Human Rights First welcomes law students to apply for a Summer 2012 internship in our Refugee Protection Program. HRF is looking for students who are currently enrolled in law school, have a strong interest in and commitment to human rights, are fluent in a relevant second language, and want to work on behalf of asylum-seekers.

Interns will be based in HRF’s New York office and will be expected to work at least 35 hours per week for a 10-12 week period.  This is an unpaid internship. Interns will be responsible for securing their own funding or arranging to receive course credit at their law schools.

The Refugee Protection Program works to provide indigent asylum seekers with quality legal representation in their asylum cases.  The program also advocates for legal reform and policy change on issues affecting asylum seekers in the United States.

Interested? Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

Mercy Corps’ mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.

Mercy Corps is looking for a summer legal intern to provide full-time support from approximately May through August 2012 (hours and time period to be determined). Its legal department consists of a General Counsel, Associate General Counsel and a Legal Department Administrator.

The intern will have the opportunity to learn the legal processes involved with a nonprofit, international relief and development organization. The summer legal intern will have the opportunity to conduct a significant research project regarding a current legal issue facing Mercy Corps, assist in updating policies, grids and other pertinent data.

To learn how to apply, check the listing at PSLawNet!

Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.

The Legal Intern position is part of the Legal, Finance and Accounting Department and will report directly to the Senior Manager, Legal Operations. This position is an eight week, full-time summer internship for a law student who has completed his/her second year of law school. The position is project-focused and will include the review of corporate governance documents, compliance and legal assessments of Room to Read’s international entities and the drafting of legal memorandum.

The Legal Intern will review corporate governance documents and make recommendations, corporate minute books of international entities for compliance, and legal and organizational documents for international offices, as well as research legal requirements for corporate governance, update internal policies and procedures, as necessary, and complete additional projects depending on time and skills.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

The Southern Poverty Law Center seeks a staff attorney to join its Montgomery, Alabama office. The Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to reducing bigotry and oppression through litigation, public education, and community organizing. The Center is exploring emerging legal issues affecting low-income people in the Southeast, such as consumer lending, employment and housing discrimination, public benefits, and other economic justice concerns.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 as a small civil rights law firm. Today, the Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. Located in Montgomery, Alabama – the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement – the Center was founded by Morris Dees and Joe Levin, two local lawyers who shared a commitment to racial equality. Its first president was civil rights activist Julian Bond.

Throughout its history, the Center has worked to make the nation’s Constitutional ideals a reality. The Center’s legal department fights all forms of discrimination and works to protect society’s most vulnerable members, handling innovative cases that few lawyers are willing to take. Over three decades, it has achieved significant legal victories, including landmark Supreme Court decisions and crushing jury verdicts against hate groups.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

Massachusetts Jobs With Justice is an activist coalition working on issues of workers’ rights, support for labor, immigrant rights, health care and global justice.

Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor, community , faith and student organizations working together to build unity and support for the struggles of working people. JwJ is a campaign for workers’ rights. Our mission is to defend working people’s standard of living, fight for job security, protect our right to organize and support contract campaigns and strikes. JwJ opposes racism, sexism, ageism and homophobia and will actively support struggles against any form of discrimination. JwJ is action oriented.

Work with Massachusetts Jobs With Justice to build a movement for immigration reform and immigrant workers’ rights. You will be working with local immigrant community organizations and activists to plan events, rallies, etc. to promote immigration rights and protect immigrant workers from employer abuses.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

The Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD) – a member-organization of neighborhood-based affordable housing groups – seeks an Associate to coordinate policy and advocacy to win improved affordable housing policies in New York City. The Associate will help develop clear affordable housing policy recommendations, then implement those recommendations to win policy change by mobilizing advocacy campaigns with ANHD’s member organizations.

The Advocacy Associate will assist with the research, policy analysis, and development of ANHD’s housing production and preservation priorities, including a campaign to win policies that require permanent affordability of publicly-subsidized housing as well as synthesize policy ideas into easily understood materials for diverse audiences, including member groups, elected officials, policymakers/experts, and other issue stakeholders. The Associate will support member advocacy committees and working groups by working collaboratively with our members, providing them with the information and technical assistance needed to formulate and pursue successful Citywide advocacy campaigns.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

Advocates for Justice, a non-profit public interest law firm in its second year of operation, is seeking an experienced attorney to serve as the Director of Legal Affairs for the organization. The mission of the Director of Legal Affairs is to enable the organization to manage its legal workload more efficiently and ensure that the organization is able to always provide the highest quality service to our clients.

