Community Lawyering in New York City
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), a non-profit civil rights legal organization, is accepting applications from candidates for post-graduate fellowships. The Fellow would begin in the fall of 2014.
About NYLPI: NYLPI pioneered the practice of community lawyering in the five boroughs of New York City, working on the premise that every New Yorker has the basic civil right to thrive. With every case and every campaign, we continue to elaborate an approach to collaborating with marginalized communities that is ambitious, participatory, and dynamic.
Our activism focuses on issues of racial equality and disability rights. In our Health Justice Program, a community organizer and a team of attorneys represent and provide support to community-based organizations mobilizing to rid the New York health care system of racism, language barriers and anti-immigrant bias. Our Disability Justice Program focuses on defending and promoting the civil rights of people with disabilities in transportation, education, health care, and other aspects of life in New York City, as well as ensuring that people with disabilities are able to live with independence and dignity in the community and are not restricted to institutional settings. In our Environmental Justice Program, we take on issues ranging from the overburdening of low-income communities of color with garbage facilities, to the presence of dangerous toxins in public schools, to the development of a green energy policy that foregrounds social equality. Finally, NYLPI's renowned Pro Bono Clearinghouse works with our programs to serve the needs of community organizations throughout NYC, including on transactional matters, and connect them with pro bono attorneys from the City's largest law firms.
About the Fellowship and the Application Process: Organizations such as Equal Justice Works and the Skadden Fellowship Foundation provide two-year fellowships to graduating law students, outgoing judicial clerks and, in the case of Equal Justice Works, experienced attorneys who are motivated to work at a public interest law office such as NYLPI, which will sponsor the prospective fellow.
NYLPI seeks highly accomplished, progressive, community-minded candidates with excellent research and writing skills to advance the goals of our programs. All public interest fellowship programs are very competitive, and applicants need time to develop project proposals and complete applications. NYLPI strongly encourages all interested applicants to apply as early as possible.
