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Sources of Funding for Public Interest Work ( With Upcoming Deadlines )

Sources of Funding for Public Interest Work ( With Upcoming Deadlines ). Presentation by Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center Public Interest Law Association February 5, 2009. THE CENTER. Kimberly Emery , Assistant Dean of Pro Bono Yared Getachew , Director of Public Service

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Sources of Funding for Public Interest Work ( With Upcoming Deadlines )

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  1. Sources of Funding forPublic Interest Work(With Upcoming Deadlines ) Presentation by Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center Public Interest Law Association February 5, 2009

  2. THE CENTER • Kimberly Emery, Assistant Dean of Pro Bono • Yared Getachew, Director of Public Service • Andrew Broaddus, Office Manager

  3. HELPFUL RESOURCES • The Public Service Center’s Website • Symplicity • PSLawNet • Government Honors & Internship Handbook

  4. WHY APPLY FOR ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF FUNDING? • % of applicants receiving PILA grants changes each year due to fluctuations in funds and number of applicants. • Competition for public interest funding is much more intense in 2009. • PSC recommends applying for a wide variety of funding sources to account for these market factors.

  5. WHERE TO START YOUR SEARCH • This presentation lists a variety of alternative funding sources for public interest work with upcoming deadlines. • Keep track of the deadlines and apply to multiple opportunities as soon as possible – some of the opportunities accept applications on a rolling basis. • Apply to fellowships and paid internships with specific organization through Symplicity (LawWeb). • Don’t forget PILA’s deadline: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2009

  6. A BRIEF NOTE ON SYMPLICITY • A listing of public service employment opportunities, fellowships, and internship opportunities is available on Symplicity, the law school’s career services database. • Be sure to check recent postings, as the Public Service Center uploads current opportunities daily. • Example: The Robert M. LaFollette/Keenan Peck Legal Fellowship offered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

  7. SOURCES AVAILABLE NATIONALLY Funding Sources that May Be Applied in a Variety of Geographic Locations

  8. American Bar Association John J. Curtin, Jr. Fellowship • Deadline: Applications must be received by Monday, March 23, 2009. • Pay: $2,500 stipend for no less than 8 weeks of continuous work between May 1 and October 1. • Description: Student must work for an organization run by a bar organization or legal services organization anywhere in the country that serves homeless clients or those at risk of becoming homeless. A lawyer (either a volunteer or paid attorney) must supervise the intern in the program. • Website: http://www.abanet.org/homeless/curtin.shtml

  9. ASIL ARTHUR C. HELTON FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM • Deadline: Friday, February 13, 2009 (received by). • Pay: Up to $1,000 in micro-grants for law students to pursue human rights work and research. • Description: Fellows will undertake fieldwork in association with an established educational institution, international organization, or NGO working in areas related to international law, human rights, and humanitarian affairs. • Website: http://www.asil.org/helton-fellowship.cfm

  10. EQUAL JUSTICE AMERICA LEGAL SERVICE FELLOWSHIPS • Deadline: postmarked no later than March 23, 2009. Awards will be announced by email no later than April 24, 2009. • Pay: Up to $4000 stipend. Approx. 175 grants. • Description: Students may work anywhere in the U.S., provided the hiring organization is a non-profit providing direct civil legal services to the poor. Placements with public defender offices and government agencies do not qualify. Students must work full time for at least 10 weeks. • Website: http://www.equaljusticeamerica.org

  11. EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS SUMMER CORPS PROGRAM • Deadline: The 2009 Summer Corp application deadline is April 1. The application will be available from March 18 to April 1 on the EJW website. Notification of status accepted, rejected, or waitlisted will be sent to all applicants by April 17. • Pay: $1000 education award voucher. • Description: 355 law students who spend the summer in a qualifying internship at a non-profit, public interest organization are eligible for the voucher. Students must complete 300 service hours at the organization of their choosing. The voucher can be used to pay current educational expenses or qualified student loans. • Website: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org

  12. Doris Buffett Fellowships • Deadline: April 1. • Pay: Up to $3500. • Description: 8 to15 fellowships are made each year to graduate students in any field of study at the University of Virginia who are professionally involved in practical work in the topic area of children and families in need. Examples of appropriate activity include law students working in public service settings and representing children and/or families. • Website: http://www.virginia.edu/ccfl/buffett.php

