The Capital Appeals Project (CAP) is a non-profit law office based in New Orleans, Louisiana that provides capital appellate and post-conviction representation to indigent people on Louisiana’s death row. CAP provides high-quality representation in the state and federal courts throughout Louisiana, and acts as a resource to public defenders and criminal defense lawyers across the state. CAP attorneys have successfully represented clients in state district courts, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court, which in turn has improved the quality and standards of representation for indigent capital defendants in Louisiana. We also represent a number of non-capital juvenile clients in proceedings implementing the recent Supreme Court decisions which limit life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders.
Position
CAP is seeking applicants for a one-year fellowship. The fellow will help represent defendants from the time they are sentenced to death through their direct appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court and petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, as well as in state post-conviction and federal habeas.
The fellow will be supervised by senior attorneys, and will have a substantial role in informing the litigation strategies, reviewing records, meeting with clients, conducting legal research, drafting appellate briefs, mooting oral arguments, and conducting investigation. The fellowship is potentially renewable for a second year.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The application deadline is February 15, 2019.
Disability Rights Washington is a private nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of people with disabilities across Washington. We are designated by the governor as the independent federally-mandated protection and advocacy system for Washington State. As such, Disability Rights Washington promotes, expands, and protects the human and civil rights of people with disabilities.
The Position
DRW’s Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities (AVID) Program seeks a full-time prisoners’ rights litigator with a demonstrated interest in conducting impact litigation to enforce the legal rights of incarcerated individuals enduring abuse, neglect, or other human and civil rights violations. This position will require a licensed attorney with the ability to conduct systemic investigations, develop complex advocacy strategies, and represent both classes and individuals. The AVID Program enjoys DRW’s unique access authority, which will allow the attorney the ability to see firsthand the conditions in Washington prisons and jails, even in the most secluded and segregated parts of those facilities.
The ideal candidate would have lived and/or professional experience relating to the AVID Program’s practice areas, which include, but are not limited to: addressing discrimination, improving conditions of confinement for people experiencing incarceration, supporting community reentry from institutionalization or incarceration, and ending abuse and neglect. The attorney for this position must have a commitment and capacity to produce high quality legal analysis and to provide effective advocacy through complex civil litigation as well as informal and alternative dispute resolution. All DRW attorneys must demonstrate dedication to DRW’s values of inclusion, diversity, and equity as well as the values of individual autonomy, community integration, universal accessibility, freedom from restraint, and respectful language. DRW seeks applicants who have the ability to work independently in a team of supportive colleagues and are seeking to join in our mission to “advance the dignity, equality, and self-determination of people with disabilities.”
To prepare for the 2019 program, Equal Justice Works and Legal Services Corporation are actively recruiting students to fill 30 exciting positions nationwide.
The Position
Selected participants will begin the summer with intensive training from poverty law experts on housing, domestic violence, public benefits, migrant farmworkers, Native American, and family law. After the training, the law students will return directly to their host site to continue their 8-10 week placement.
Selected student fellows will work with esteemed LSC-funded civil legal aid organizations to build their legal skills in various areas, such as:
Direct legal services: Intake, client and witness interviews, advocating for clients, attending hearings, assisting attorneys in legal representation, legal research, and writing.
Outreach and education: Developing and distributing fact sheets, developing and delivering training on legal topics or on how to access legal services.
Capacity building: Organizational assessments, compiling best practices, organizing focus groups, leading planning committees.
Salary: Law Students receive a $5,000 for 8-10 weeks of service.
The Institute for
Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) has successfully helped Haitians enforce
their human rights since 2004. IJDH partners with the Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux(BAI) to support grassroots
struggles for justice in Haiti and in the powerful countries abroad where
decisions about Haitians’ rights are often made. IJDH and BAI combine
traditional legal strategies with organizing, emerging technology and public
advocacy to address the root causes of instability and poverty in Haiti.
We fight with routinely
excellent legal work, but also with creativity, humility, inspiration and
humor, and a supportive work culture. We effect broad changes with modest
resources by nurturing large advocacy networks.
The Position
IJDH
is offering a two-year legal fellowship for an emerging lawyer passionate about
supporting justice struggles in the Global South. The Fellowship is part of the
Bertha Foundation’s Bertha Justice Initiative, a global network of progressive
lawyers that provides solidarity and training to movement lawyers around the
world. The Bertha Foundation supports 4-8 fellows at BAI in Haiti, and
one fellow at IJDH. The Fellowship at IJDH will focus on developing skills
necessary for lawyers from the Global North to support social change movements
and progressive lawyers in the Global South and build effective transnational
advocacy movements.
The IJDH Bertha Fellow will work closely with IJDH and BAI teams in the U.S. and Haiti on advocacy and legal work, including our groundbreaking project holding the UN accountable for introducing cholera to Haiti. The Bertha Fellow will also serve as a support to the BAI Fellows in Haiti and a liaison between the BAI and the broader Bertha Network.
The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization (LSO) provides legal representation to individuals and organizations in need of legal services but unable to afford private attorneys. Students, supervised by Law School faculty members and participating attorneys, interview clients, write briefs, prepare witnesses, try cases, negotiate settlements, draft documents, participate in commercial transactions, draft legislation and regulatory proposals, and argue appeals in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Connecticut Supreme Court.
The Position
LSO seeks to hire 20-25 Summer Fellows to work with clinical faculty in order to continue this client representation. These are paid positions, with a salary of $7,080 for 12 weeks of full-time work ($14.75/hour). The Fellowship will run from May 21 to August 16, 2019, with some flexibility as to start and end dates. Part-time work or full-time work for a portion of the Fellowship period may also be possible.
