may work full or part-time (minimum 12 hours per week).

NCLR hires law clerks for the summer as well as the fall and spring semesters.

Ready to live in San Francisco and work for an important organization? Check it out your here on PSJD.

Associate Director, Law Library 

The Organization

University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law is the USA’s most clinically-oriented law school, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, and is devoted to recruiting and training students who are committed to public service. Its legislatively mandated mission is to to recruit and train as lawyers students from racial, ethnic and other groups traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession and to do so, to the degree feasible, through the representation of low-income people and the public interest in a clinical setting.

The Position

The Associate Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Law Library. The incumbent uses independent judgment and demonstrates expertise in the field by recommending policies, procedures, and systems reflecting professional criteria. The Associate Director is responsible for ensuring that the resources allocated to the unit will reflect an efficient level of service.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Oversees the day-to-day operations of the law library.
• Plans, develops, coordinates, oversees, and participates in the delivery of the law library’s public services, including reference, research, instruction, and access services.
• Supervises and evaluates all employees under his/her administrative supervision.
• Provides vision, oversight, and leadership of public services in the law library, including regular assessment of policies, procedures, and workflows related to the effective delivery of library services and makes recommendations based on those assessments.
• Manages the law library’s hiring, training, and oversight of student and other hourly workers in public services roles.
• Teaches in the law school’s first-year legal research curriculum with the potential to also teach advanced legal research courses.
• Assists in the development of the law library’s budget.
• Participate on the law library’s collection development team and engage in regular evaluation of the law library’s collection priorities.
• Develops performance standards for resource utilization and service based on established professional criteria.
• Prepares reports of the law library’s public services.
• Develops strategies for staff development and implements steps to accomplish them.
• Reviews personnel matters and recommends actions in accordance with established policies.
• Assists with identification of library funding needs and ideas for creative funding sources, including grants for which the law library may be eligible.
• Assists with the planning of facilities to accommodate services and collections.
• Performs reference duties as required, possibly including evening and weekend reference shifts.
• Oversees faculty research support.
• Promotes the services of the law library throughout the academic community and among cooperating institutions.
• Engages in outreach with an eye toward possible partnerships within the larger university and the local legal community.
• Serves on law school and university-wide committees and task forces as appointed.

Ready to make an impact in the world of higher education? Check out the posting on PSJD.

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

Litigation Fellow

The Organization

Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention advocacy group in the country, is seeking a passionate, dedicated professional for a full time position. The Associate Corporate Counsel will report to the Senior Corporate Counsel and work with Everytown’s CFO and finance and operations departments on a variety of legal and compliance matters, including lobbying and political work as well as nonprofit governance matters.  The Operations team provides finance, legal, human resources, IT and other support to our rapidly growing organization. We’re looking for a flexible problem-solver with exceptional attention to detail to join us.  This would be an ideal opportunity for someone who wants to pursue an in-house legal career in compliance, risk management, politics or nonprofit governance.

The Position

Everytown for Gun Safety’s Litigation Team is seeking applicants for a full-time Litigation Fellowship starting in fall 2018.  This is a two-year paid fellowship program (including salary and benefits) and will involve the Fellow in the full range of Everytown’s affirmative and Second Amendment litigation work.

Everytown’s Litigation and Enforcement team is the largest team of litigators in the country dedicated full-time to advocating in the courts and through the criminal and civil justice systems to advance gun safety while respecting the Second Amendment.  The Litigation Team focuses on two principal areas:  (1) developing and implementing affirmative litigation strategies to take on dangerous gun laws that conflict with other constitutional and statutory rights, enforce gun violence prevention laws that are not being implemented, and challenge the gun industry’s dangerous business practices; and (2) defending life-saving gun safety laws against Second Amendment challenges, including working with and representing states and cities facing constitutional challenges to gun violence prevention laws.

We are looking for a Fellow who wants to use and grow their litigation skills and public-spirited ambitions to make a difference in the fight to save lives.  Working out of the New York office, the Fellow will be responsible for working with the team to develop and implement Everytown’s national affirmative and Second Amendment federal and state court litigation practice, including constitutional and other legal research and analysis, strategy development, complaint drafting, trial court and appellate brief writing, participating in all other aspects of litigation, and working with pro bono counsel.

Is this your dream opportunity?  See the full-post on PSJD.

