About Us
LatinoJustice PRLDEF is one of the foremost Latino civil rights organizations in the country, serving a pan-Latino constituency. Since 1972, we have been bringing precedent-setting impact litigation that has profoundly improved the way Latinos are treated in our society. Our current areas of focus include:
- Immigrants’ Rights
- Voting Rights
- Redistricting
- Housing
- Education
- Employment
- Job Discrimination
- Treatment of Day Laborers
- Freedom of Movement
- Bias that affect the Latinx Community
Lozano v. City of Hazleton, enjoining a Pennsylvania town from enacting its own anti- immigrant ordinance; Aguilar v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, successfully challenging ICE’s home raids practices in NY, resulting in groundbreaking settlement reforming ICE’s national home raids procedures, payment of $1 million dollars in damages and fees and providing immigration relief to plaintiffs facing removal; Perez-Santiago v. Volusia County, successful Section 4e voting rights case requiring Florida county to provide bilingual ballots; and recent historic victories include representing Cesar Vargas, nationally known DREAMer activities and dacamented law graduate in his successful NYS bar admission.
We are proud to have a professional team deeply committed to our mission. We look to hire individuals who share our commitment, who are emotionally intelligent, emphatic, and good team players. We strive to maintain a positive, interconnected, value driven culture, where opportunities for individual and professional development are available to all. If this sounds like the kind of place you’d like to be, we invite you to apply to any of the internship opportunities below.
Term Internships
LatinoJustice interns conduct fact investigations and legal research, draft sections of legal briefs and memos of law, participate in client & witness interviews and trial preparation, and accompany staff lawyers to court proceedings and legislative hearings. Law students are included in every stage of planning, developing and prosecuting our impact cases. Recent student work has included research into the First Amendment rights of day laborers, the Fourth Amendment rights of individuals involved in immigration home raids, and the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection. Term interns are expected to work 12-15 hours/week during the semester subject to class schedule availability.
The Summer Program
Each summer, several rising 2L and 3L students from around the country join LatinoJustice for a 10-12-week full-time internship. Past summer interns have on occasion continued to work on LatinoJustice cases upon returning to school and writing law review articles on substantive issues they worked on.
In NYC, we join our civil rights colleagues from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) to organize a Summer Racial Justice Series which provide unique networking opportunities and an opportunity to hear from leading civil rights practitioners. Past presentations have included the future of desegregation, emerging issues in immigrants’ rights, school to prison pipeline, and building public interest careers via clerkships and fellowships.
LatinoJustice also has a Long Island Satellite Office located in Touro Law School’s Public Advocacy Center in Central Islip.
LatinoJustice’s Southeast Regional Office opened in July 2014. The Southeast Regional Office also offers great networking opportunities with local Latinx community service organizations and Hispanic bar groups.
Please note that LatinoJustice has also sponsored several former term and summer interns for post-graduate public interest fellowships.
Qualifications
We are seeking:
- Energetic, motivated law students with a record of commitment to social justice work
- Excellent legal, written, research, and communications
- Bilingual Spanish/English is a plus but not required.
We are happy to help students obtain academic course credit through school clinical externship programs and/or satisfy pro bono volunteer requirements at school or for bar admission.
LatinoJustice PRLDEF is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
Apply:
To apply for Spring 2022 Legal Internship – Southeast Office, click here. To apply for an internship with LatinoJustice PRLDEF, please visit the careers tab on our website. This opportunity is also posted on Symplicity Job Posting ID#30350.