Each year Duke Law School receives hundreds of solicitations from public interest employers offering summer internships, as well as post-graduate fellowships and employment. Students are invited to browse through the collection, housed in the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono, and the online Job Bank on the eattorney database. The Career Service office also maintains files on organizations and has a reading library of books on work in all sectors.
Newly available job opportunities for students and alumni are announced on the home page of the Public Interest and Pro Bono website and held in the Web archives.
Students seeking counseling about public interest employment are welcome to make an appointment with Associate Dean Carol Spruill to complement the counseling they receive in the Office of Career Services. Students are also encouraged to review faculty profiles to become familiar with the activities, connections and research interests of faculty and use them as a source of advice and an entry to employment opportunities.
Supporting National Organizations
Duke Law School is a member of several national organizations that provide employment-related services for students and alumni. PSLawNet, Equal Justice Works, National Association for Law Placement and the Arizona Law School Government Honors Handbook are described below, as well as other national organizations and websites with useful information.
PSLawNet
Duke Law School is a member of The Public Service Law Network Worldwide (PSLawNet) which is a global network of some 120 member law schools and nearly 10,000 law-related public service organizations and offices around the world. PSLawNet fosters law student community service and encourages all future lawyers to incorporate public service into their careers. To that end, PSLawNet offers comprehensive, current information on a broad range of pro bono and public service opportunities – short-term, volunteer part-time positions, summer internships, post-graduate jobs and fellowships -- as well as resources and expertise to assist law schools in empowering future lawyers as public servants. To access the PSLawNet database visit the PSLawNet website.
Equal Justice Works (formerly known as NAPIL - The National Association for Public Interest Law)
Equal Justice Works is "the country's leading organization engaged in organizing, training and supporting public service-minded law students, and is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest jobs." Duke Law students seeking summer or permanent public interest employment are encouraged to attend the fall Equal Justice Work Career Fair, the nation’s largests public interest job fair for law school students. To learn more visit the Equal Justice Works website.
Equal Justice Works Job Fair PromotionThe Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono strongly encourages all students who seek permanent or summer employment in the public interest sectors to attend the Equal Justice Works Conference and Job Fair in Washington, DC. The largest public interest job fair in the country – more than 200 employers and organizations attend – the conference and job fair is a unique opportunity for students to learn about the wider array of public interest employment opportunities and hear speakers discuss “hot topics” in the public sector as well as valuable career advice.
The job fair is open to law students of any year as well as alumni. Though first-year students are not eligible for pre-arranged interviews, they may participate in the “table talk” portion of the conference, during which they will have the chance to meet with employers to discuss career advice and career opportunities. Second and third year students should send their applications and requests for interviews to participating employers ahead of time. This process is explained on the EJW website and is managed by Career Services.
Interested students may register to attend the Equal Justice Works Job Fair Promotion in the Office of Career Services. Some of the registration expenses are paid by that office.
To learn more about the many services provided by Equal Justice Works, visit the Equal Justice Works website.
Government Honors and Internship Handbook
Duke Law School subscribes to the University of Arizona School of Law’s Government Honors and Internship Handbook, a comprehensive compilation of federal government honors and intern programs, including both summer and post-graduate positions. A hard copy of the Handbook is available in the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono
NALP - National Association for Law Placement
The National Association for Law Placement, the governing body for law school and law firm recruiting administrators, maintains important statistics about legal hiring, information about judicial clerkships, and a bibliography for those seeking resources about non-traditional legal employment.
Other Websites and Sources on Public Interest Employment
The following websites also offer extensive information on public interest and government employment (both summer and post-graduate)
- Access Jobs (http://www.accessjobs.org) - Non-profit employment listings (legal and non-legal) searchable by geographic region.
- Attorney Jobs Online (http://www.attorneyjobsonline.com) - Law-related opportunities in federal, state and local government; courts; Capitol Hill and public interest settings. Available by subscription or to current law students through Westlaw at http://www.lawschool.westlaw.com.
- Foundation Center Job Corner (http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs) - The Foundation Center maintains a searchable database of job openings in foundations, grant making public charities, corporate grant makers, educational institutions and other NPOs (by region).
- Harvard Law School's Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA; http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/opia) - While visiting this website, be sure to click on "Guides" to see the specialty guides to public interest practice. Also, Harvard Law's OPIA publishes "Serving the Public: A Job Search Guide," which provides an excellent overview for those starting the process. A of the Guide is available in the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono or Career Services.
- Human Rights Internet (http://www.hri.ca/jobboard/) - The "Job Board" contains extensive job listings at human rights organizations based in the United States and overseas as well as links to other human rights job sites around the world.
- Idealist.org (http://www.idealist.org) - A project of Action without Borders, this website has a searchable database of 20,000 nonprofit and community organizations in 140 countries with job listings and volunteer opportunities.
- Legal Employment Search Site (http://www.legalemploy.com) - This is a general link to an extensive number of legal and non-legal employment sites.
- National Legal Aid & Defender Association (http://www.nlada.org/jobs) - An extensive listing of public interest and government jobs that are searchable by state.
- Nonprofit Career Network (http://www.nonprofitcareer.com/resource/resourc.htm) - This website has a searchable database (by geographic location) of jobs (legal and non-legal) in nonprofit organizations in the United States and internationally.
- Public Service JobNet (The University of Michigan Law School) (http://www.law.umich.edu/_Jobnet/main.asp) - Legal job listings (including summer, temporary, fellowships and permanent employment) that can be searched by job type, practice area and geographic area. Also see Assistant Dean Robert Precht's "Going Public," a guide for alumni to break into the private sector.
- Yale Law School Career Development Office ( http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/Career_Development/cdo-index.htm) - Offers guides and materials provides a comprehensive list of "split summer" opportunities. Yale also allows visitors to look at its job listings database.
Government Job Listings
- Department of Justice - Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management (http://www.usdoj.gov/oarm/) - A listing of available attorney and internship positions throughout the Department of Justice. This site also has links to individual divisions within the Department of Justice, the DEA, FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons and individual US Attorney's Offices as well as extensive links to other federal sites, independent agencies, corporations, and commissions within the Federal Government.
- Office of Personnel Management (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov) - The Federal Government's Office of Personnel Management maintains a website which announces jobs in all federal agencies across the country. The database is searchable by position, salary, and geographic location, and an on-line application is available.
- NC Government (http://www.osp.state.nc.us/jobs/) - The State of North Carolina maintains a website of its services, including a listing of available state jobs (legal and non-legal).