For law students who want to spend their summer practicing law in one of the country’s most prestigious public interest law settings – this opportunity is for you!
Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm, is now accepting applications from 1L’S and 2L’s for its 2022 Summer Internship Program. For complete information on the summer program, including how to apply for an internship, interested students should visit Public Counsel’s Summer Internship Application page.
Any questions regarding the summer program should be directed to Public Counsel’s summer program coordinator, Sandra Madera.
Public Counsel has eight exciting law projects and several sub-projects that accept summer interns. Our projects include 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; a holistic legal initiative that addresses the specific needs of low-income women and girls; a complex consumer fraud division that focuses on litigation and policies to prevent consumer victimization; and an impact litigation department (Opportunity Under Law) that addresses economic injustices on a national level through strategic lawsuits and other means to accomplish systemic reform. Click here to learn more about each of our practice areas.
Public Counsel seeks summer interns who share our commitment to economic and racial justice. The large majority of Public Counsel’s clients are working-class people of color who have experienced a number of intersectional forms of oppression, often barring them from access to legal representation. We seek to have a group of interns who have a personal and/or professional understanding of these experiences. We are especially interested in receiving applications from historically underrepresented students in terms of race, economic background, and other characteristics, consistent with our active, ongoing commitment to increase equity and inclusion within our organization.
Public Counsel’s summer 2022 internship program will run for ten weeks, commencing May 31, 2022, and ending on August 5, 2022. Both 1L’s and 2L’s are eligible for these internships. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Although Public Counsel does not provide funding to law students for its summer program, please be sure to consult with your law school’s public interest program to learn more about available scholarships and financial awards that might support your summer internship.
To apply, please email a cover letter, resume, transcript (or list of grades), and writing sample to Sandra Madera. Please list up to three of the projects you would like to work with in order of preference in the body of the email you send with your application materials. It is helpful to describe in your cover letter the reasons for your interest in the project for which you are applying. Please be sure to include the following in the subject line of your e-mail: “Application for 2022 Public Counsel Summer Internship.” Your application will not be considered if the requested application materials or your project preferences are omitted.
Projects with open summer positions:
Center for Veterans’ Advancement
Children’s Rights – Adoptions
Children’s Rights – Guardianship
Community Development Project (includes Early Care & Education subproject)
Consumer Rights and Economic Justice
Consumer Rights and Economic Justice – Debtor Assistance Project
Homelessness Prevention Law Project
Immigrants’ Rights (must be proficient in Spanish)
Opportunity Under Law (Impact Litigation)
Women and Girls’ Rights
This application process can also be found here on Public Counsel’s website.
