Law Student Internships, Fellowships, and Clerkships
ABA Career Center Internship Postings
The ABA Career Center offers a job board with internship, fellowship, clerkship and job postings. Law students will also find and tools for entry level legal job seekers.
>>Browse the ABA Career Center legal job board.
ABA-Sponsored Law Student Internships, Fellowships and Clerkships
Nothing beats learning through practice. ABA Specialty Groups offer internship opportunities and more to help students learn the skills they need to excel in the legal profession.
Note: Many of these programs have been suspended during COVID-19. Each of this dates is the approximate yearly deadline to apply. Please verify that the program is still being offered.
ABA – Travelers Summer Internship
- Application Deadline: Early January
- The goal of the 1L Summer Legal Internship Program is to hire and develop high potential candidates by providing meaningful experiences with, and exposure to, seasoned attorneys. Summer legal interns have the opportunity to conduct legal research, draft briefs and motions, and observe proceedings in various courts.
Business Law Diversity Clerkship Program
- Application Deadline: Early January
- Designed to expose students to business law and business courts. Participants receive a stipend and placement in a business court clerkship. Limited to minority or otherwise disadvantaged candidates who have completed the equivalent of their first year of law school.
Litigation Judicial Intern Opportunities Program (JIOP)
- Application Deadline: Early January
- Provides opportunities to disadvantaged or traditionally underrepresented law students. Qualified students who pass through the initial screening interview will receive a judicial interview. Interns will receive awards for participating.
Antitrust Law Janet D. Steiger Fellowship Project
- Application Deadline: Early November
- Offers 1L and 2Ls the opportunity for summer internships in the Consumer Protection Departments and/or Antitrust Law Departments of state attorneys general offices throughout the United States. Each participant receives a stipend.
Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline Judicial Clerkship Program
- Application Deadline: TBA
- The Judicial Clerkship Program (JCP) introduces diverse law students from around the country to judges and law clerks. The program informs and educates the students as to the life-long benefits of a judicial clerkship. The program also encourages judges to consider students of color that they otherwise may not have considered for a judicial clerkship.
ABA Prudential Summer Internship
- Application Deadline: Early February
- The summer internship program will provide interns the opportunity to work with attorneys who support the broad reach of Prudential’s businesses.
ABA Center for Innovation Fellowship
- Application Deadline: TBA
- Law school graduates will spend one year in-residence at the ABA headquarters in Chicago, IL. These fellows will receive a stipend of $45,000, along with benefits, during their time in the program. Bar admission is not necessary.
ABA Accenture Summer Internship
- Application Deadline: Late January
- The 2019 summer law intern program will be held at Accenture’s downtown Chicago offices. The 1L summer internship will run approximately 9 weeks from June 10 through August 2, 2019. Interns will be paid a stipend of approximately $6,500.
ABA-Microsoft Summer Internship
- Application Deadline: February
- Legal interns will work within Microsoft’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs department in Redmond, Washington. They will have a broad range of responsibilities from across the department, which may include researching legal issues impacting business strategy, drafting transactional documents, attending client meetings and product reviews, and collaborating with internal teams on cross-group projects.
Homelessness and Poverty John J. Curtin, Jr. Justice Fund
- Application Deadline: March
- The Program will pay a $3,500 stipend to three law school students who spend the summer months working for a bar association or legal services program designed to prevent homelessness or assist homeless or indigent clients or their advocates. The Legal Internship Program will provide much-needed legal assistance to organizations serving the under-represented and give students direct experience in a public interest forum. Through this, it aims both to help homeless clients and to encourage careers in the law that further the goals of social justice.
Christine A. Brunswick Taxation Public Service Fellowship
- Application Deadline: August
- Developed to address the need for tax legal service assistance around the country, and to foster an interest in tax-related public service for those lawyers who participate. Open to recent J.D. and LL.M. graduates and judicial clerks who commit to working in tax-related public interest, non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations for two years. Applicants must select and arrange employment prior to applying, and must confirm their work will involve taxation or the administration of tax law. Up to two Fellowships will be awarded each year, and the Section will fund the salary, benefits and law school debt service (when applicable) for each awardee.
ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) Internships and Fellowships
- Offered during the spring, summer, and fall semesters. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
- Interns for ABA ROLI work with program staff of their assigned division to gain a better understanding of international development programs and international rule of law issues. Focus areas range from research and regional concentrations to outreach and knowledge management, and vary according to program needs.
International Law Internship Opportunities
- A collection of resources for international law internships across the U.S.
