This one’s for any law students working in Washington, D.C. over the summer who may still be looking for a way to help fund their summer public interest work or clerkship.

PSJD is looking for part-time Project Assistants to help us manage and update the website’s jobs database. PSJD’s Project Assistants get a bird’s-eye view of the public interest law job market, and is a great summer job for any student interested in legal technology, website management, access to justice and/or public interest law in general.

Project Assistants are paid $13/hour for a minimum of 8-10 hours per week. The deadline to apply is April 15, 2013. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

From the PSJD job posting:

Are you a recently admitted lawyer interested in obtaining the skills and resources necessary to build an innovative and successful law practice? Are you interested in making a positive impact on your community as a social entrepreneur? The Justice Entrepreneurs Project (JEP) is seeking its inaugural class of lawyers. The JEP will foster the development of practices providing affordable legal services to low and moderate-income people and small businesses who find it difficult to obtain such help. Additional information about the JEP, including the JEP’s mission and goals, is available at www.chicagobarfoundation.org/jep.

This 18-month program is broken into three 6-month modules. The inaugural class will begin in June 2013. The program is designed to help participants develop their ability to provide competent representation (including knowing when they need to refer or co-counsel a case) and to run a successful law practice. During the first module, participants will perform pro bono service for approximately 20 hours per week with partner legal aid organizations. At the same time, participants will receive training, workshops and coaching on business and other issues needed to start a solo/small practice. Participants will establish their own independent practices, begin handling cases in areas traditionally needed by modest income clients and charge reasonable fees for their services. During the second module, participants will develop a fuller caseload and will continue to receive training, mentoring and coaching on business and legal issues. As participants move into the third module, they will continue to develop a fuller caseload but will also prepare to move their practice out of the JEP and will focus more on marketing and business development issues. Participants will pay a modest monthly participation fee during the second and third modules.

About the JEP Participants

JEP is seeking lawyers who are:
• Dedicated to establishing a long-term practice serving the legal needs of low and moderate-income individuals and small businesses
• Committed to access to justice and using the practice of law to enrich the lives of clients and build better communities
• Interested in using technology and innovation to explore new ways of providing cost-effective legal services
• Interested in social entrepreneurship
• Excited to explore new ideas about problem-solving taking a collaborative approach with other program lawyers, leaders in the legal profession and the community, and your clients.

Sounds like you? The deadline to apply is April 5, 2013. For more information, view the full job description at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Want to spend your summer working at the greatest place on earth? No, it’s not the circus or Disneyworld, but it’s pretty close (in certain circles): work with us here at NALP and PSJD! If you’re looking for full-time summer employment, we’re hiring a Public Interest Projects & Publications Coordinator to help us edit and produce public interest law guides, in addition to managing social media content.

Here’s more information from the PSJD job posting:

NALP seeks a law or graduate student to work full-time this summer as its Public Interest Projects & Publications Coordinator. The coordinator’s primary responsibilities are threefold:

1. editing and producing the 2013 PSJD Comprehensive Fellowship Guide;
2. developing original content for the PSJD website and blog; and
3. contributing to the 2013-14 PSJD Federal Legal Employment Opportunities Guide’s production.

The employment period is approximately 10 weeks and includes a $675 per week stipend. The position is ideal for a law or graduate student who has editing/publishing experience and is interested in public interest law and/or nonprofit administration. The coordinator serves as an integral part of the PSJD team, which has two full-time employees.

NALP is a nonprofit member association of law schools and legal employers. NALP is dedicated to facilitating legal career counseling and planning, recruitment and retention, and the professional development of law students and lawyers. NALP houses and administers PSJD, an online public interest job database and career center for law students and attorneys. PSJD contains listings of several hundred postgraduate public interest fellowships which are offered in the U.S. and abroad. Every year, this information is collected from the website and published in hard-copy form as The PSJD Comprehensive Fellowship Guide. The coordinator plays the lead role in the guide’s annual update, along with making original contributions to other PSJD online content and publications.

Specific responsibilities associated with the coordinator position include:

• Research and update all PSJD online fellowship listings for use in the hard-copy guide. This is accomplished through email and phone outreach to employer organizations.
• Search for new fellowship listings to be added to the guide.
• Edit content and layout for publication.
• Aggregate resources and produce original content for NALP’s annually published Federal Legal Employment Opportunities Guide.
• Aggregate resources and produce original content for the PSJD website and blog.
• Other tasks as assigned.

The deadline to apply is this Friday, March 8, 2013, so don’t hesitate to apply! For application instructions and more important information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Did you know that postgraduate fellowships are one of the best ways for recent law graduates to lay a strong foundation for a public interest law career? These fellowships allow recent law graduates to secure entry-level jobs with organizations that serve marginalized or vulnerable client populations, while gaining a entire network of like-minded colleagues in the public interest legal community.

