Columbia Law School's summer program, one of the largest in the nation, is an integral part of preparing to practice public interest law. The Center for Public Interest Law oversees the two largest programs, the Public Service Fellowship Program (guaranteed) and the Human Rights Internship Program (by application), which give students the opportunity to receive stipends while providing greatly needed assistance to a wide range of organizations and government agencies in the United States and more than 50 other countries.
Columbia Law School guarantees funding for all 1L and 2L JD students who timely apply and work in eligible public interest summer internships. Stipends will cover a range of placements both domestic and international including NGO's, not-for-profit organizations, criminal prosecution and defense work, and federal, state and local government agencies. The guaranteed funding program is due in part to the Public Interest Law Foundation's ongoing efforts to raise money to provide summer stipends for public interest internships, and through a generous grant from the Charles Evans Hughes Foundation.
Unique to Columbia, the Human Rights Internship Program (HRIP), founded in 1984 by Professor Jack Greenberg, is one of the Law School's most important offerings and a chief priority. The program's more than 1,500 "graduates" have been instrumental in drafting the South African Constitution, documenting human-rights abuses of gay and lesbian youth in America's prisons, and establishing the International Criminal Tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. They also have researched prison conditions in Sri Lanka, helped write a Freedom of Information Act for Guatemala, and worked on environmental law in Hungary. Interns from years past now lead community economic-development efforts, head legal services offices, fight against employment discrimination, and defend death-row inmates.
Participation in the HRIP is by application. The program enables students to intern at international human rights organizations abroad with a stipend, a plane ticket and intensive training on subjects ranging from basic human rights law to documenting and reporting to international legal research so that they will be grounded in fundamental human rights principles. Each summer, interns may select their placements from among hundreds of pre-established host organizations throughout the world. Students may also elect to pursue internships with new or emerging human rights organizations throughout the world with guidance from six faculty regional program advisors.
The Center for Public Interest Law works individually with each intern to identify the organization at which he or she can best receive training in human rights law, work in the service of his or her beliefs, create relationships that may advance professional development, and become part of a worldwide network of Columbia graduates and others devoted to human rights. The Center also assists in editing cover letters and resumes, which are then sent out under the HRIP's auspices, giving Columbia students a distinct advantage.
Morrison & Foerster Public Interest Summer Fellowships in Japan Fellowships will be awarded to 2 Columbia Law School students, who demonstrate an interest in international law, public interest law, and/or working in Japan for the summer. The Fellowship will provide each student with a placement to work in a Japanese ministry/agency, the Japanese legislature, or a non-governmental organization. Each Fellowship will provide a stipend of $15,000 to cover airfare, living and other expenses for the summer.
Neil Grossman Summer Fellowship The Neil Grossman Summer Fellowship funds two Columbia Law School students to work as a summer intern at conservative and/or libertarian legal organizations, including the Cato Institute and the Institute of Justice. The fellowship will provide a stipend of $5,200 to 1Ls and $6,000 to 2Ls and be awarded to students who demonstrate an interest in promoting American public policy based on individual liberty, limited government and the free market. Applications submitted to CPIL are forwarded to Cato and IJ, which award the fellowships and sponsor the interns.
Jay Newman Summer Travel Fellowship In Israel Columbia Law School will fund one public interest fellowship in Israel for the summer of 2008. The Fellowship will fund an internship on a wide variety of public interest legal issues, including civil and human rights, poverty, women's rights, children's rights, immigration, the environment, criminal justice and others. Because the goal of the fellowship is to give students who come from a different background the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the state of Israel and its citizens, preference will be given to students with no prior experience in the region. Hebrew language skills are not required.
Not being offered in 2009.
2L Only
Goldstein Demchak Baller Borgen & Dardarian Civil Rights Summer Fellowship The Oakland, California plaintiffs' civil rights and environmental justice law firm Goldstein Demchak Baller Borgen & Dardarian offers a summer position specifically to a Columbia Law School public interest student. The Fellowship pays $1,000 per week.
Sidley Austin LLP Public Interest Split Summer Fellowship The corporate firm of Sidley Austin LLP allows a Columbia student to split their summer between it and a New York City public interest organization of his or her choice while receiving a corporate associate's pay for the full summer.
Cochran Neufeld & Scheck Summer Associate Positions Cochran Neufeld & Scheck, LLP, a small civil-rights law firm in Tribeca, NYC, reserves 2 summer associate positions for Columbia Law student 2Ls and pre-clerk 3Ls. Its practice seeks to effect systemic change in policing around the country through 42 U.S.C.s. 1983 litigation, primarily on two areas of official misconduct: wrongful convictions (on behalf of DNA exonerees) and serious police brutality. The CNS internship provides a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of criminal and cicil-rights law at every stage of litigation. 2L funding will be matched and 3Ls will be paid on an hourly basis. Hiring will be on a rolling basis.
