Legal Aid DC offers exciting internship opportunities to undergraduates and law students who want to gain experience in public interest work!

Law Student Internships

Law student interns are assigned to one of Legal Aid DC’s practice areas: Housing, Domestic Violence and Family Law, Public Benefits, Consumer, Immigration, Appellate, or Systemic Advocacy and Law Reform. Law student interns assist our attorneys in a variety of ways, depending on the practice area or project where they are working. Law student intern responsibilities may include: 

• Participating in client meetings and follow-ups 
• Attending hearings, trials, administrative proceedings, or arguments before the DC Court of Appeals 
• Helping staff with the unit’s court-based projects or hotlines 
• Legal research and writing and factual investigation, where possible.

Undergraduate Student Internships

Legal Aid DC offers opportunities for undergraduates to support legal staff, research, fundraising, and operations. Typically our undergraduate opportunities are in our Intake and Development departments. Undergraduate intern responsibilities may include: 

• Speaking with potential clients and fielding inquiries in person and by phone
• Filing and retrieving court documents 
• Reviewing and organizing legal files 
• Drafting correspondence 
• Participating in internal and client meetings 
• Conducting factual research and investigations 
• Observing hearings and trials 

Hours

Legal Aid DC has summer and academic year internship opportunities for law and undergraduate students. Summer interns are expected to work 35 hours per week. Academic year interns must work at least 12 hours per week, arranged according to their class schedules. All internships are hybrid and based in Washington, DC. 

Scholarship Funding

Legal Aid DC has a paid intern program.

Summer Law Students:

Legal Aid DC can provide scholarship funding to ensure that summer law students receive no less than $6,125 per summer, including scholarships from the Lee Horton Memorial Scholarship for Aspiring Public Interest Lawyers.

Summer law students are required to apply for outside funding to fund their internships in order to receive supplemental scholarship funding. We will provide an up to $6,125 scholarship to summer law school interns when:
- They attend a school that does not provide funding OR they are not approved for at least $6,125 of funding from their schools 
AND
- They do not get funding from any other outside sources that gets them to total funding of $6,125 for the summer

Example: if a student receives $5,000 of outside funding, Legal Aid would pay them $1,125 in scholarship funding.

Students may waive funding if they are prohibited from receiving renumeration by their law school.

Summer Undergraduate Interns:

Interns will receive a $6,125 scholarship for the 10-week internship. Interns will not receive scholarship funding if they receive outside funding for their internship.

Semester Law Students:

Interns will receive a $2,500 scholarship for the 12-week internship. Interns will not receive scholarship funding if they receive outside funding for their internship or they are interning through a school program that precludes them from being paid.

Semester Undergraduate Students: 

Interns will receive a $2,500 scholarship for the 12-week internship. Interns will not receive scholarship funding if they receive outside funding for their internship or they are interning through a school program that precludes them from being paid.