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Public Interest Internship Program (B547)

This program encourages students to explore careers in the public interest by permitting academic credit for internships and experience in public service venues. Internships include legal work assigned by the attorney-supervisor and an academic component assigned by the faculty member that is designed to encourage reflection on issues of ethics and practice.

What is the Public Interest Internship Program?

The Law School permits students engaged in unpaid legal work for nonprofit, government agencies, judges, or legal services organizations to receive up to four credits during the summer through this program.

Through this program, students have the chance to think reflectively and critically about the practice of law and the ethical issues that arise before engaging in it for money. In addition, the experience provides a challenging legal setting after the first year; permits you to explore a practice setting you might not have otherwise considered; allows for fewer hours in the fall semester of a student's second year, when students are typically involved in journals, moot court, and finding paid employment; and students gain significant industry contacts.

Get more information.

When do most students take advantage of the program?

Most students take a public interest internship with the program following their first year of law school. Between 130-140 students participate each summer.

How do I find an internship?

One thing to remember about this program: you must find your own placement. With the help of Indiana Law's Career Services Office, students open and close the deal, earning their spot. This serves as an excellent way to network for future job searches. See Kim Bunge, associate director of career services, for more details.

What types of internships are available?

More than 50 employers from State Attorney General's office and international legal service organizations to judges in a state, trial, or appellate courts offer Indiana Law students internship placement.

Major categories of internship opportunities include:

• Legal Services for poor/special populations: These organizations provide direct legal services to individuals who fit certain criteria (they are poor, for instance, or disabled, or have HIV/AIDS). Every state has a number of organizations that do this, often called "legal services organizations" or "Legal Aid".

• Advocacy Nonprofits: These organizations provide legal support to individuals or organizations that advance certain law-reform goals. For instance, the Anti-Arab Discrimination League will file briefs in cases involving alleged discrimination against Arabs; the Children's Defense Fund and the NAACP Inc Fund are other examples.

• Other Nonprofits: Universities, arts agencies such as Washington Area Arts, museums, and foundations all have legal counsel, and we have had students work in these settings often during the summer. Most of these organizations are located in major cities.

• Judicial: All level of state courts (trial, appellate and supreme) federal district courts (including magistrates and bankruptcy courts) and some (but very, very few) federal appellate courts accept judicial interns in the summer.

• Government: With government internships, you need to begin by asking whether you are interested primarily in civil or criminal law.

• Criminal: At the federal level, every state has at least one office of the U.S., and many states also have offices for the Federal Defenders. At the state level, every county has a prosecuting attorney and a public defender's office. In addition, the attorney general's offices of each state often have a role to play in criminal appeals, and many states have an appellate defender's office.

• Civil: At the federal level, most agencies will accept interns (for instance, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Securities Exchange Commission are all possibilities). Many of these agencies have branch offices located in states. The Justice Department has an internship program but it is competitive and you should check with Career Services about it. At the state level, most state offices of the attorney general will accept interns. (If you are interested in the Indiana Attorney General's Office, please get a resume to Career Services as soon as possible.) In addition, as the sheet of examples attached indicates, there are a huge number of state offices, from the Office of the Governor to the Hoosier Lottery, that employ attorneys, many of which are willing to accept legal interns. In the legislative branch, most states also have a legislative services office that employs attorneys.

• At the city level: corporation counsel/municipal(city)attorneys have a varied civil practice and are usually willing to employ legal interns.

What is the time commitment?

Students must work at the internship site (or on internship work) for 80 hours to receive one hour of academic credit, up to four total hours of credit. In addition to full-time work, the internship requires entrance and exit meetings and weekly reflective essays (3-5 pages) about the internship experience and on assigned topics and readings.

Where do I go from here?

Here's what you need to know to participate in the Public Interest Internship Program (B547):

• Determine which organization you want to serve.

• Obtain the student information packet with details on the Public Interest Internship Program and policies from Career Services Office.

• If you want to receive academic credit for the internship, complete the Permission Form. Return that form to the Career Services Office when you register for the academic credit.

• At registration you will be assigned a faculty supervisor and given an informational packet that will contain the instructions from your faculty supervisor.

• You are not required to apply for academic credit. If you choose to pursue an unpaid internship purely out of interest, or if you prefer not to pay tuition, you may do so.