Legal Fellowship Opportunity for 2025 Education Team - Civil Justice Practice

Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) seeks rising third year law students, judicial law clerks, and recent law school graduates to sponsor for a post-graduate public interest law fellowship.The fellow will join the Education Team in the Civil Justice Practice and will work collaboratively with BDS to design a project focused on protecting the educational rights of parents with children in the foster system. BDS regularly sponsors fellows for Equal Justice Works, Skadden, and school-based fellowships.

BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. For nearly 30 years, BDS has worked, in and out of court, to protect and uphold the rights of individuals and to change laws and systems that perpetuate injustice and inequality. Our legal expertise work with clients is focused on the intersections of these legal systems that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities living in poverty.

BDS represents thousands of people each year who have diverse, complex, and multi-faceted legal needs. In addition to a zealous legal defense, our interdisciplinary teams of attorneys, social workers and advocates provide a wide range of legal and advocacy services, including for housing, public benefits, education, and employment. BDS staff work collaboratively and across disciplines to deliver high-quality legal services that serve the people we represent, their families and communities.

BDS’ Civil Justice Practice (CJP) aims to reduce civil collateral and direct consequences from legal system involvement and provides legal services in Housing and Benefits, Education, Employment, and other matters. Our Education Team delivers legal representation and informal advocacy to our school-age clients and to parents of children in New York City schools. A significant number of the students we work with qualify as “over-age and under-credited” and have been retained at least one grade, and more than half of the students we work with are classified as students with disabilities. We also represent parents in Article 10 proceedings in family court and advocate for their children to access educational resources while placed in the foster system.

Fellowship Project

When children enter the foster system, their parents maintain educational decision-making rights for their children unless a judge expressly strips the parents of this right, which happens very rarely. However, despite parents' clear right to remain involved in their children's education, the Education Team consistently receives referrals for parents who are having difficulty accessing information about their children, or who have erroneously been told by their children's school that they no longer have the right to be involved in directing their children's education.

In the most egregious cases, parents have been excluded from educational decision making for years, with foster resources appearing at IEP meetings and making special education decisions for the children temporarily living with them.

We are seeking to partner with a candidate interested in developing a project related to protecting the educational rights of parents whose children have been placed in the foster system. The project may involve direct representation of these parents in educational matters, as well as work on policy and potential impact litigation related to those educational rights.

Qualifications

• Rising third year law student, judicial law clerk, and/or recent law school graduate.
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice, education and/or family defense issues.
• Committed to client-centered representation.
• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with interdisciplinary staff members both within the Education Team and throughout BDS as a whole
• You are willing and able to commit time to write – and meet interim and final deadlines for – one or more fellowship applications, with input, guidance, and supervision from BDS staff.

Position Information 

This is an exempt, salaried position. The normal schedule is Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. The position is based at BDS’s offices, and the courts located in Downtown Brooklyn.

BDS determines salary on a pay scale based on education and experience. For this position there is a base salary range of $81,000-$157,261 depending on the applicant’s education and experience. BDS offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance and a 403(b) retirement plan. In order to support work/life balance and family-friendly policies, BDS has generous vacation, sick, holiday, family, and medical leave policies.

Application Instructions

Please visit our career center to submit a cover letter and resume on our online application portal. Please submit your application by July 15, 2025.

Brooklyn Defender Services is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to celebrating diversity and maintaining an equitable and inclusive work environment. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, expressions, orientations, disabilities, and experiences to apply. If you require an accommodation due to a disability or another reason, please contact the Managing Director, H.R., Christina Wallace, at cwallace @ bds.org.