To apply, please e-mail your resume, a cover letter and a writing sample to Debi Cornwall at debi@cnscivilrights.com
Cochran Neufeld & Scheck, LLP 99 Hudson St., 8th Floor New York, NY 10013
In addition to placements through the Human Rights Internship and Guaranteed Summer Funding programs, the following summer funding opportunities are available through the Law School: Columbia Arts Law Internships, sponsored and coordinated by the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, provide opportunities and funding for work in the legal departments of arts-and media-related organizations. In past summers, students interned at organizations such as Educational Broadcasting Corporation's television stations Channel 13 in New York and DCET in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Public Radio, the New York Public Library, the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, and the Audobon Society.
Faculty Research Assistant Positions fund students to work closely with Columbia's public interest faculty on various projects. Past students' projects have ranged from a landmark death penalty study to preparation for a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Committee to a book on the rights of crime victims.
Click below to print a copy of CPIL's "Nitty Gritties of a Public Interest Job Search" Guide. It contains all the information you need to get a handle on your job search if you plan to seek summer work in the public interest, including sample cover letters and a tip sheet for public interest interviews.
Below is a small sample of the many Columbia Law students who worked in public interest internships during the summer of 2008. They interned at a wide variety of domestic and international organizations and government agencies. Here's what they had to say:
Matt Guarnieri spent his summer at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston. He worked in the Economic Crimes Unit on a variety of white collar prosecutions, including an international art heist and a sprawling mortgage fraud. As an intern, Matt spent much of his time researching procedural and substantive issues in federal criminal law. He also had a chance to draft motions for trial; he popped into court every chance he got! Chava Spivak-Birndorf is spending her summer at Greater Boston Legal Services on the Children's Disability Project focusing on helping children with disabilities who have been wrongfully denied Supplemental Security Income benefits. Chava has been writing numerous memos to Administrative Law Judges and the Appeals Council at the SSA on behalf of her clients, and she even received a fully favorable decision based on her first memo without taking it to a hearing! She is also putting together a packet to help parents of children with special needs understand their rights when it comes to special education services. She says, "my supervisor is really great and supportive and I love working on this small start-up project because I really get to be involved with all aspects of the work."
"I'm your all around intern at the Kings County DA Office" says 2L Nicole Medham. She tracks pending cases, compiles discovery documents, and files (with the court) any official documents as needed to further an open case. In addition, she's interviewed many complaining witnesses about the facts of their cases and written motions to submit in court. "It's been a great experience and awesome summer."
Dana Delger spent the summer working at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, on legal issues that affect HIV-positive people. In particular, she's been involved in writing legal primers on housing issues and Titles I and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She has also had the chance to become involved with legislative advocacy, helping combat recent negative changes in New York State's HIV testing laws. "Working with the Center has been wonderful. The staff is incredible, the work is challenging, and it's incredibly rewarding to do work that can positively affect people's lives, especially those that have been so chronically disenfranchised, like people living with HIV."
This summmer, Katie Chiles is interning at Lawyers Alliance for New York, which provides business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are serving low income New Yorkers. Her clients serve the city in a wide variety of capacities, from affordable housing alliances to charter schools to halfway houses. I have been working with a team of lawyers to strengthen these nonprofits and give them a strong legal foundation that enables them to succeed. This may involve help with tax exemption or incorporation, purchase of property, governance reforms, copyright law, along with a range of other transactional law areas. According to Katie, "Working with nonprofits at Lawyers Alliance has been both challenging and rewarding."
Erin Thompson interned for the General Counsel at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She compiled a compliance guide of relevant State and Federal legislation in preparation for American Association of Museums re-accreditation self-study. For another project, she went to a meeting of the Philadelphia City Council to watch the voting on a resolution pertaining to the Museum, wrote a memorandum analyzing whether the City had the authority to make this change, and then worked with the Museum's governmental relations point person to predict what effects this change would have on the Museum. She also participated in the Museum's events for interns, going on special tours of the galleries and listening to Museum executives explain their roles and career paths.
Casey Boyle is working with a staff attorney on the Kathryn A. McDonald Education Advocacy Project at the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx. The work entails researching and writing materials on special education law, interviewing clients and school professionals, and going on school and home visits. They represent children in educational proceedings and develop case plans and advocacy strategies to ensure that children are receiving the educational services to which they are entitled.
