The Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono encourages students to lay the groundwork for their long term public interest aspirations by including public interest employment as one of their summer experiences, and participating in clinic and pro bono work throughout their law school years.
Duke Law sponsored summer fellowships and external fellowships support students doing summer public interest work, allowing them to pursue the placements of their choice without financial restrictions.
Funding for Public Interest Summer Employment
Duke Law School Endowments for Summer Fellowships
Duke Law School has received three endowments of over $100,000 each to permanently support summer fellowships. The donors are former Associate Dean Linda Steckley and her husband, Pete Weitzel; Duke Alumnus Richard Burdman '56; and alumni couple Candace Carroll '74 and Len Simon '73. Five fellowships totaling $19,000 were awarded to Duke Law students in 2006
IOLTA
The IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts) program, a branch of the North Carolina State Bar, provides summer fellowships for students to work at selected North Carolina agencies and organizations.
Recipients are selected by a committee organized by the Office of Public Interest & Pro Bono. Students must secure a letter from the employer stating that it will serve as the host organization and submit an application and essay. An announcement about the application process is sent early in the spring semester. Students who would like to learn more about IOLTA placements can pick up a copy of the approved placement list at the Public Interest Office (suite 4050) or in the Office of Career Services, or make an appointment with Associate Dean Carol Spruill.
PILF
The Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) is a student run organization dedicated to keeping students engaged in the community as students and throughout their careers. In addition to supporting public interest activities generally, PILFalso raises funds for summer public interest fellowships. Funds are raised through the annual Auction and Gala, Duke law clothing sales, trivia night, pledge drives, and other activities. The Dean adds $10,000 to the Public Interest and Pro Bono budget to go to PILF fellowship grants. In addition, many faculty, administrators and staff donate money and auction items.
PILF members decide who will receive PILF grants and set the criteria for selection. All students who wish to receive a grant must work a minimum number of hours to help raise funds in order to be eligible. To find out about this year's program, visit the PILF web site.
Stanback Summer Fellowships for Environmental Placements
Provided by Duke’s Nicholas School for the Environment and Earth Sicence and supported by Fred Stanback T’50, the fellowship funds students working at designated environmental organizations. More than 40 environmental organizations receive placements, of which 10-14 offer projects with legal components. Students do not need specialize in environmental law to receive these awards. For more information on applications and placement descriptions, please visit the Nicholas School of the Environment web site.
Equal Justice Works (formerly NAPIL) Summer Fellowships
Equal Justice Works offers about 150 or more "Summer Corp" fellowships of $1000 for those working a minimum of 381 hours with a nonprofit organization of their choice anywhere in the United States. Recipients are free to add this award to other public interest funding they might receive.. For more information on how to receive these education awards, visit the Equal Justice Works website.
Equal Justice Works also has a "NAPIL/VISTA Summer Legal Corps" which places 60 law students with pre-selected community development and capacity-building project in low-income neighborhoods around the country. Recipients receive $600 to $900 (depending on the location) per month for positions that last 10 weeks. They also receive the $1000 "education award" and relocation expenses. Descriptions of the available projects are available on the Equal Justice Works website.
"Split Summers"
For several years, a growing number of law firms have sponsored public interest summer fellowships. These programs allow students to split their summer between a law firm and a nonprofit organization or government agency, with the law firm paying students' salaries for the entire summer.
The Career Service Office at Yale Law School shares a comprehensive list of split summer opportunities. Copies are available in the Public Interest suite (4050) or on the web at http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/career_development/cdo-splitsummerinfo.htm.
A list of other summer funding fellowships and internships can be found on the web site of PSLawNet.
Paid Employment
Don't forget, many government and nonprofit employers do pay! Look for these opportunities in materials in the Career Services and the Public Interest & Pro Bono offices, on the Public Interest job announcements section of the Public Interest home page and archives, on the many public interest web data bases, or on the web sites of the individual organizations and agencies. And remember that many of these job offers come in very late in the year, long after law firms have made their offers.
Also, be flexible. The wider your scope of interests and the wider your geographic parameters, the more likely you are to match a great job.
Volunteering
Didn't find the paying job or fellowship you wanted? Keep your resume alive, have fun, make contacts, contribute to the public good, and do the work that you love most by volunteering. When you volunteer, you are not trying to fit yourself into someone else's box. You have a lot more leeway in your choice of employment and in your working hours. You could offer to work full-time, or work part-time in your public interest job and part-time in a paying job that may not be a legal job or a public interest job. In thinking about the paying jobs, remember all the things you can do - from tutoring kids in a foreign language to doing part-time legal research for a law school professor or administrator.