LSO clinics perform a wide range of exciting work, including litigation in state and federal court and before administrative agencies, transactional work on behalf of community organizations, and policy and legislative advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. For 2019, LSO seeks Summer Fellows for the following clinics:
Lambda Legal is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV.
Since 1973, Lambda Legal has used impact litigation and other advocacy tools to decriminalize same-sex relationships; challenge discrimination against LGBT people and people living with HIV in the workplace, the home, in schools, in health care, and in the military; and protect LGBT families, including by winning and defending marriage equality. Supporters across the country contribute to a growing budget of approximately $27M. Clients are not charged for legal representation or advocacy and Lambda Legal receives no government funding. Headquartered in New York City, Lambda Legal has regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.
Position
Lambda Legal welcomes applications for the 2019-2021 Tyron Garner Memorial Fellowship for African-American LGBT Civil Rights. This fellowship honors the memory of Tyron Garner, one of the men Lambda Legal represented in our groundbreaking Supreme Court victory Lawrence v. Texas (which struck down all remaining state sodomy laws in the country) and helps expand Lambda Legal’s work in African-American LGBT communities. Mr. Garner died in 2006, after his case vindicated the constitutional right to express sexual intimacy in adult relationships.
Through the Garner Fellowship, Lambda Legal seeks to support law graduates dedicated to LGBT issues within African-American communities in ongoing engagement with civil rights work on behalf of LGBT individuals and people living with HIV. The Garner Fellowship contributes to Lambda Legal’s expansion of our current work to serve communities of color and address the intersection of LGBT discrimination and racism that affects African-American LGBT communities.
A Better Balance is a national legal advocacy organization with offices in Nashville, TN and New York, NY dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace and helping workers care for their families without sacrificing their economic security. Through nationwide policy advocacy, legal services and strategic litigation, and enforcement and education, ABB is fighting back and improving workers’ lives at the local, state and federal levels. The organization has fought for and won victories in improved paid leave, equal pay, pregnancy and caregiver protection, breastfeeding accommodations, LGBTQ rights protections, and other economic justice issues throughout the country.
Position
Based in Nashville, TN, the Staff Attorney would advance the goals of A Better Balance by promoting fairness for working families in the South and raising awareness nationally of local issues affecting Southern low-wage workers, especially marginalized communities. The Staff Attorney would work in the following areas: combating discrimination and unfair practices against women and caregivers, such as pregnancy & breastfeeding discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act violations, staffing our free legal helpline to assist low-wage workers, being part of a team working on impact litigation cases, drafting and disseminating public education materials, and conducting legal research.
The Institute for Justice is the National Law Firm for Liberty. IJ litigates to limit the size and scope of government power and to ensure that all Americans have the right to control their own destinies as free and responsible members of society.
The Institute for Justice combines cutting-edge litigation, sophisticated media relations, strategic research, boots-on-the-ground advocacy and much more to fight on behalf of those individuals who are denied their constitutional rights. Despite the challenge of taking on powerful government officials and entrenched precedents, IJ is successful in winning 70 percent of its cases in the court of law, in the court of public opinion or through legislative reforms.
Position
The Institute for Justice’s Dave Kennedy Summer Fellowship program provides an unparalleled opportunity for select law students to substantively contribute to IJ’s cutting-edge civil-rights litigation. Fellows conduct legal research; help develop litigation strategies for active and potential cases; and draft discovery requests, motions, and briefs filed in both state and federal court.
IJ’s Dave Kennedy Summer Fellowship positions are highly competitive. The fellowship is a paid opportunity, $7000 for the 10 week program, and generally runs from the last week of May through early-August. Fellowship opportunities are available at all six of IJ’s offices:
Arlington, VA (Headquarters) Austin, TX Seattle, WA Miami, FL Minneapolis, MN Tempe, AZ
DNA People’s Legal Services, Inc. (“DNA”) is the largest and one of the oldest Indian legal services programs in the United States. It was established on the Navajo Indian Reservation in 1967 under the name Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe, a Navajo phrase which means “contributing to the revitalization of the People through the legal process”.
DNA’s primary source of funding is the Legal Services Corporation, which was created by federal statute to provide civil legal services to indigent persons. In addition, DNA seeks funding from other sources, such as private foundations, to support particular community legal education endeavors, major case litigation and other special projects.
Position
DNA People’s Legal Services is hiring 8 attorneys in their various offices across Arizona and New Mexico. They are also accepting applications from 2L’s for their summer law internship program.
October was a big month for us here at PSJD. Our annual mini-conference went off without a hitch- many thanks to all the employers and career services professionals who attended! PSJD was also an exhibitor at the Equal Justice Conference and Career Fair and witnessing the next generation of social-justice-minded lawyers was exhilarating. These past few weeks are just a continuation of PSJD’s successful year, which is highlighted by our ever-expanding job database (our 2017-2018 overall jobs present exceeded the three-year average).
As our database continues to grow, we want to ensure that all geographic regions in our subscribing schools’ network are being represented in proportion to the size of the public interest legal market in each individual state. Therefore, we have developed a method for calculating each state’s job market for entry-level legal positions and comparing this information to the state’s presence on PSJD’s job database.
This automated method allows us to identify any imbalances between the number of recent law graduates entering the public interest legal market in a state versus the number of entry-level positions on PSJD for that state. With this information in hand, the next step is developing a framework for reducing such gaps.
Interested public, PSJD subscribers and friends, be on the lookout for exciting developments with this new project in the coming months. As always, shoot us an email at psjd@nalp.org if you have any opportunities you’d like to forward our way.
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