Monday, March 12, 2007

Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund
Summer & Fall Internships here at TLC

PRLDEF is an independent not-for-profit civil rights litigation-advocacy organization that has defended the equal rights of Latinos since 1972.

PRLDEF’s pan-Latino work fully embraces the diversity of the Latino community – especially the most vulnerable – newest immigrants and the working poor.

Three principles motivate our work and anchor PRLDEF’s exceptional historical role in the Latino civil rights community in the United States and Puerto Rico:

Protecting Civil Rights – impact litigation and advocacy in education, employment, housing, language access, and immigrants’ rights.

Cultivating Latino Leaders – through decades of legal education program services to hundreds of aspiring lawyers. In 2005, we launched LawBound – a pre-law summer program designed to identify and nurture students in their college careers.

Increasing Civic Participation – ensuring that minority and limited or non-English speaking voters have access to the polls and exercise their enfranchisement right, by using the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) in litigation in Florida and the northeast U.S., advancing election reform, and promoting reauthorization of the VRA.

PRLDEF INTERNSHIPS

PRLDEF’s 2007 Law Internship Program requires a minimum commitment of 10 weeks for the summer, starting on the first Monday of June. During the academic year, interns are expected to commit 10-12 hours a week. Office hours are Monday through Fridays, 9:00AM to 5:00 PM, with flex-time available.

If you are a Law Student at Touro, you will be considered for PRLDEF’s Civil Rights Project at Touro. The main focus of this project will be to lend support to PRLDEF’s ongoing work in developing and advancing advocacy and litigation to protect Immigrants’ Rights in Long Island. Students will be exposed to client interviewing techniques, fact-finding, analyzing proposed ordinances and policies affecting the immigrant community, investigating possible discriminatory enforcement of local laws in Long Island, and researching the claims of discriminatory practices. Participants will also have the opportunity to assist in ongoing cases in PRLDEF’s legal docket. Interns will conduct legal research on a variety of civil rights issues, draft memos and pleadings, interface with clients, and gain exposure to impact litigation.

PRLDEF’s Summer Law Interns are also provided access to a series of lunch-time meetings in a prestigious tradition called the LDFs’ Summer Brown Bag Law Seminars (co-sponsored with our counterparts, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and Asian–American Legal Defense & Education Fund, in the Public Interest Law Center). The series brings together a network of guest lawyers, activists, academics and jurists to discuss current developments in Affirmative Action, Race/Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Criminal Justice, post- 9-11 Civil Liberties and Immigrant Rights, Education Rights, International Human Rights, & Judicial Fellowships.

Please note that PRLDEF does not provide any funding for internships at this time. Applicants should explore the availability of fellowships and/or financial aid through their law schools, local bar, and alumni programs. Independent academic credit can be arranged.

HOW TO APPLY

PRLDEF selects a small group of 4 to 6 law interns each semester. Your application packet should include:

  • Cover letter — state which internship period you are applying for. Tell us why you would like to be chosen for this opportunity. Detail any civil rights interest you may have. If applying for a part-time internship, indicate which days and how many hours of the semester for which you are available.
  • Two (2) copies of your resume.
  • A legal writing sample of between 7 to 10 pages.

If you are selected, we will arrange a mutually convenient date and time for in-person interviews. Out-of-state applicants may be interviewed by phone.

DEADLINES

March 30, 2007 for Summer Internships

August 10, 2007 for Fall Internships

PRLDEF

99 Hudson St, 14 Floor

NY NY 10013

Attn: Law Internships

Emailed Applications Preferred

Please send to: Marisabel_Kanioros@prldef.org

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