Summer Internship Program
Dates: May 26, 2020 – July 31, 2020
PLEASE NOTE: We plan to continue our summer internship program as scheduled. The ongoing coronavirus emergency and restrictions on activities within Massachusetts may necessitate changes to the structure of the program; we will share information on these changes as it becomes available. Please contact us at the email listed below with specific questions or concerns. (Updated April 1, 2020)
PROGRAM INFORMATION
For program inquiries please contact: lscsummer@law.harvard.edu
The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School accepts applications from law student and undergraduate candidates to serve as interns during the summer. Our summer program runs from Tuesday, May 26th – Friday, July 31st, 2020. (Note: on a case-by-case basis, we will also consider proposals for split-summers and summer schedules that begin before and/or end after the formal summer program).
Located at the crossroads of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, the Legal Services Center is Harvard Law School’s largest clinical placement, housing multiple clinics and providing direct legal services to hundreds of low-and-moderate income residents in the Greater Boston area each year. Our longstanding mission is to educate law students for practice and professional service while simultaneously meeting the critical legal needs of the community.
Law student summer interns will work in one of the following clinical areas:
- Federal Tax Clinic
- Housing Law Clinic
- Predatory Lending Clinic
- Project on Predatory Student Lending
- Safety Net Project
- Veterans Legal Clinic – Veterans Justice Project
- Veterans Legal Clinic – Estate Planning Project
LSC’s law student summer interns are supervised and mentored by experienced clinical instructors. Interns will conduct interviews with potential clients seeking advice or assistance; counsel and advise clients; engage in investigation and formal discovery; develop case strategies; prepare pleadings for courts or petitions to administrative agencies; and research case specific legal issues. Some interns appear before courts on contested motions, preliminary matters or assist in a trial; others will represent clients before administrative agencies. Our summer program is structured to also include multiple learning and training opportunities, including weekly speaker events, ethics training and community partner site visits and guest presenters. Overall, interns are provided with a singular opportunity to engage in mentored hands-on learning, to develop and practice new legal skills, and to interact with diverse client communities through immersion in the work of a community based civil legal services office.
In addition to gaining practical lawyering skills, an internship at LSC provides students with a superb opportunity to explore Boston and its many and multi-faceted neighborhoods.
Internships are unpaid, but are eligible for public interest fellowship sponsorship, including through SPIF (Harvard Law School students only) and EJA. We would be pleased to work with applicants to provide sponsorship for other summer public interest funding.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. To apply, please submit (1) a resume, (2) a cover letter which identifies your top three practice-area preferences from our clinical offerings list, and (3) a writing sample by clicking here.
Undergraduate Summer Internship Positions
LSC also welcomes college students and recent college graduates to apply for summer internship positions. Interns are unpaid, but are welcome to seek funding from their schools or other sources. These positions entail assisting clinical professors and instructors, legal fellows, and law student interns in representing and advising low-income clients in one or several substantive areas of public interest law practice. Tasks typically include assisting with or conducting: client intakes, legal research, court records searches and filings, client correspondence, case memoranda, and record keeping. Undergraduate interns are invited to attend all of the LSC summer internship programming and events. Again, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.
Clinics accepting applications for undergraduate/recent graduate internships are:
- Housing Law Clinic
- Project on Predatory Student Lending
- Safety Net Project
- Veterans Legal Clinic – Veterans Justice Project
- Veterans Legal Clinic – Estate Planning Project
To apply, please submit (1) a resume, (2) a concise writing sample of 500 words or less, and (3) a cover letter which clearly states that you are an undergraduate or recent graduate applicant and identifies your top two or three practice-area preferences from the above list, by clicking here.
Other Internship Opportunities
In addition to its summer internship program, the Legal Services Center welcomes college students and recent college graduates to apply for internship positions during the academic year.
The following clinical areas are currently accepting applications from candidates for undergraduate interns for the upcoming fall/spring semesters:
- Housing Law Clinic
- Safety Net Project
- Veterans Legal Clinic – Estate Planning Project
Application is by email; please send (1) a resume, (2) a concise writing sample of 500 words or less, and (3) a cover letter which identifies your top two or three practice-area preferences to annapierce@law.harvard.edu. For summer internships only, please apply here.
Fellowship Opportunities
The Legal Services Center welcomes applications from graduating law students and those completing judicial clerkships who are interested in sponsorship for a public interest fellowship. LSC has a strong track record of successfully sponsoring applicants for public interest fellowships. To apply for sponsorship, please send a resume and email expressing interest to LSC Faculty Director Daniel Nagin at dnagin[at]law.harvard.edu. We encourage potential applicants to contact us as early as possible in the fellowship cycle process. Decisions about sponsorships are made on a rolling basis.
In most years, the Legal Services Center actively seeks to sponsor applicants for a variety of fellowships, including the Skadden Foundation Fellowship, the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, the ABA Tax Section Christine A. Brunswick Public Service Fellowship, and other foundation and law-school based fellowships. Our subject-area interests for sponsorship are wide ranging and include consumer, tax, veterans, disability and safety net programs, housing and family law.