2018 Summer PSJD Project Assistants (3-4)

The Organization:

Now known as NALP, The National Association for Law Placement® was founded in 1971, during a period of rapid change in both the legal profession and legal education, in response to a perceived need by many law schools and legal employers for a common forum to discuss issues involving placement and recruitment.

NALP is dedicated to facilitating legal career counseling and planning, recruitment and retention, and the professional development of law students and lawyers.

NALP administers the PSJD (formerly PSLawNet) website.

The Position

In brief, PSJD Project Assistants make PSJD what it is. Many of the job announcements that find their way onto PSJD.org are placed there by PSJD’s Project Assistant (PA) team. During the year, the team is composed of local undergraduate students, but over the summer we open our hiring process to law students in the DC area. This position is ideal for a law student looking for ways to finance an unpaid public service internship here in Washington, DC.

The PA team’s primary task is to update and maintain database content on PSJD.org–mostly its job announcements, but also PSJD’s employer directory and resource center. The team reports directly to NALP’s Director of Public Service Initiatives and the PSJD Fellow.

Project Assistants are expected to work around twelve hours per week. Hours are flexible within normal business hours, and can be arranged around an internship or other activity. Work must be performed in our offices; telecommuting is not possible for these positions.

This at-will opportunity requires a minimum commitment of 9 weeks, to begin in late May or early June, and conclude in early to mid-August.

Ready to come work with us? Check it out your here on PSJD.

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

LGBTQ Division Public Interest Scholarship

The Organization

In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the HNBA’s LGBT Section, the HNBA LGBT Division announced the launch of the LGBT Division Public Interest Scholarship Program at the 2018 Corporate Counsel Conference in San Francisco, CA. Applications are now open!

“The leadership displayed by LGBT Division Chair Raquel Matas in establishing this scholarship exemplifies this year’s theme of ‘Vision in Action’,” stated HNBA National President Erica V. Mason. “In less than 6 months, we were able to take the idea for the scholarship program from concept to fully-funded for the 2018 scholarship year, demonstrating, once again, what we can accomplish when we are all working towards a common goal. Thank you to everyone who worked tirelessly to create and fund this program in such a short period of time, and to all that have contributed thus far. This scholarship is a wonderful way to commemorate the LGBT Division’s 10th Anniversary, and represents an important step in the Division’s legacy of promoting the advancement of Latinx LGBTQ lawyers and advocacy on behalf of the Latinx LGBTQ Community. I encourage our members to contribute to this fund!”

About the Division: The mission of the HNBA LGBT Division is to monitor and ADVOCATEfor legal issues affecting the Hispanic LGBT community; EDUCATE the HNBA and others on legal issues facing the Hispanic LGBT community; and PROMOTE the expertise, advancement, and empowerment of Hispanic LGBT legal professionals. In addition to programming and Division meetings through the year, in conjunction with the HNBA Corporate Counsel Conference or Annual Convention each year, the Division hosts its Annual LGBT Division Latinx Legal Professionals Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to: (i) discuss issues of concern within the Latinx LGBT legal professional community and broader community; and (ii) develop advocacy strategies to address them.

Ready to fund your summer?  See the full posting and how to apply here: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=df9a27c10b6d6ba38ba001440&id=39198baea4

Check out this funding opportunity and other national and regional funding opportunities on PSJD!

Summer 2018 Legal Intern

The Legal Aid Justice Center provides legal representation for low-income individuals in Virginia. Our mission is to serve those in our communities who have the least access to legal resources. The Legal Aid Justice Center is committed to providing a full range of services to our clients, including services our federal and state governments choose not to fund.

The Position

Legal Aid Justice Center (“LAJC”) seeks enthusiastic and committed legal interns to join our Falls Church (D.C. metro) office for the Summer 2018. The office serves as home base to LAJC’s Immigrant Advocacy Program, supporting low-income immigrants in their efforts to find justice and fair treatment.  In addition to representing clients with individual legal issues, we promote systemic reforms to reduce the abuse and exploitation of immigrants, and advocate for state and local policies that promote integration and reduce cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. We represent immigrants across Virginia, from the tomato fields of the Eastern Shore to restaurant kitchens in Charlottesville to luxury apartment construction sites in Arlington. Our work aims to end the mass detention and deportation of immigrants, with a special focus on child refugees fleeing violence and individuals and communities targeted for enforcement by overzealous federal immigration agents.

Ready for this new opportunity? Check it out here on PSJD.