  13. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS BAR ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION • Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2009. • Pay: $5,000 stipend. • Description: In 2009, the Foundation will award at least five $5,000 stipends to law students employed as unpaid summer interns in positions with the FCC and other government agencies or entities with a connection to the communications industry (i.e., broadcasting, cable television, telephony, satellite, wireless, and information technology). • Website: http://www.fcba.org/foundation/internship_stipends.shtml

  14. POLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH CENTER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM • Deadline: February 15 for early decision | March 15 for regular decision. • Pay: Monthly stipend of $1,600 + travel expenses to Montana. • Description: PERC'S fellowships for graduate students and law students interested in researching issues related to natural resources and the environment. Graduate fellows spend three months at PERC in Bozeman, Montana, researching and writing a paper of publishable quality. While there, fellows are required to present two to three seminars to outline, report on, and summarize their research findings. • Website: http://www.perc.org/enviroprog/students/grad/apply.php

  15. PRIDE LAW FUND FELLOWSHIP • Deadline: Application deadline is not yet available. Last year’s deadline was April 1, 2008. • Pay: Up to $5000 (total combined funding received by the student for the summer cannot exceed this amount). • Description: The fellowships are open to law students working under the supervision of an attorney at a 501(c)(3) organization anywhere in the country in areas of concern to the lesbian and gay community, including public policy initiatives, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered civil rights and education, legal work on issues of concern to lesbians and bisexual women, and work in the area of HIV/AIDS, including legal services. • Website: http://www.pridelawfund.org/fellowships/summer

  16. QLAW FOUNDATION PUBLIC INTEREST SUMMER GRANTS • Deadline: March 20, 2009. • Pay: Up to $500 per week for 10 weeks. • Description: Law students who seek summer internships promoting LGBT rights or the rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS may apply. The QLaw Foundation offers applicants a list of sponsoring organizations that have projects addressing issues relevant to LGBT rights or the rights of people with HIV/AIDS. • Website: http://www.q-law.org/Default.aspx?pageId=167804

  17. ROBERT MASUR FELLOWSHIP IN CIVIL LIBERTIES • Deadline: Application deadline has not been set. Last year’s deadline was May 19, 2008. • Pay: $1000 honorarium • Description: Open to first-year law students who intend to carry out significant activities during the summer in the areas of civil rights and/or civil liberties. Proposed activities may include a writing or research project, work with a public interest organization, work on a civil rights or civil liberties law case under the supervision of a faculty member or lawyer, etc. • Website: http://www.nationinstitute.org/p/masur

  18. SPECIFIC REGION FUNDING SOURCES Funding Sources that May Be Available in Specific Regions of the United States

  19. ABA DIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW • Deadline: Application deadline for North Carolina is February 16, 2009; deadline for New Mexico is February 15, 2009. • Pay: Up to $5,000 stipend. • Description: Selected Fellowship recipients will work for 8-10 weeks on legal matters for a government agency or public interest organization in the fields of environmental, energy or resources law. Recipients will choose the state they wish to intern in, but will not be able to select where or in which organization they will be placed. • Website: http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/lawstudents/fellowship_home.shtml

  20. ASIAN AMERICAN LAW FUND OF NEW YORK SUMMER SCHOLARSHIPS • Deadline: Application must be postmarked by March 20, 2009. • Pay: $5,000 stipend. • Description: Projects must be with non-profit organizations and must serve New York’s Asian American community. A proposed project should involve legal work and have a supervising attorney. Work with nonprofit organizations that provide legal assistance to the general population will be considered if you can demonstrate that the Asian American community will be benefited. • Website: http://www.aabany.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=83

  21. ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION EDUCATIONAL FUND • Deadline: Not yet announced. Last year’s deadline was April 30, 2008. • Pay: Stipends are generally $2,500 for 10 weeks or 400 total hours. • Description: AEF awards summer fellowships to law students to work with public interest organizations (government agencies or non-profits) that benefit either the Asian Pacific American community or the metropolitan Washington, D.C. community-at-large. Public interest organizations must be in metropolitan Washington, D.C. • Website: http://www.aefapaba.hostcentric.com/summer/summer.html