Yael Fischer writes "The Deputy Attorney General's office is a clearinghouse of information. The DOJ has a staff of over 100,000 people with a budget of roughly $19 billion. With a few exceptions all the departments report to the DAG's office, and he reports to the AG." Her work is incredibly diverse; this summer she's worked on issues ranging from warrantless wiretapping, to Iraqi detainees, to female genital mutilation asylum cases.
Vishal Agraharkar is working at the Texas Civil Rights Project, an impact litigation firm in Austin, TX. "So far this summer, I've put together a presentation for a mediation in a police brutality case, written a memo for a false arrest case, I'm helping an undocumented battered immigrant woman file a Violence Against Women Act petition in order to attain citizenship, and I'm writing a complaint and discovery requests in an Americans with Disabilities Act case. I've also put together a presentation on Police violence for a UN Special Rapporteur."
Kathryn Scheinberg is spending her summer at the Children's Law Center of MA, working with an Equal Justice Works fellow to eradicate juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentencing in MA. She has been researching litigation strategies and working with various Boston law firm attorneys as well as conducting extensive research on the 17 men sentenced to JLWOP as youth under the age of 17, and the 40 men sentenced to JLWOP at 17 years old. Kathryn says "Some of the intake work includes care and protection cases, which has been interesting to explore in the MA law context, as the work I've done as a Legal Aid intern, and as a member of the Child Advocacy Clinic exposed me mostly to NY law."
Daniel Butrymowicz spent the summer working for the Bronx Defenders shadowing two criminal defense attorneys and doing plenty of legal research and writing. His work focused on drafting motions and researching New York law in areas like trespass, harassment, assault, and the limitations on police search and seizure. "The Bronx Defenders is an amazing organization and is doing an exceptional job of integrating their office into the Bronx community. Their 'holistic advocacy' model-which tries to truly give people the help they need-is a great thing to be a part of."
Shira Kaufman was at the South African Human Rights Commission office in Cape Town. She worked on refugee and asylum-seeker rights research and education, monitored temporary shelters of internally displaced persons from the recent xenophobic violence, and handled individual complaints of human rights violations on a myriad of issues from homeowners associations disputes to hate speech allegations to police misconduct. She even pulled an all-nighter helping 263 Zimbabwean refugees get documents.
Zoe Pershing-Foley Worked for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), helping the organization document and analyze its extensive history of business and human rights activity, particularly shareholder activism. Zoe's research focused on two in-depth case studies involving genetically engineered seed testing and regulatory disclosure, and the advocacy work that has been done by international human rights organizations in influencing Professor John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business & Human Rights. Utilizing ICCR's extensive database of information, Zoe developed written reports that combined economic and financial analysis with an understanding of the appropriate regulatory and legal liability standards that exist both in the U.S. and abroad.
Kate Scully researched the major problems surrounding the leading Philippine government organization for international migrant laborers (OWWA), including migrant criticisms and a law suit brought against OWWA by herorganization for OWWA's illegal drafting of its own omnibus policies without the legislature. She wrote a new OWWA charter responsive to these problems to be filed in the Philippines Congress to improve protection of migrants overseas and to complement the law suit.
Alissa King spent her summer in the West Bank interning at Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic at Al-Quds University Faculty of Law in East Jerusalem. She drafted a report on the legal implications of the proposed East Jerusalem Ring Road using international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as Israeli domestic law. She also led a trilingual (Arabic-English-Hebrew) team of Palestinian law students in organizing an educational campaign and a public conference focused on the Ring Road. Alissa writes "Working with Palestinian students is the most rewarding aspect of this experience. But living in the West Bank has been extremely frustrating; between the illegal Separation Wall, the illegal settlements, and all the checkpoints, it's clear how ineffective international law is when there is no political will to enforce it."
At the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris, Erin Foley interned with the Globalisation and Human Rights desk, which works on issues related to business and human rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. She primarily worked on a guide for victims of corporate human rights violations which will summarize various recourse mechanisms that are available to victims, such as the UN Treaty Bodies, the ILO complaint mechanisms, regional and international courts, mechanisms through financial institutions, and others.
Amanda Hungerford spent this summer working as a clerk for an administrative judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC judicial unit decides employment discrimination cases brought against the federal government. She's been allowed to decide (and write) discovery requests, motions to resinstate a claim, and requests for summary judgment. She even got the opportunity to write a few decisions, with close supervision by her judge, of course.
