We are currently accepting applications for the fall of 2021. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The final application deadline for fall positions is July 9th, 2021.

Children’s Law Center (CLC) hosts a comprehensive, hands-on internship program. Law clerk and intern positions are available during spring, summer, and fall semesters. Law clerk applicants must be current law students or recent law school graduates. All positions are unpaid and can be taken for credit. Hours are flexible. Generally, spring openings are posted in October, summer positions are posted in November and fall openings are posted in May.

We are accepting applications for the following positions: 

 

At Children’s Law Center, everything we do is focused on one thing – delivering better client outcomes for kids and families in DC. Our staff are empowered to open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions. We encourage intellectual curiosity, innovation, diversity, and mutual respect.

Our greatest assets are our people. We strive to attract and cultivate a vibrant, creative, and diverse community. We recognize that people with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives fuel our ability to provide the best outcomes for our clients. Our staff drive Children’s Law Center’s mission with their leadership, result-orientated mindset, and commitment to cultural humility and centering the needs of our clients.  We are looking for an individual who enjoys working in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, likes to be challenged, and values the opportunity to make a difference.

Children Law Center’s success depends on recruiting and retaining individuals who possess and value these attributes.

*Children’s Law Center is currently operating remotely. This position will work from home until the organization returns to the office.

The Communications intern duties may include, but are not limited to: Media Relations/Public Relations (such as: preparing resources and background materials including research and drafting press-related correspondence, participating in brainstorming to develop creative angles to leverage in media outreach and PR campaigns, providing thorough debriefing of PR activities), Digital Outreach (such as: assisting in developing social media content for Children’s Law Center channels, conducting social media influencer research, helping maintain and updating website, assisting in preparing email newsletter outreach and organizing and archiving digital images and videos) and Research/Reporting (such as: monitoring and reporting on online activities of relevant organizations, reporting on the performance of social media platforms for Communications team attending relevant events, coalition meetings, and Council hearings/roundtables). Applicants must be a current student studying in Communications, Journalism, Marketing or Public Relations. Hours are flexible but require a minimum of 10 hours a week during the school year and 20 hours per week minimum during the summer. At least 1 year of relevant experience preferred.

Applicants should be in college or a recent graduate. Interns support the development team with a variety of tasks across the department, including event planning, data entry, marketing, and research. Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, assisting with event preparation, preparing and sending out mailing campaigns, preparing binders and other materials for Board of Directors meetings, drafting and mailing daily acknowledgement letters, updating and maintaining donor records in the database (DonorPerfect), researching current and prospective donors, and providing general assistance and administrative support to the Development Team. Special projects may be assigned depending on time of year and level of experience.

The Evaluation and Learning team is looking for an ambitious and good-spirited intern to assist with our ongoing programmatic work relating to legal services, access to justice, our medical-legal partnership, and family law in DC. The Evaluation and Learning team works on a variety of collaborative projects across the organization as well as maintaining the case management system, providing data for grant reporting, and promoting outcomes-based practices within the organization. Our interns should be willing to dive deep into various data sets and ready for both the grunt work of data collection as well as data clean up, organization, and analysis. Applicants should feel comfortable navigating databases and show competency in translating data and results into easily digestible terms. 

The Evaluation and Learning internship is most suitable for Junior or Senior Bachelor’s students or first year Master’s students majoring in a relevant field. Past experience in the social or legal nonprofit sector and/or knowledge of the specific landscape of social and policy issues in DC is a plus. Other qualifications include: prior knowledge/coursework in statistics, data analysis, research methods; familiarity with researching and locating data (socioeconomic, education, general population, health, etc.) and experience working with analysis and/or data visualization tools such as R, Stata, Tableau, etc.; proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel; team player but comfortable working independently; well organized and pays close attention to detail. 

Interns are expected to dedicate 20 hours per week during the fall semester. CLC supports flexible work schedules, and we’re happy to arrange school credit for your internship. We strongly encourage candidates of diverse backgrounds to apply.

Children's Law Center family law attorneys provide direct representation in DC family law matters, representing children in custody cases and third-party caregivers in custody, adoption, and guardianship cases. The Family Law Law Clerk and Intern will support CLC attorneys in these matters. 

The Family Law Law Clerk will support CLC case-handling attorneys by researching and writing about legal issues, drafting motions and other pretrial or trial materials, interviewing clients and witnesses, assisting in investigative tasks, attending court proceedings, and providing other support as needed on family law matters. Applicants must be a current law student or recent law school graduate. 

The Family Law Intern will support CLC case-handling attorneys with investigative and administrative tasks, which may include records checks and requests, locating and interviewing witnesses, serving complaints, reviewing and organizing case documents, researching and locating resources for clients, and providing other support as needed. 

Requirements and qualifications for both positions include: strong interpersonal skills, excellent analytical ability, strong writing skills, solid academic background, commitment to working with low-income populations, and willingness and enthusiasm to complete all tasks. These positions are unpaid. Each requires a minimum of 12 hours per week.

