Summer 2023 Investigative/Mitigation Internship
The Office of the Public Defender for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, VA, represents individuals charged with crimes in Arlington and Falls Church who can't afford to hire private counsel. The Office is dedicated to protecting the rights and dignity of our clients through zealous, compassionate, high-quality legal advocacy, and is further committed to promoting equal justice and racial justice within the institutions that make up our local criminal legal system.
Our office maintains a caseload that requires both a substantial amount of fact investigation (of alleged crimes) and mitigation work. The latter is a product of many of our clients suffering from serious behavioral disorders. Our support staff, including a Mitigation Specialist, Mitigation Paralegal, and two fact investigators, plays a critical role in serving our clientele and producing information and data in support of our mission, both pretrial and at sentencing. Given the volume of work we have, the Office is seeking several interns to work with our support staff on fact investigations, mitigation investigations, diversion programming, and sentencing advocacy.
Investigation and Mitigation Interns will participate in fact investigation of alleged criminal conduct, in support of trial defenses, and conduct interviews of relevant mitigation witnesses and defendants to gain information that could benefit negotiations and sentencing outcomes. The Interns may help prepare sentencing memoranda as well as pretrial motions that require social science research. Additional duties include making records requests, reviewing records (medical, psychiatric, military, employment, etc), reviewing academic literature, and any other necessary steps resulting in a thorough fact or mitigation investigation as assigned by the attorney. The position is required to have close interaction and build rapport with members of the investigative staff and public defender team more broadly.
A strong belief in equal justice and social justice is essential to success in this position. Strong research and writing skills are beneficial, as is the skill in interviewing people and building rapport. Knowledge of the criminal justice system is beneficial. Because the position may require considerable work with records, the qualified candidate will be focused, self-motivated, detail-oriented, and possess excellent time management and organizational skills. The ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing is also required. Because this position places a premium on effort, people skills, research and writing skills are necessary. Those who are enrolled in or considering law school or graduate school in related fields such as forensic psychology, social work or social science would make excellent candidates for the position. The Office has a current need for at least one intern who is fluent in Spanish. This internship may be full-time or part-time, with a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week.