The Director will report to the Executive Director (not an attorney) on administrative matters and will collaborate with Arthur Z. Schwartz, Esq., President, Board of Directors, on all legal matters. All other attorneys will report directly to the Director.

The Director will be responsible for (a) leading weekly meetings amongst the attorneys to discuss cases, (b) generating legal strategies regarding ongoing cases, (c) assisting with outreach regarding potential cases, (d) making court, arbitration or deposition appearances if necessary, (e) reviewing all legal papers generated by attorneys; (f) training and developing less experience attorneys as appropriate, (g) interacting with opposing counsel as necessary, (h) providing written feedback on the organization’s legal work as well as the performance of the other attorneys, and (i) assisting the Executive Director and the Board President with the preparation of related materials (e.g. – grant proposals.)

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

Immigration Equality’s high-performance policy team is expanding.  We are recruiting a new Policy Director who will build on our team’s core strength to take full advantage of opportunities to advance our agenda within the federal government over the next year and beyond. 

Founded in 1994, Immigration Equality is the country’s premiere legal aid and advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive immigrants and their families.  Immigration Equality works to end discrimination against LGBT people in U.S. immigration law through education, outreach, and advocacy.  Immigration Equality’s pro bono asylum project represents LGBT people fleeing persecution with the participation of more than 40 top national law firms.  In 2009, Immigration Equality created the Immigration Equality Action Fund, a 501(c)(4), to expand its federal legislative advocacy.

We currently have a first-rate Legislative Director, Julie Kruse, and seek to build a bigger team that can design and execute an effective, nimble administrative advocacy strategy.  We are recruiting the perfect person to manage, grow and lead this expanded policy team.  The remainder of this presidential term is an extraordinary window of opportunity, and the organization is committed to putting resources into this area.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

In September 2011, NALP conducted a snapshot survey on the public interest employment market to lend some statistical precision to hiring market changes and forecasts. We received survey responses from623 public interest organizations across 44 states, D.C., the American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These responses were aggregated to report on recent law student and attorney hiring, hiring expectations for the immediate future, and employer advice for job applicants competing in today’s market.

Not surprisingly, the survey showed that the public interest job market remains tight as nonprofit and government sectors face budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs. However, the results do show that there is hope of stability for more than half of the respondents expect hiring of 2012 law graduates and interns to remain steady in relation to 2011.

Here are some of the key findings:

• Almost 80% of respondents hosted law students for unpaid summer positions in 2011.
• Approximately 26% of respondents hired law students for paid summer positions in 2011.
• Over 13% of responding state attorneys general offices hired fewer paid summer interns in 2011 than they did in 2010. No responding attorneys general indicated that they would increase paid summer hiring in 2012.
• Approximately 76% of respondents expect to host the same number of paid law students in 2012 as they did in 2011.
• Overall, 18.7% of respondents hired Class of 2011 graduates for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
• About 27.6% of respondents hired lateral attorneys for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
• Approximately 1 in 3 respondent organizations was in a hiring freeze at the time of the survey.

Read the rest of the report and see the nitty-gritty details here.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office – Commissioner for Trademarks offers a paid summer internship program for Law School students at our Alexandria, VA campus.

As a Student Trainee (Law) you will be responsible for, but not limited to, providing the following legal and administrative support activities:  handling research requests for examining attorneys, senior attorneys and managing attorneys to determine the registrability of trademarks under §§ 1, 2 and 45 of the Trademark Act (Lanham Act) and conducting research into ownership, disclaimer, identification and specimen issues.  The majority of the research is conducted on Lexis/Nexis, the internet, and other electronic databases.  Research is also conducted in trade publications, dictionaries and other paper-based sources.

Additionally, participants may be given the opportunity to draft an appeal brief for an ex parte appeal concerning a trademark application.

For more information, see the full listing at PSLawNet!