Public Counsel Now Accepting Applications for its Summer 2016 Clerkship Program

Public Counsel has nine exciting law projects and several sub-projects that accept summer interns. The projects include a sophisticated appellate law practice, a comprehensive children’s rights program that handles school condition and discipline matters, special education cases, and adoptions, a community development team that supports affordable housing development and assists non-profit and small businesses with a variety of transactional needs, an immigrants’ rights group that does compelling asylum work on behalf of victims of torture and political persecution, a homelessness prevention unit that defends unlawful detainer complaints, advocates for welfare benefits, and eliminates outstanding tickets and warrants for persons at-risk of homelessness, and complex consumer fraud and impact litigation that addresses the injuries of individuals as well as systemic reform. Click here to learn more about each of their practice areas.

Public Counsel’s 2016 summer internship program will run for ten weeks, commencing on May 31, 2016, and ending on August 5, 2016. Both 1L’s and 2L’s are eligible for these internships. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Applications from 2L’s are currently being received and considered.  Applications from 1L’s will not be accepted until December 1, 2015. If you are a 1L, please wait until December 1 to transmit your application.

To apply, please email a cover letter, resume, transcript (or list of grades), and writing sample via email. If you are interested in more than one project, you must indicate your first choice of projects. It is helpful to describe in your cover letter the reasons for your interest in the project for which you are applying.  If a particular project has subprojects (e.g., adoptions, guardianship, Transition Age Foster Youth (TAFY), please make sure to specify the particular subproject you are applying for.  Again, you may apply for more than one subproject, but you must indicate your first choice.  Note:  Unless otherwise indicated below, all of the clerkships will take place in Los Angeles. 

Please be sure to include the following in the subject line of your e-mail:  “Application for 2015 Public Counsel Summer Internship.”  Your application will not be considered if the requested application materials or project preference are omitted.

The following projects are currently accepting summer clerk applications:

  • Center for Veterans’ Advancement
  • Children’s Rights Project
    • Adoptions
    • Advocacy for Children with Developmental Disabilities
    • Education Rights
    • Guardianship
    • Transition Age Foster Youth (TAFY)
  • Community Development Project
    • Community Development
    • Early Childhood Education
  • Consumer Law Project
    • Consumer Law
    • Debtor Assistance Project
  • Statewide Education Rights Project (this clerkship is for the Bay Area office only)
  • Homelessness Prevention Law Project
    • Connecting Angelenos to Resources and Essential Services (CARES)
    • Shriver Housing Project
  • Immigrants’ Rights Project

For complete information on the summer program, including how to apply for a clerkship, interested students should visit Public Counsel’s 2016 Summer Clerkship Application page.