Civil Rights and Social Justice Internships
- Legal interns will work directly with the Section’s attorneys and other staff members on policy and project development and implementation. Internships are available year-round and applications are accepted until positions are filled. Candidates should email a resume, a brief writing sample (less than 10 pages), and a cover letter detailing the candidate’s interest in working for the Section.
Other Opportunities
Cooley Diversity Fellowship
- Application Deadline: January
- The award will be paid in three installments: $10,000 upon completion of the 1L summer with the firm; $10,000 upon completion of the 2L summer with the firm; and the remaining $10,000 upon joining the firm as a full-time associate.
Fish & Richardson 1L Diversity Fellowship Program
- Application Deadline: January
- The 1L Diversity Fellowship Program is comprised of four components: Each selected Fellow receives a paid summer associate position in one of Fish & Richardson’s domestic offices during the summer of 2019; mentoring throughout the academic year by members of the firm; participation in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 1L Scholars Program; and a scholarship reward of up to $30,000.
Davis Wright Tremaine 1L Diversity Scholarship and Patent Scholarship
- Application Deadline: January
- As a 1L Diversity Scholarship recipient, you will receive a paid position in our Summer Associate Program and $10,000 for your second year tuition and expenses.
Harter Secrest & Emery LLP Diversity Scholarship
- Application Deadline: January
- This scholarship includes a $7,500 award to be applied to the recipient’s law school tuition, together with a paid summer associate position at the firm.
Perkins Coie 1L Fellowships
- Application Deadline: January
- Multiple fellowships available across the country for diverse 1L law students
Blank Rome Diversity Scholars Program
- Application Deadline: New York Deadline January 7, Philadelphia & DC Deadline January 18
- This fellowship is aimed at helping evening law students gain experience and funding.
Latham & Watkins 1L Fellowship Program
- Application Deadline: January
- The 1L Fellowship Program offers an opportunity for students who have just finished their first year of law school. Over the eight to 10 week program, 1L Fellows will work in US offices and in the legal department of a client.
Reed Smith 1L Diversity Fellowship
- Application Deadline: January
- Multiple Fellowships
Milbank 1L Diversity Fellowship Program
- Application Deadline: January
- 1L fellows will be summer associates in the New York office. Fellows receive specialized and comprehensive training opportunities and build professional networks with Milbank attorneys and fellow summer associates.
WardGreenberg Diversity Program
- Application Deadline: January
- This nationally-recognized program offers the opportunity for a successful applicant to join us at our Rochester, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania offices for a 10-week paid appointment and to earn a bonus.
PracticePro 1L Diversity Scholar Program
- Application Deadline: January
- The Diversity Scholar Program is a coaching, mentorship, and recruiting program designed to help law students understand their career goals and secure employment while simultaneously preparing them with the skills required to flourish in their legal positions.
Finnegan Diversity Scholarship
- Application Deadline: February
- The scholarship award may be applied to costs associated with normal tuition and fees. The scholarship recipient will also join the firm as a summer associate in one of its domestic offices.
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
- Application Deadline: March
- Diversity scholarship and internship programs
- Bradley’s summer associates receive an in-depth introduction to the culture of a large, dynamic law firm.
NCTA’s Internship Program
- Summer and Fall Programs
- NCTA is offering internships in Government Relations, Industry & Association Affairs, and Technology at their DC office.
Arent Fox Annual Diversity Scholarship Program
- Application Deadline: August
- The DC, LA, NY, and SF offices will each award one second-year law student a salaried position.
Skadden Fellowship
- Application Deadline: September
- The program provides two-year fellowships to talented young lawyers to pursue the practice of public interest law on a full-time basis.
Google Legal Summer Institute
- Application Deadline: Multiple dates and placement
- The Google Legal Summer Institute (LSI) is a unique in-house and law firm experience where underrepresented 2L law school students are invited to spend the first week of the program at Google Headquarters in California followed by a full summer internship with one of our partner law firms around the country. LSI aims to improve access to in-house careers at tech companies by expanding opportunities and removing barriers for underrepresented talent in the legal industry. LSI scholars are a diverse group of students with interests across all legal practice areas.
Brown Rudnick 1L Social Mobility Diversity Fellowship
- Application Deadline: December
- The Brown Rudnick 1L Social Mobility Diversity Fellowship is a program aimed at first-year law students, who are also the first in their family to graduate from college.
The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 1L Scholarship Program
- A list of over 100 diversity programs
NALP Diversity Programs
- Database of diversity programs
Tips on Judicial Clerkships
Here are two programs with candid tips from actual federal judges describing how law students can land a federal judicial clerkship. Both are presented by the ABA Law Student Division and the ABA National Conference of Federal Trial Judges.