Katherine Regan lived in Geneva this summer and interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Headquarters. She got an in depth training in international refugee law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Katherine writes "I've been researching various topics related to the status of refugees, including the impact of global environmental change on human rights issues and other gaps in international refugee law, all while working with incredibly knowledgeable people. In addition to the immersion in international law, UNHCR and the other UN agencies have a great intern network, ensuring there's always something to do during the downtime!"
This summer Julian Perez worked as a human rights caseworker for The Centre for Economic Rights in Accommodation, an Ontario based NGO that (among other things) runs a legal aid clinic and litigates claims of discrimination at the Provincial Human Rights Tribunal. At CERA, he helped prevent a single mother from being evicted from her home, found reasonable accommodation for a deaf woman whose landlord refused to modify her unit, and filed a lawsuit against a real estate company that illegally denied housing to families with young children. According to Julian "because of CERA's small size and ambitious attitude, he quickly assumed an unimaginable level of responsibility ranging from being the chief representative in a settlement agreements where a large amount of money was at stake to advocating for a Muslim client who had been wrongly accused of terrorist activities."
Matt Guarnieri spent his summer at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston. He worked in the Economic Crimes Unit on a variety of white collar prosecutions, including an international art heist and a sprawling mortgage fraud. As an intern, Matt spent much of his time researching procedural and substantive issues in federal criminal law. He also had a chance to draft motions for trial; he popped into court every chance he got!
Chava Spivak-Birndorf is spending her summer at Greater Boston Legal Services on the Children's Disability Project focusing on helping children with disabilities who have been wrongfully denied Supplemental Security Income benefits. Chava has been writing numerous memos to Administrative Law Judges and the Appeals Council at the SSA on behalf of her clients, and she even received a fully favorable decision based on her first memo without taking it to a hearing! She is also putting together a packet to help parents of children with special needs understand their 
"I'm your all around intern at the Kings County DA Office" says 2L Nicole Medham. She tracks pending cases, compiles discovery documents, and files (with the court) any official documents as needed to further an open case. In addition, she's interviewed many complaining witnesses about the facts of their cases and written motions to submit in court. "It's been a great experience and awesome summer."
Dana Delger spent the summer working at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, on legal issues that affect HIV-positive people. In particular, she's been involved in writing legal primers on housing issues and Titles I and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She has also had the chance to become involved with legislative advocacy, helping combat recent negative changes in New York State's HIV testing laws. "Working with the Center has been wonderful. The staff is incredible, the work is challenging, and it's incredibly rewarding to do work that can positively affect people's lives, especially those that have been so chronically disenfranchised, like people living with HIV."
This summmer, Katie Chiles is interning at Lawyers Alliance for New York, which provides business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are serving low income New Yorkers. Her clients serve the city in a wide variety of capacities, from affordable housing alliances to charter schools to halfway houses. I have been working with a team of lawyers to strengthen these nonprofits and give them a strong legal foundation that enables them to succeed. This may involve help with tax exemption or incorporation, purchase of property, governance reforms, copyright law, along with a range of other transactional law areas. According to Katie, "Working with nonprofits at Lawyers Alliance has been both challenging and rewarding."
Erin Thompson interned for the General Counsel at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She compiled a compliance guide of relevant State and Federal legislation in preparation for American Association of Museums re-accreditation self-study. For another project, she went to a meeting of the Philadelphia City Council to watch the voting on a resolution pertaining to the Museum, wrote a memorandum analyzing whether the City had the authority to make this change, and then worked with the Museum's governmental relations point person to predict what effects this change would have on the Museum. She also participated in the Museum's events for interns, going on special tours of the galleries and listening to Museum executives explain their roles and career paths.
Casey Boyle is working with a staff attorney on the Kathryn A. McDonald Education Advocacy Project at the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx. The work entails researching and writing materials on special education law, interviewing clients and school professionals, and going on school and home visits. They represent children in educational proceedings and develop case plans and advocacy strategies to ensure that children are receiving the educational services to which they are entitled.
Vishal Agraharkar is working at the Texas Civil Rights Project, an impact litigation firm in Austin, TX. "So far this summer, I've put together a presentation for a mediation in a police brutality case, written a memo for a false arrest case, I'm helping an undocumented battered immigrant woman file a Violence Against Women Act petition in order to attain citizenship, and I'm writing a complaint and discovery requests in an Americans with Disabilities Act case. I've also put together a presentation on Police violence for a UN Special Rapporteur."