With that being said, it’s time to gear up and get ready to apply! Our Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowships Application Deadline Calendar offers a running list of deadlines to help you keep track, along with links to the organization’s profile and job description.

The list is always being updated, so check back on a consistent basis for approaching dates. Since the summer/fall is prime-time to apply, be sure to check last year’s deadlines to get a feel for how you might manage your applications in the upcoming months. Good luck!

The Charlottesville, Virginia office of the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is currently hiring for an entry level associate attorney position within its Land and Community Program. The attorney will work with SELC for 2 years with the possibility of an extension to a third year.

From the PSJD job posting:

We are seeking a committed and energetic person with strong legal skills to work on a range of land use and transportation issues in Charlottesville and throughout Virginia. This is an excellent opportunity to join an organization that is successfully addressing some of the most important and challenging environmental issues facing the Southeast and the nation.

About SELC and the Land and Community Program: With offices across the region (Charlottesville, VA; Chapel Hill, NC; Atlanta, GA; Asheville, NC; Charleston, SC; Washington, DC; Richmond, VA; Birmingham, AL; and Nashville, TN), SELC uses law and policy expertise to protect the South’s natural resources—its land, air, water, coast and wetlands—and to preserve our rural countryside and community character. Although our regional focus is the Southeast, much of our work is national in scope and impact.
SELC works collaboratively with over 100 national, state, and local groups to enhance their efficacy and achieve our common conservation goals. Our legal and policy staff comprises some of the nation’s leading experts in their respective fields, and over its 27-year history, SELC has earned a reputation as one of the most effective environmental organizations in the country. We currently have a staff of over 100, including 53 attorneys. Additional information regarding our work and staff is available at www.southernenvironment.org.

About the Position: Our Land & Community Program uses legal advocacy, policy reform, and public education to promote smarter growth and more sustainable transportation policies, and we have a special project focusing on land use and transportation issues in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The associate attorney will work closely with more senior attorneys and policy experts and will have a wide range of legal and policy responsibilities. The work will include legal research and writing, policy analysis and development, attending local government hearings and meetings, public speaking, and coordination with other organizations.

Successful applicants will have outstanding writing, analytic, interpersonal and speaking skills, among other qualities. The salary is $56,000 – 60,000, depending on experience. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Palestine Works is a new, US-based nonprofit that engages young professionals and facilitates their sustainable contributions to Palestinian communities. Their first project is the Palestine Works Law Fellowships, which connects law students to internships with human rights organizations and universities serving Palestinians in the Occupied Territory and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Examples of site locations are East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and many more.

Here’s a little bit more information from the Palestine Works website:

We partner with law schools to recruit students interested in working with Palestinian communities, and to ensure the best qualified students are selected as Fellows. The law schools provide the primary funding through their public-interest grant programs. The organizations add whatever funding or in-kind contributions they can. We help Fellows get to their internships, get situated, and get to work. We also organize programs for Fellows during their internships to help them make the most of the experience.

Fellows are expected to continue their service after their internships through scholarship that builds on their summer work, by holding events on their campuses, and through other creative endeavors. We collaborate with Fellows on these legacy projects, connecting them with academics to guide their work, and helping them publish their work in law reviews, academic journals, and new media. Through their internships and legacy projects, Fellows return to their schools and move on to their careers as stakeholders in a better future for the Palestinian communities they serve.

The deadline is March 1, 2013, so don’t hesitate to apply! Log in to PSJD to check out all the positions available at different participating agencies on Palestine Works’ PSJD profile, and quickly send your cover letter, resume , 10-page-or-less writing sample, and law school transcript to apply@palestineworks.org.

If you’re discouraged by lack of funding, don’t be. Go through our Summer Funding lists and apply for one of the many available opportunities. Good luck!

Are you a recent law graduate interested in breaking into legal academia? Here’s your chance! The University of Wisconsin Law School’s Frank J. Remington Center has three vacancies: two clinical instructor positions in the Legal Assistance to Institutionalized Persons Project (LAIP) and one clinical instructor vacancy in the Restorative Justice Project (RJP).

From the PSJD job posting:

In LAIP, law student interns interview inmates in correctional institutions throughout Wisconsin, analyze the inmates’ civil or criminal legal problems, and take steps to resolve these problems. The students enroll in LAIP as a full-time job in the summer (typically after the 1L year), and then continue in the Fall and Spring semesters for 3-4 credits each semester. Each clinical instructor in LAIP supervises 6-7 law students beginning in the summer, and then continues with those same students in the Fall and Spring.