Lawyers in our Guardian ad litem (GAL) program represent children who are the subject of abuse and neglect cases in DC’s Family Court. GAL attorneys advocate for DC’s abused and neglected children, fighting to find safe homes and ensure that children receive the services they need to overcome the trauma that first brought them into the child welfare system. The GAL law clerk will assist the GAL team and provide advocacy and litigation support in child welfare cases. The GAL law clerk may provide support and gain valuable experience in several ways including but not limited to legal research and writing, courtroom, hearing, and other case-related observations, and other assignments as needed. The law clerk will receive one-on-one supervision by an attorney and will work with a team of attorneys. The ideal candidate would be interested in pursuing a career in public interest, legal services and/or child and family advocacy and be committed to working with low-income populations.

Healthy Together is a medical-legal partnership for DC's children. Healthy Together partners with pediatricians across the city to address legal barriers to children's health. We do this by advocating in a variety of legal settings for medically-necessary health services, special education supports, family-stabilizing public benefits, habitable housing conditions, and more. Additionally, Healthy Together provides trainings to medical providers and community members about legal issues impacting children's health.

The Healthy Together law clerk will provide advocacy and litigation support in special education, housing conditions, health insurance, and other cases involving health-harming legal needs. The law clerk will gain valuable experience through conducting intake interviews, legal research and writing, courtroom observations, home and school visits, interviewing witnesses, supporting community trainings, and more. The law clerk will receive one-on-one supervision by a senior attorney and will work with a team of attorneys. The ideal candidate would be interested in pursuing a career in direct legal services and be committed to working with low-income populations. This position is unpaid. All applicants must be current law students or recent law school graduates. Summer law clerks are expected to work full-time; fall and spring law clerks must dedicate at least 15 hours per week to the clerkship.

Working with policymakers at the local level, Children’s Law Center’s Policy Team handles legislative and regulatory matters, works on implementation of key recent policy successes, participates in policy discussions and coalitions on issues important to Children’s Law Center clients and to the health, education, and well-being of DC’s children.

The Policy Intern will work on a variety of projects and policy issues, such as legislative monitoring and policy analysis, research about best practices and legislation or policy in other jurisdictions, assisting with advocacy efforts in different forums such as Public Hearings at the DC Council, and participating in local coalitions. Assignments may include data gathering and analysis, research and writing, compiling resources, local budget analysis, assisting with public testimony, and attending Public Hearings and other meetings.

Requirements and qualifications include: strong interpersonal skills, excellent analytical ability, strong writing skills, solid academic background, commitment to working with low-income populations, and willingness and enthusiasm to complete all tasks. Applicants should be a recent graduate or a graduate-level student.

Children’s Law Center’s Policy Program works with the Mayor, District Agencies, and the DC Council to develop citywide recommendations that ensure local policies, legislation, funding, and programs meet the needs of all District children. The Policy Program seeks law students or recent law school graduates for the Spring 2020 clerkship position. Policy clerkships offer clerks: the opportunity to engage in important oversight activities related to local agencies’ performance and budget; exposure to legislative processes such as lobbying and observation of hearings at the Council; legal analysis, research, and writing to support CLC policy positions in a variety of forums; and more.

Law clerks may have a broad range of responsibilities including, but not limited to, researching and writing about legal issues, interviewing clients and witnesses, attending external meetings, attending the DC Council’s legislative meetings and committee hearings, and assisting with the drafting of written testimony. CLC Policy clerks are unpaid and are supervised one-on-one by a Senior Policy Attorney.

Requirements and qualifications include: excellent analytical ability, strong oral and written communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, basic understanding of the local legislative process, commitment to working in support of low-income populations, and willingness and enthusiasm to complete all tasks.

To apply, please submit the following materials in one PDF file: cover letter, resume, writing sample and 3 professional references. Law clerk positions require that applicants are either currently enrolled in or recently graduated from law school. Other specific requirements may be included in each project’s job posting. Please do not submit application materials as a .zip attachment if submitting by email.  Applications may be submitted via mail, fax, or email to: 

 

Children’s Law Center

Attn: (see below)* 

501 3rd Street NW

8th Floor

Washington, D.C. 20001 

202.467.4949 (fax)

 

No telephone calls please.

*“Attention” or email subject line should state the season, year, and job position to which the application is being submitted, i.e. “Spring 2021 GAL Law Clerk” or “Fall 2021 Communications Intern.”

Children’s Law Center’s hiring committee may elect not to review applications which fail to submit applications in the manner requested.

Children’s Law Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and existing employees. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to ancestry, age, color, disability, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law, ordinance, or regulation. We invite you to visit us here to learn more about our organization and our career opportunities (www.childrenslawcenter.org/join-us).

Children’s Law Center is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. If you believe that you need accommodation to search for, or apply for, one of our positions please send an email to Jobs@ChildrensLawCenter.org. In your email, please include the accommodation you are requesting and the job title you are applying for. It may take up to three business days to receive a response to your request.