Become a Lawyers for America Fellow

Lawyers for America Fellowship opportunities will be made available by law schools to their own students. Each participating law school will make partnership arrangements with government agencies and/or nonprofit legal organizations. Because students selected as fellows by participating sites will be spending their entire third year engaged in clinical work, prospective fellows will need to be counseled at the end of their first year of law school to make course selections for second year accordingly. Final fellow selections are likely to be made in the late fall or winter of the 2L year.

Fellows will work full-time for their LfA partner site during their third year of law school, working business hours and with the vacations of workers rather than following a student schedule. Depending upon the nature and location of their placement, fellows may be able to enroll in a seminar or similar course offering at their law school during the 3L year. After graduation, Fellows will have a break to study for and take a bar examination, and a short vacation. Fellows will then complete their fellowship obligation by working for a year at their fellowship site, receiving a modest salary. LfA Fellows are tuition-paying students during their 3L year, and will be supervised by clinical faculty as well as by attorneys at their placement site. They will be enrolled in both the relevant clinical course and in the classroom component for that course. 3L Fellows will be eligible for scholarships and need-based financial aid. Post-graduate fellows are likely to be eligible for public interest loan reimbursement programs.

WHY BECOME A FELLOW?

Fellows will leave law school with one year of full-time work experience under their belt and finish their Fellowship with almost two years (approximately 21 months) of work experience at the same workplace. Fellows will be serving society by helping to provide much-needed legal services to the public through their work at participating nonprofits and government agencies. Fellows will have been able to sample other workplaces as well: both 1L and 2L summers will be available for other job or volunteer opportunities.

Law students and prospective law students interested in the Lawyers for America program should check whether their law school is planning to participate in the LfA program.

Feel free to contact us if you would like more information about LfA.

Information Session: Preparing for Lawyers for American or for Hastings' Clinics and Exernships,
held on August 15, 2012, may be viewed here: http://bit.ly/lfa-intro. The PowerPoint may be viewed here: