Christy Fisher Legal Fellowship, Summer 2026

About the Fellowship:

Attorney Mary-Christy Fisher had a long and impactful career as a legal services attorney. One of her passions as an advocate was for the innovative Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) model. In recognition of her career in legal services and her support of MLPs, a Fisher Legal Fellowship was created to allow a law student to spend the summer working at the CVLC.

About CVLC:

Connecticut Veterans Legal Center’s mission is to empower, support, and improve the lives of Connecticut Veterans by providing free legal assistance to help them overcome legal barriers to housing, healthcare, income, and recovery. Our efforts include work s in a range of practice areas including accessing VA benefits and healthcare, fighting evictions or the loss of subsidized housing, and correcting ‘bad paper’ military discharges. CVLC is the first legal aid program in the country to form a medical-legal partnership with the VA. This partnership integrates legal help into VA mental health, housing, and addiction services. To better support veterans who have been excluded from VA healthcare, we also work with community-based healthcare and service providers through formal and informal partnerships. Our work occurs where veterans law intersects with economic and racial justice, human rights, and mental health needs to provide holistic and

lasting solutions for our clients.

Fellowship Details:

The Fisher Fellow will have the opportunity to explore a variety of experiences, including: client interviewing, legal research and writing, reviewing military and medical records, advocating before administrative agencies and/or housing court, and engaging in policy research.

The Fisher Fellow will generally follow our full-time staff schedule of 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM with an hour lunch break. Flexible scheduling is available. The Fellowship will be eight (8) weeks starting on June 8th, 2026.

Qualifications:

Candidates must be law students who have not yet completed law school. No prior knowledge of civil law or veterans specific law is required.

Candidates should possess strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage with a diverse group of legal and non-legal staff as well as a variety of clients.

Candidates should have the ability to build and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders.

Candidates should have a demonstrated commitment to social, economic, and racial justice.

The Fisher Fellow will have a hybrid work schedule, which will ideally consist of two days working with attorneys from our office located in West Haven, CT, but also getting opportunities to work from our Orange, Newington, and New London offices.