Kathryn Scheinberg is spending her summer at the Children's Law Center of MA, working with an Equal Justice Works fellow to eradicate juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentencing in MA. She has been researching litigation strategies and working with various Boston law firm attorneys as well as conducting extensive research on the 17 men sentenced to JLWOP as youth under the age of 17, and the 40 men sentenced to JLWOP at 17 years old. Kathryn says "Some of the intake work includes care and protection cases, which has been interesting to explore in the MA law context, as the work I've done as a Legal Aid intern, and as a member of the Child Advocacy Clinic exposed me mostly to NY law."
Daniel Butrymowicz spent the summer working for the Bronx Defenders shadowing two criminal defense attorneys and doing plenty of legal research and writing. His work focused on drafting motions and researching New York law in areas like trespass, harassment, assault, and the limitations on police search and seizure. "The Bronx Defenders is an amazing organization and is doing an exceptional job of integrating their office into the Bronx community. Their 'holistic advocacy' model-which tries to truly give people the help they need-is a great thing to be a 
Shira Kaufman was at the South African Human Rights Commission office in Cape Town. She worked on refugee and asylum-seeker rights research and education, monitored temporary shelters of internally displaced persons from the recent xenophobic violence, and handled individual complaints of human rights violations on a myriad of issues from homeowners associations disputes to hate speech allegations to police misconduct. She even pulled an all-nighter helping 263 Zimbabwean refugees get documents.
Zoe Pershing-Foley Worked for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), helping the organization document and analyze its extensive history of business and human rights activity, particularly shareholder activism. Zoe's research focused on two in-depth case studies involving genetically engineered seed testing and regulatory disclosure, and the advocacy work that has been done by international human rights organizations in influencing Professor John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business & Human Rights. Utilizing ICCR's extensive database of information, Zoe developed written reports that combined economic and financial analysis with an understanding of the appropriate regulatory and legal liability standards that exist both in the U.S. and abroad. 
Kate Scully researched the major problems surrounding the leading Philippine government organization for international migrant laborers (OWWA), including migrant criticisms and a law suit brought against OWWA by herorganization for OWWA's illegal drafting of its own omnibus policies without the legislature. She wrote a new OWWA charter responsive to these problems to be filed in the Philippines Congress to improve protection of migrants overseas and to complement the law suit.
Alissa King spent her summer in the West Bank interning at Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic at Al-Quds University Faculty of Law in East Jerusalem. She drafted a report on the legal implications of the proposed East Jerusalem Ring Road using international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as Israeli domestic law. She also led a trilingual (Arabic-English-Hebrew) team of Palestinian law students in organizing an educational campaign and a public conference focused on the Ring Road. Alissa writes "Working with Palestinian students is the most rewarding aspect of this experience. But living in the West Bank has been extremely frustrating; between the illegal Separation Wall, the illegal settlements, and all the checkpoints, it's clear how ineffective international law is when there is no political will to enforce it."
At the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris, Erin Foley interned with the Globalisation and Human Rights desk, which works on issues related to business and human rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. She primarily worked on a guide for victims of corporate human rights violations which will summarize various recourse mechanisms that are available to victims, such as the UN Treaty Bodies, the ILO complaint mechanisms, regional and international courts, mechanisms through financial institutions, and others.
Amanda Hungerford spent this summer working as a clerk for an administrative judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC judicial unit decides employment discrimination cases brought against the federal government. She's been allowed to decide (and write) discovery requests, motions to resinstate a claim, and requests for summary judgment. She even got the opportunity to write a few decisions, with close supervision by her judge, of course.
Katherine Regan lived in Geneva this summer and interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Headquarters. She got an in depth training in international refugee law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Katherine writes "I've been researching various topics related to the status of refugees, including the impact of global environmental change on human rights issues and other gaps in international refugee law, all while working with incredibly knowledgeable people. In addition to the immersion in international law, UNHCR and the other UN agencies have a great intern network, ensuring there's always something to do during the downtime!"
This summer Julian Perez worked as a human rights caseworker for The Centre for Economic Rights in Accommodation, an Ontario based NGO that (among other things) runs a legal aid clinic and litigates claims of discrimination at the Provincial Human Rights Tribunal. At CERA, he helped prevent a single mother from being evicted from her home, found reasonable accommodation for a deaf woman whose landlord refused to modify her unit, and filed a lawsuit against a real estate company that illegally denied housing to families with young children. According to Julian "because of CERA's small size and ambitious attitude, he quickly assumed an unimaginable level of responsibility ranging from being the chief representative in a settlement agreements where a large amount of money was at stake to advocating for a Muslim client who had been wrongly accused of terrorist activities."