In RJP, law student interns initiate and mediate victim-offender conferences between Wisconsin prison inmates and the victims of their crimes. This involves extensive background preparation with victims, offenders, and their families. The students enroll in RJP as a full-time job in the summer (typically after the 1L year), and then continue in the Fall and Spring semesters for 3-4 credits each semester. The RJP clinical instructor supervises 6-7 law students beginning in the summer, and then continues with those same students in the Fall and Spring.

The salary is $50,000 and is set to begin on May 1, 2013 and end on April 30, 2014 – although there is an option to renew for another year. Successful applicants will have admission to the Wisconsin bar, or be willing to sit for the bar by June 1, 2013, in addition to prior experience with criminal and civil legal concerns for incarcerated clients, post-conviction law and post-conviction procedure. The deadline to apply is March 8, 2013.

For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a nonprofit environmental organization that uses science and the law to protect the environment and public health. Since 1970, NRDC has engaged in litigation, lobbying, scientific research and public education on air, water, public health, climate change, energy, public lands, wildlife protection, smart growth, international, urban, environmental justice, and nuclear issues. NRDC also employs more than 430 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy and communication experts in their offices in New York; Washington, DC; Chicago; San Francisco; Santa Monica, Calif.; Livingston, Montana;  and Beijing, China.

The Chicago office is currently looking for a Litigation Attorney:

We seek an Attorney to investigate and litigate complex, innovative cases to protect public health and the environment, on behalf of and in collaboration with both NRDC and outside clients. The Attorney will be a member of the new Chicago branch of NRDC’s Litigation Team; the Team consists of approximately a dozen full-time litigators and four legal assistants who work out of NRDC’s New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Chicago offices. The position is for a two-year commitment with an opportunity for permanent employment. The position will be open in early May, but the exact start date is negotiable.

The Attorney will litigate civil cases in collaboration with other NRDC Litigation Team lawyers and client representatives. Over time, the Attorney’s docket will likely include work in federal and state courts; it may also include work before state or federal administrative tribunals that handle evidentiary proceedings. The Attorney will be expected to serve as lead counsel for administrative record-review cases, under the supervision of a more senior Team attorney. The Attorney will also (depending on experience level and Team needs) either lead or support litigation of evidentiary cases that involve discovery, work with scientific experts, and trial preparation. In addition to supporting active cases, the Attorney will work with NRDC policy specialists and outside clients to develop new cases to help protect public health and the environment.

Although the Attorney will focus their time on developing and litigating cases, s/he will also be expected to assume some institutional responsibilities. Over time, these may include planning and leading in-house legal trainings; counseling NRDC staff on legal issues; hiring, supervising, and mentoring legal interns and fellows; serving on institutional committees; and representing NRDC at local fundraising, legal academic, and bar events.

For more information on qualifications and application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

With offices in New York and San Francisco, the Immigrants Rights Project (IRP) of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation uses targeted impact litigation, advocacy and public outreach to protect the rights and liberties of immigrants. The Project litigates in federal district and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, to challenge laws that deny immigrants access to the judicial system, impose indefinite and mandatory detention, and constitute discrimination on the basis of “alienage” by governmental and private entities.

The IRP is currently hiring a Detention Fellow to start immediately. From the PSJD job posting:

The IRP Detention Fellow will participate in litigation and advocacy to challenge the expansion of unconstitutional detention practices, and to help establish a right to appointed counsel for immigration detainees. The Fellow will work with IRP attorneys on existing complex litigation challenges to detention and counsel practices and participate in the development and filing of new litigation. In addition, the Fellow will be instrumental in monitoring other cases being litigated in the federal courts. The Fellow will also participate in our administrative advocacy for systemic nationwide reforms to the immigration detention system.

For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the primary unit responsible for enforcement of provisions of the Communications Act, the FCC’s rules and orders, and terms and conditions of station authorizations. Major areas of enforcement are consumer protection, local competition and public safety/homeland security enforcement.

The FCC Bureau is currently seeking applicants for its prestigious paid summer internship program. Duties, as listed on the PSJD job posting, are:

Conducting legal research and compiling background information for use by the Office of the Bureau Chief, Enforcement Bureau on a variety of communications and technology issues including but not limited to:

• television, radio, and cable;
• wireline communications regulation;
• wireless and satellite regulation;
• broadband;
• international;
• spectrum, and
• public safety and homeland security.

Duties may involve interacting with industry counsel, consumer groups, and agency personnel on a variety of issues.

The salary is $20.22 to $24.74 per hour. Deadline to apply is February 28, 2013 – next week! For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).