1L
First Year
Almost nothing is decided in your first year, and one thing is worth doing: find out what kind of legal aid work you actually want to do.
No deadline this year
Your year
Your Year in Law School
The same question, how do I get a legal aid job, has a different answer depending on how far through school you are. Pick the year you are in.
2L
Second Year
This is the year the calendar starts mattering. Your second summer often becomes your career, and the interviews for it happen in the fall.
No deadline this year
3L
Third Year
The two big post-graduate fellowships close in the first weeks of the fall semester. By October both windows have shut for the cycle.
2 deadlines
After Graduation
Graduated, Waiting on the Bar
The months between graduation and bar results are the gap the Public Interest Bar Fellowship was built for: LAAC says finding permanent legal aid work is hard for recent graduates, and this is bridge funding while you study for the bar.
2 deadlines
Before anything else
Work out what you actually want to do
First of all, it’s good to think about how you want to bring about change in your community and, in the bigger picture sense, in the world. Do you want to provide direct services to clients? Do you like helping someone fight an eviction and keep their home? Do you LOVE writing briefs and want to litigate? Do you prefer digging into statutes and seeing what needs to be changed? Your answers will change over your career, but it helps to know what lights you up right now.
Published by LAAC at How to get a job in legal aid.