  22. HISPANIC BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FOUNDATION • Deadline: Not yet announced. Will be available in early 2009. • Pay: Two $5,000 and one $10,000 stipends. • Description: The Foundation provides fellowships for law students working for public interest legal organizations serving in the Washington, D.C. area. Sponsoring organizations are non-profit, non-governmental organizations in the DC metro area that provide legal services at little or no cost to clients. Past interns have worked for AYUDA, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, Legal Aid Society of DC, Migrant Legal Action Program and others. • Website: http://www.hbadc.org/site/page/foundation

  23. LEGAL AID ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA DAN BRADLEY FELLOWSHIPS • Deadline: Applications must be received by April 10, 2009. • Pay: $3,500 from LAAC and the host program. • Description: Law students who have a strong interest in working to defend and expand the legal rights of the poor and the disadvantaged may apply. At least one fellowship will be given to an applicant who works in a rural program or on a rural issue(s). Students must work at one of the LAAC member organizations the equivalent of ten full-time weeks this summer. • Website: http://www.calegaladvocates.org/about/item.Dan_Bradley_Fellowships

  24. MASSACHUSETTS BAR FOUNDATIONLEGAL INTERN FELLOWSHIPS • Deadline: Applications due March 13, 2009. • Pay: $6000 stipends. • Description: Will support law students who intern during the summer months at nonprofit organizations providing civil legal services to low-income clients in Massachusetts. Interns must commit to 10 full-time weeks, and preference will be given to permanent/future residents of Massachusetts. • Website: http://www.massbarfoundation.org/grant-programs/legal-intern-fellowship-program

  25. NEW JERSEY SUMMER PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FELLOWSHIPS • Deadline: All applications will be considered in the order in which they are received and hiring decisions will be made on a rolling basis, starting in the fall of 2008. • Pay: Last year, interns were paid at a rate of $550 per week for rising 2Ls and $750 per week for rising 3Ls. • Description: Supports summer intern fellowships in New Jersey public interest legal organizations. In past years, students have worked in legal services programs as well as other public interest entities, such as the Association for Children of New Jersey, the American Friends Service Committee, Community Health Law Project, and Jersey Battered Women's Service. • Website: http://www.lsnj.org/internprog.htm

  26. PUBLIC INTEREST LAW INITIATIVE OF CHICAGO INTERNSHIP PROGRAM • Deadline: The online application period is open until March of 2009, or until every agency has completed its summer hiring. • Pay: $5000 stipends. • Description: Each summer, PILI funds dozens of internships at public interest law agencies in the Chicago metropolitan area. Interns commit to 10 full-time weeks of work. PILI provides a ten-week educational luncheon seminar series, and hosts social and networking events throughout the summer. • Website: http://www.pili-law.org/internships.htm

  27. ROBERT M. TAKASUGI SUMMER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM • Deadline: Not yet announced. Last year’s deadline was March 14, 2008. • Pay: Up to $5,000 stipend. • Description: All fellows must work at a public interest "sponsoring" organization, subject to approval by the Fellowship, such as 501(c)(3)s and public defenders' offices. The organization must be in either the San Francisco Bay Area or the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Fellows work at a sponsoring organization for at least ten weeks. • Website: http://www.takasugifellowship.com/about.html

  28. SOUTH ASIAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK FELLOWSHIP • Deadline: Not yet announced. • Pay: $4000 fellowships. • Description: Supports two to three fellowships to law students so that they may spend their summer working unpaid in the New York area public interest sector. Fellowships are awarded to either law students of South Asian descent working in an unpaid legal internship or those spending at least six weeks of the summer in an unpaid legal internship focusing on the needs of the South Asian community. • Website: http://www.sabany.org/site/annual_fellowship_benefit_5th

  29. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXASFELLOWSHIP GRANTS • Deadline: Not yet announced. • Pay: Up to $3,000. • Description: Generally awarded annually to several law students who serve as volunteer interns for Federal judges or agencies within the Southern District of Texas and to students who have secured a federal government summer internship. Check the website for Chapter contact to learn deadline information. • Website: http://www.fbasouthtexas.org/

  30. Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Fran Kandel Grant • Deadline: Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m., Friday, March 13, 2009. • Pay: Up to $5,000. • Description: Provides grants to law students for projects that will directly benefit the under-represented in the greater Los Angeles area. • Website: http://www.wlala.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=25

  31. Final Comments • How to get the most out of your internship • Writing sample(s) • Networking • Don’t forget to enjoy it

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