Summer 2024/2025 Legal Intern
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Job Description
About the ACLU of Pennsylvania:
For 100 years, the ACLU has worked in courts, legislatures, and communities to ensure all people have access to individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and laws. As an affiliate, the ACLU of Pennsylvania focuses on issues impacting Pennsylvanians. They collaborate with the National ACLU on litigation and advocacy. Their current work includes: protecting the right to vote; reducing incarceration; challenging racial profiling; opposing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ students; protecting the right to protest; and reducing pretrial and probation detention.
Job Description: Summer 2024/2025 Legal Internship
The ACLU of Pennsylvania’s Legal Department offers full-time summer internships with funding available to ensure all students can participate (up to $10,000 per intern for 10 weeks). The program operates on a hybrid schedule, with two consistent in-person workdays per week. Priority areas include decarceration, police reform, voting rights, and an immigrants’ rights track.
Responsibilities:
Interns will:
• Draft memoranda, affidavits, and motions.
• Conduct legal and policy research.
• Investigate new litigation prospects (factual and legal claims).
• Interview clients and witnesses.
• Attend litigation team meetings, depositions, and court proceedings (when possible).
• Support community-led coalition work on criminal legal system and immigrants’ rights issues (potential).
Expectations of Interns:
• A ten-week commitment (exceptions possible).
• Full-time work (flexibility available).
• Seeking funding from schools and networks (ACLU-PA supplements these efforts).
What Interns Can Expect:
• Strong mentorship and timely feedback through weekly meetings with a supervising attorney.
• Networking opportunities with ACLU-PA staff through planned programming.
• Participation in a weekly brown bag lunch series for public interest law students (summer interns).
Qualifications:
Applicants should have:
• Interest in civil liberties and civil rights.
• Initiative and energy to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Openness to growth and feedback.
• Commitment to racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The ACLU-PA values diverse backgrounds, identities, and experiences.
